Gleb Arkhangelsk time drive how to keep up. "Time Drive: How to manage to live and work" Gleb Arkhangelsky. Swinging when performing complex tasks

Time management is not only diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time of your life in accordance with your goals and values.

Building your own time management (TM) system

Step 1. Rest

You need to rest rhythmically during the day, five minutes per hour. The stronger the switch during the five-minute a, the better you will rest and recuperate.

Vladimir Mayakovsky expressed the principle of maximum switching in a simple slogan: "Comrade, remember the simple rule: you work while sitting - you rest while standing!"

Laziness is not always bad. Often this is a normal defensive reaction of our body. creative laziness are simple.

If you are already lazy, then 100 percent, without trying to do something else at this time, think, solve problems, etc. Pure laziness is a pure feeling of the fullness of being and the universal harmony of the universe.

Consciously make a decision: "I want to be lazy - and I will do it." Without hesitation and remorse.

Before creative laziness, load the brain with information on an important creative problem for you. But do not think about the problem during laziness itself!

Subject to these rules, creative laziness will become an inexhaustible source of new ideas and solutions. And also - a wonderful ohm and recuperation.

Sleep efficiency is greatly improved by consistent bedtime and wake-up times. Your body gets used to a certain time, falling asleep and waking up becomes easier. It is also advisable to ventilate the room well and do not eat a few hours before bedtime.

What to do when you get sleepy at work? If you can not afford a full day's sleep, then there are alternatives:

A little afternoon nap in the car, if you have one. Do not spare 20-30 minutes for this, they will pay off with a much higher afternoon performance;

“microsleep” for 10–15 minutes right at the workplace or somewhere else: in a meeting room, in an armchair in a far corner, etc. To disconnect from external interference, you can put on headphones with your favorite music.

When planning time, it is important to remember that the "fullness", "saturation" of time, its "quality" is no less important than its purely arithmetic quantity.

Step 2. Motivation

How to get involved in the work, so as not to waste time on the buildup, sorting out the little things and not finding the strength to take on the main thing? AI has a good concept of "anchor". This is any material binding (, color, word, movement, ritual) associated for us with a certain emotional state.

Owner of a network of gas stations, Kyiv. “I do complex intellectual work to the music of Joe Dassin. I'll explain why: I had the best job during my student years in a hostel. Young, a lot of strength, in parallel two higher educations and another job ... And there were four tape cassettes for the entire hostel, and all four were Joe Dassin. That's how this music became an "anchor", including energy resources, as in youth."

Anchors make it easier to switch from work to work.

The next question is: how to get involved in the task, if it is quite complex and energy-intensive? The “Swiss cheese method” will help to spend less time and effort on the buildup. Try to complete the task not in a logical order, but in an arbitrary one, “gnawing out” small pieces from different places - the simplest, most pleasant, etc. For example, when preparing a report, you can first select illustrations, write a few paragraphs that are simple and understandable to you, and etc. After a while, so many holes will form in your “cheese” that it will not be difficult to “finish” it.

Another way to spend less effort when working on complex tasks is “intermediate joy”. Break the work into several stages and assign yourself a small reward for completing each stage.

There are things in our life that require, perhaps, quite a bit of time, but are unpleasant. Call an unfriendly client; finally call a plumber; ask your boss for a pay raise, etc. In time management, such tasks are called “frogs”. A large unpleasant problem can be easier to solve by breaking it into a large number of small “frogs”.

The smaller the deadline for the task and the larger it is, the more difficult it is, as a rule, to force yourself to complete it. This is especially true for very large tasks, in the terminology of time management - "elephants". For example: writing a dissertation; development of a plan for the region; in the house; language learning; improving your physical fitness.

The only way to "eat an elephant" is to cut it into small, measurable "steaks" and eat one such steak every day. At the same time, it is important to cut the “elephant” into such “steaks”, each of which really brings you closer to eating the “elephant”.

An easy way to bring all your "elephants" and "frogs" together, and motivate yourself to complete the necessary tasks every day, is to start a table of regular tasks.

On the left, all your daily "steaks" and "frogs" are written out. On the right side, you mark their completion or non-completion every day. If any of today was not expected - leave an empty space. If it was supposed, but not implemented, put a dash. If done, check the box.

Next to this table, it is useful to write down a few "intermediate joys." For example, list non-urgent purchases that are pleasant for you and agree with yourself: “for every next 15 ticks in any column, I buy the next pleasant thing.” You will be surprised at how much faster your long-term business is progressing.

Step 3 Goals

Try not to see yourself as a “specialist in such and such a department” or “manager of such and such a service”, forget for a while that you are part of a large system, depending on bosses, clients, many rules, etc. Look at himself as a Personal Corporation, CJSC "Ya". This corporation has all the same controls as any firm, for example: personal strategic planning (setting long-term goals); (study of the labor market); personal (money accounting and planning), etc.

We proactively plan for the future of our "personal corporation", expressing our dreams in the form of long-term goals. We do not expect favors from nature, but we take them ourselves. To do this, we need to clearly understand what we want from life. This is not as easy to do as it seems.

Try to imagine one day in your life in 3-5 years. Don't limit yourself to what you "should" or what you think is "possible" just yet. It is better to describe this vision of the future in writing, in the form of a 1-2 page essay.

It is important to distinguish between “native” goals (a doctor from a small town writes about how he will create a medical center. It is clear that this goal has been gained through suffering, deeply thought out, a person really understands why people need it and why he needs it) from “a photocopy of a glossy magazine page ”- an imposed goal (“I leave my snow-white Porsche, I come to my snow-white office, managers in snow-white shirts run to follow my valuable instructions ...”).

The next step is to try to identify your core values, based on which you can formulate long-term goals.

The next step is to formulate a personal mission. One of the Western consultants said well:

Goals are what we take from life, win, get.

Mission is what we give, bring into this world.

Now it is useful to identify the key areas of your life. For example: personal ; a family; friends; hobby; ; ; well-being, etc. Key areas will help us not get lost in the chaos of affairs and set life goals more accurately.

In classical management and time management, it is recommended to set goals using the SMART technique - from the words specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound.

For example, not just “I want to occupy a good position”, but “I want to become a top manager in a telecommunications company, with an annual income of at least ... USD, no later than the next three years.”

Step 4. Working day

The indisputable truth of time management: the plan of the day should be. The plan does not exist in order to drive yourself into a rigid framework and not respond to changing external circumstances. A plan is just a way to navigate in changing circumstances.

Plan the day from the evening - the last working day closes well, it is easier to switch to non-working hours and, a new day begins with a fairly clear and definite picture of upcoming affairs, and not with chaos. Comfortable in more stable and predictable activities.

Planning a day in the morning goes well with solving “clarifying tasks”: agreeing (or confirming) the time of meetings with counterparties, issuing instructions and clarifying information to subordinates, etc. It is convenient in less predictable activities when the importance of “clarifying tasks” is higher.

Determine which of the common types of diary suits you best: with a week view - convenient for coordinating meetings and tasks of different days among themselves - or with a day view - convenient for a large number of tasks per day.

Rich opportunities for improving planning in the diary are provided by such a simple thing as a bookmark. On it you can:

Write out tasks that are not rigidly tied to a specific day, so that they are always in front of your eyes;

Keep a list of the most relevant contacts at the moment;

Write out "topics for reflection": not tasks that require execution, but thoughts that require.

But the most useful use of such a bookmark is to use it as a "strategic card": write down your long-term goals on a bookmark in your diary. Such a “strategic cardboard box” will constantly remind you of the goals, and you will not drown in the routine.

When planning a day, we are dealing with three types of tasks:

"hard" meetings - tied to a specific moment in time ("presentation at 12.00");

"flexible" tasks - not tied to hard time ("find out the presentation time");

"Budgetable" tasks - large priority tasks that do not have a hard deadline, but require a large resource of time ("prepare for the presentation - 2 hours").

The day planning algorithm is as follows (on the example of a diary with an overview of the day).

1. In the free space (usually located in the diaries to the right of the time grid), make a complete list of "flexible" tasks (not tied to the exact time).

2. Highlight 2-3 priority tasks in red. The implementation of "flexible" tasks start with them.

3. On the time grid, schedule "hard" meetings - tied to the exact time. For priority tasks that require a sufficiently large resource of time, budget for this time.

4. Fill in the time between "hard" meetings during the day, starting with the "red" tasks.

Step 5. Planning

The ancient Greeks had two different words for time. "Chronos" - linear, astronomical, measurable time, the usual time for diaries and organizers. And "kairos" is a convenient moment, convenient circumstances for doing something.

Many tasks are almost impossible to tie to a hard execution time. The ability to fulfill them is connected with the presence of the necessary "kairos", the context, the totality of favorable circumstances.

A contextual planning system can be set up in any regular diary. To do this, do the following.

Identify contexts that are relevant to you (usually 5-7 are enough).

Create sections in your diary or categories in Outlook that match these contexts.

When approaching any context (“kairos”), it is enough to look into the corresponding section of the organizer and refresh the necessary things in your memory.

Another way to manage "kairos" tasks in the diary is to write them down on sticky notes and attach them to the days you expect "kairos" to come.

An interesting example. They say about Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin that when reading a devastating review of one of his works, he wrote out the name of the author and the title of the review on a piece of paper, which he put in a special crystal vase. When the "kairos" "caustic mood" came, Pushkin took out one of these pieces of paper from a vase and wrote about the author of the review of the epigrams y.

In order to keep all these tasks under control, you only need three main sections in your planning system.

1. Day: tasks for today - the plan of the day in the diary.

2. Week: medium-term tasks - the implementation of which is predicted in the next week or month.

3. Year: long-term goals - all others.

What is needed is not a rigid plan for a period, but rigid transfers of tasks between sections. Namely...

1. In the evening, when planning the next day, the “Week” section is viewed. Everything “ripened to completion”, the most relevant, is transferred to the “Day” section.

2. Once a week, when planning the next week, the "Year" section is viewed. All the most relevant is transferred to the "Week" section.

Such a system allows:

On the one hand, do not drive yourself into the framework of a rigid plan, do not try to prescribe the future in too much detail, making plans for the week / month;

On the other hand, do not give everything to the will of the waves, guarantee yourself that the right task will be remembered at the right time by regularly reviewing the “Week” and “Year” sections.

Step 6. Priorities

If I were asked to convey the essence of this book in one line, I would say this: "Waste your irreplaceable time on the Essentials."

The first thing the prioritization begins with is clearing your life of imposed affairs. At the level of a particular day, this means, in particular, the ability to say “no” to things that do not correspond to your goals, values ​​​​or principles.

I'm not saying that it is necessary to give up mutual assistance and the ability to work in a team. Mastering the art of saying “no” does not mean becoming a person from whom you will never get help, who loses friends and good acquaintances. Sometimes it is useful to meet the boss's relatives and help a friend get a job. But if for some reason you don’t want to do this, don’t be afraid to politely but firmly refuse.

The next way to free up time for the main priority is to buy someone's time. The only way to do this is by delegating tasks, when we do not spend our time on the task, but buy, literally or figuratively, someone else's. We will understand delegation broadly: not only as transferring a task to a subordinate, but also transferring it “horizontally” to colleagues, purchasing an external service, etc.

It is important to understand that priority does not exist by itself. Each of us has our own system of criteria in our heads. For different people and for different tasks, these criteria and their “weight coefficients” are different. The concepts of “better”, “worse” and “priority” do not exist on their own, but only in relation to a certain system of criteria.

It is interesting to look at the experience of PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors, for whom prioritization is especially important, since each of them works in a large number of projects and under the supervision of several managers, each of whom sets his own tasks. At the trainings in different groups, approximately the following system of criteria was formulated.

1. The source of the task and its perseverance (the level of the leader who set the task, and the priority of the task for him).

2. The contribution of the task to the overall result (company goals, project goals).

3. Influence on the work of colleagues "horizontally".

4. Urgency.

5. Own interest in the task.

6. Complexity, time-consuming (difficult tasks - in the first place).

7. Availability of currently available resources (information, etc.).

Once you've prioritized your long-term goals comparatively, take a look at your calendar and determine roughly what percentage of your weekly budget you allocate to each of these goals. It often turns out that the time spent on different goals does not coincide at all with their priority: the most significant gets the least time.

Step 7 Information

Any person who wants to achieve success in our time cannot do without a personal "information management" system. This system should answer both the simplest questions, such as “how should documents be stored on the desktop?”, and the most complex ones, such as “when, how and what to study?”, “what, how and why to read?”, “how generate brilliant ideas in a situation of uncertainty?

Information management in personal work begins with a reading system. Here are a few simple reading guidelines.

1. Provide yourself with the opportunity to return to the desired (key) information.

2. Apply immediately. Read the page - put it into practice, only after that read the next one.

3. Prioritize your reading. I think it's more useful to pick two or three chapters that you really need, read them thoughtfully and get the most out of it, than skim through the entire book.

Area of ​​immediate attention containing 7±2 objects "closely needed";

The area of ​​distant attention is everything else.

The main rule of attention management: if you bring something closer to the center of attention, be sure to move something away from it.

This is similar to the Japanese kanban inventory management system. Your department is allocated several square meters of warehouse, they are surrounded by a clearly visible line. You can manage your warehouse balances as you like, but you have no right to go beyond this line and occupy more square meters than you are allotted.

Step 8: Absorbers

Timing, accounting and analysis of time consumption are tools for combating absorbers.

Timekeeping is easy. Take any notepad that you feel comfortable carrying with you. And from the very morning, start recording in it everything that you do during the day. Refer to the notebook about once every half an hour or an hour and fix all the cases with an accuracy of 5-10 minutes.

Minor interruptions and distractions (less than 5 minutes) you can tick in the boxes. At the end of the day, count the number of ticks, multiply by two or three minutes - and get a quantitative indicator for one of the most unpleasant and inconspicuous time thieves.

With the help of timing, you can get data on such issues, for example.

What amount (or percentage) of my time do I spend on long-term priority projects?

How much time do I spend on tasks that, in principle, I could delegate, but for some reason I do it myself?

What percentage of my time do I spend on sinks?

One of the most typical time wasters is the public transport or car. Here are a few ways to optimize your spare time: read or listen to audiobooks; aite - if you really aete; choose non-standard routes and times; learn (for example, learn a language); plan; make outgoing calls, etc.

Where do you get the time to introduce time management techniques into your practice? The first rule: use any "waste of time" for this. For example: in a smoking room, in a traffic jam or while walking, in the manager's waiting room, etc. The second rule: create a clear rhythm for improving personal efficiency.

1. Daily - one small clearing of rubble. Mail in the inbox, papers in the center of the desktop, tasks with close due dates in Outlook, and so on.

2. Weekly - introduction of new time management techniques. Conducted a total timing of the week; threw away all the papers and started a diary; came up with a folder structure for storing files in My Documents, etc.

3. Quarterly - "disciplinary week". We live right, we do not give ourselves concessions, we allocate half an hour a day for time management.

And most importantly, remember: investing time in time management is not a cost, but.

Step 9. "TM-bacillus"

How to "infect" your subordinates with "TM-bacillus"? First, with the help of the TM-bacillus, you need to use internal, voluntary resources, and only then - external, coercive resources.

The first step in a volunteer strategy is to lead by example. The effectiveness of this method is difficult to overestimate. Present, rather than declare, organization, punctuality, respect for the time of colleagues and subordinates.

The second step is to create motivation to use TM techniques. It is motivation (not to be confused with “stimulation”): not a system of rewards and punishments, but an understanding of why time can and should be managed.

Third step - move in small steps, but rhythmically. Offer subordinates new techniques regularly, at least once a week. The simpler and clearer these techniques are, the better.

Sometimes, in the implementation of time management, one cannot do without an administrative resource. How best to apply it? Better less tools, but - mandatory. Come up with simple and quick "carrots and sticks".

And in conclusion - the main principle: calculate the price of your time, the price of the unit's time. Try to express in money. And fight for time as hard as you do for money.

Time management of personal and family is not an easy task. You can hardly write a formal schedule here. You need to be able to negotiate. I propose a few simple principles as a basis for such agreements.

1. "We are together" does not mean "we do the same thing."

2. Everyone should have time for themselves.

3. The principles of mutual must be spoken out explicitly.

I believe that time management should be taught like swimming and reading: the sooner the better. If not from kindergarten, then at least from early or middle school age.

There is no need to invent anything special for students and senior schoolchildren. As a rule, they perceive with great interest exactly "adult" technologies - "I have everything like real managers." For primary school age, it is necessary to introduce more elements of the game, color, excitement.

Self-motivation ("elephants", "frogs", "carrots", etc.) - procrastination and postponing important tasks in children's time management is usually a key problem;

Overview table of daily affairs - as one manager said, now his son does not forget that in addition to “walk” and “watch TV”, there are also “do homework” and “take out the trash”, and meets him in the evening like this: “Dad, cheers, I managed everything today!”;
planning good grades - with the help of review tables.

Step 10TM Manifest

You can use the 35 Day Planning Methods and the 28 Self-Motivation Techniques to your advantage. You can go to the next level and establish a logical and structured personal time management system. And finally - you can master the ideology, feel the spirit, feel the fundamental principles.

Most of the frequently heard doubts about time management - for example, "dry and dehumanize", "damage human interaction", "incompatible with creativity" - are just a warning about the dangers of techniques applied without understanding the spirit of the methodology. Well, you can cut yourself with a knife and prick yourself with a fork, but that's no reason to eat with your hands. You just need to learn how to properly handle the tools. Including - with ideologies and methodologies.

The ideology of time management is based on simple facts and axioms.

Life is given to a person once.

Time is the stuff life is made of.

Time and human actions in it are irreversible.

Time management - the term is not quite correct (although convenient), you can not manage time. You can organize time. Under the "organization of time" I propose to understand the whole complex of questions about the relationship between man and Time, namely...

1. How to go quickly and competently, without overworking on the way - efficiency.

2. Where to go, how to choose goals - strategy.

3. Why go, how to realize and "crystallize" your values ​​- philosophy.

Briefly, I would express the TM ideology as follows: "Thoughtfully and meaningfully use the irreplaceable time of life in accordance with conscious personal values ​​​​and priorities." Everything else will follow - both techniques and their competent application without distortions and "harmful side effects".

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.


© Arkhangelsky G.A., 2005

© Arkhangelsky G.A., 2010, with changes

© Cover design. Studio Art. Lebedev, 2005

© Design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2018

* * *

Dedicated to my grandfather, German Arkhangelsky, with gratitude for joining the tradition of managerial thinking and for the timely donation of the book about Time “This Strange Life”

From publishers

The book that saves time is the book of life!


Surprisingly, everyone will make good money on this wonderful book.

The author, Gleb, will earn. Not so much money, but fame and popularity - and many new grateful students. The publishing house will earn - and again, not so much money as many grateful readers. And, finally, each reader will earn. And - unlike Gleb and the publishing house - three times. At first, he will earn a lot of positive emotions: after all, the book is written very easily, accessible and interesting! Then, with certain efforts on himself, he will begin to earn "temporary points" - first hours, then days and weeks of his time. And then the most valuable “earnings” will come, which bring very, very much. This is a change for the better - both in his personal life and in his career. You will really start to have time to live and work!

One of the readers once told me that my prefaces to books remind him of good Georgian toasts - they are moderately long and interesting. I understood the hint, I round off.

Well ... for a time drive!

Igor Mann,

publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"

Preface. Our time capital

Dear reader,

we are all in an equal position before the inexorable course of time. Whatever material well-being we have achieved, each of us has very little time. There are no millionaires in the realm of time. The time capital available to us until the end of life is approximately 200-400 thousand hours. And most importantly, time is irreplaceable. Lost time, unlike lost money, cannot be recovered.

"The art of being on time", time management, time management is one of the most necessary arts for a modern person. More and more information. Events are happening faster. It is necessary to respond in time, to keep within ever more stringent deadlines. At the same time, somehow find time for relaxation, hobbies, family, friends ...

When we created the Time Management Community, the topic of time management was little known in Russia. It was believed that in the conditions of the "broad Russian soul" and the Russian "off-road and slovenliness" it was impossible to plan time.

Few people knew that back in 1926 there was a league "Time" that disseminated advanced time management technologies; few people were familiar with the rich history of domestic time management. The experience of participants in the TM community and corporate TM projects has shown that it is necessary and possible to plan time in Russia. You will find real examples of this in the book.

Time management is not only diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time of your life in accordance with your goals and values.. Whether you use flexible or rigid planning, timekeeping or self-motivation, Outlook or a paper notebook - there is no difference. Technique is secondary. It is important to find your "native" life goals - and allocate your time in accordance with them. Spending the irreplaceable time of life on what is really want.

A few years ago, the Piter publishing house published my monograph Time Management: From Personal Efficiency to Company Development, which has now gone through two editions. It was the first non-translated book on time management in Russia over the past 30 years, summarizing my author's developments and the experience of members of the TM community. Numerous responses led me to write a second book, a more popular format.

The first book was a "maximum program", containing all the richness of classical and modern TM tools, setting the foundations and boundaries of time management as a new discipline in management science. The book you are holding in your hands is the minimum program. Here, in the simplest possible form, the most necessary and widely used personal time management techniques are outlined. As in the first book - necessarily on real Russian examples.

The unusual title of the second book was not chosen by chance. "Time" is an energetic, technologically advanced, effective "time" of the Western world, well mastered by the Russian language. “Drive” is also a well-established root in the Russian language, associated with two things: control, energetic movement - and, the second meaning, a vivid pleasure from what you are doing. As the Russian language has adopted these two roots, so we all, in my opinion, should learn an energetic, active, purposeful approach to our time. Let's add this energetic approach, this "time drive", to our traditionally strong trait - the ability to dream, create, set high goals. And then we will not be equal.

Our time capital is small. This applies not only to each of us individually, but to the entire nation as a whole. We have little time - the 21st century is in the yard, and in this century we have a lot to catch up, a lot to learn. Stop worrying about past failures, don't be afraid to set bold goals - and achieve them. To learn not only to dream, which we can do well, but also to turn dreams into reality in an organized, purposeful manner.

I wish you, the reader, to find a common language with the Time and help your loved ones do it. Then the time of all of us will always be filled with that “drive” that makes our life bright and interesting!

Thanks

The author thanks the members of the Time Management Community who were at the origins of the TM theme in the new Russia and helped promote the theme in society at the most difficult stage, in the first five years. Especially:

Olga Strelkova, the initiator of the creation of the TM community and the TM club, who gave a lot of intellectual and energy incentives to my first book and Time Drive;

Vitaly Korolyov, the invariable ideological inspirer of the TM community from the first days of its existence, the "parent" of the idea of ​​the TM manifesto;

Sergei Kozlovsky and Aleksey Babiy - elders and patriarchs of the TM theme in Russia;

Nikolai Vodolazsky, Vadim Ivanov, Anna Ivanov, Dmitry Litvak, Alexander Miskaryan, Elena Nabatova, Nikolai Pavlenko, Maria Sharova - active members of the TM community and TM club;

The author thanks the clients of the Organization of Time company, whose invaluable experience can now be made available to other managers. In particular, the initiators and leaders of corporate TM projects (in reverse chronological order):

Victoria Petrova, Deputy Director General for Human Resources, Russian Aluminum;

Alexandra Selyutina, Deputy Director of the Informatization Department of RAO "UES of Russia";

Nadezhda Popova, PricewaterhouseCoopers Training Department Manager;

Natalia Bekker, manager of the Corporate University of Wimm-Bill-Dann;

Nikolai Gordeev, General Director of JSC Lomonosov Porcelain Factory;

Eduard Faritov, Development Director, Russian Standard Group;

Elena Lebedeva, Head of Training Department, Sbarro;

Alexandra Malakhova, key account executive, Mars;

Valentin Iskandarov, Development Director of SoyuzSnab Group of Companies;

Gulmir Tuleshov, Head of the Motivation Department of the National Bank of Kazakhstan;

Vladimir Nyukhlov, Deputy Director General for Information Technologies, OAO Nizhny Novgorod Oil and Fat Plant;

Boris Dyakonov, Executive Director of OJSC Bank24.ru;

Lyubov Yulis, commercial director of Comstar - United TeleSystems;

Mark Fedin, President of Mago Smart Phones;

Alexander Mondrus, Managing Director of the MC-Bauchemie-Russia Group of Companies.

Special thanks to those who provided invaluable assistance in the work on this book, namely, Igor Mann and Mikhail Ivanov, the initiators of the publication of the book; Ekaterina Kraus, sociologist of the Rossiya TV channel, head of focus groups and surveys, who made a significant contribution to improving the text; as well as to all the contributors whose valuable thoughts and feedback helped improve the original version of the book.

To all of you, friends and associates, thank you so much for the fact that thanks to you, time management in Russia is developing - and giving results!

Feedback

Dear reader, we are all unique as individuals, operating in a wide variety of conditions and circumstances. Therefore, your practical experience in implementing TM techniques is invaluable.

Cases, your experience in the practical application of time management;

Comments on the text of the book and suggestions for improvements;

Proposals on the subject of new chapters and sections.


Send me an e-mail: [email protected] and on twitter twitter.com/glebarhangelsky.

Lovers of communication - come to my blog glebarhangelsky.livejournal.com. Participate in discussions, become the authors of the site, contribute to raising the culture of attitude to time in our society!

And remember our motto, which gave the name to the Internet project: Everything Has Room for Improvement! There are always reserves of time and efficiency!

With best wishes - have time to live and work,

Gleb Arkhangelsky

Steps to create your personal time management system

Dear reader, here is a brief overview of the upcoming chapters. Each of them corresponds to a logical step in building a personal time management system. At the end of each chapter, the corresponding step will be detailed into a few specific recommendations.

1. Rest: how not to turn into a “driven horse”

On Friday, most often you want to drink.

On Monday, most often I want Friday.

Anecdot.ru


We will start our conversation about time management in an unusual way - with the organization recreation.

Remember, dear reader, have you ever felt tired and exhausted at work, having lost all taste even for your favorite business? If yes, you are not alone. This is a common problem these days. In Japanese, she even gave birth to a special word "karoshi" - "death from overwork at work."

In competent personal time management, not only the amount of time is important, but also the quality. Therefore, it is worth thinking about how your rest is organized, the restoration of your energy resource.

Rhythmic rest during the working day

Try to remember: how were your rest breaks distributed during yesterday's working day?

Most likely the rest evolved spontaneously. I was distracted for a few minutes by an interesting discussion on the Internet; a friend called - chatted with him; went out for a smoke; closed his eyes and dreamed; drank a cup of coffee.

Such spontaneous rest has a number of minuses. First of all, it is not rhythmic, and man is a biological being, accustomed to various rhythms. Therefore, the first principle that I recommend to adhere to when organizing rest during the working day is rhythm. In other words: use a small planned rest at strictly defined intervals.

As a rule, the optimal mode is about 5 minutes of rest every hour. Perhaps - 10 minutes after 1.5 hours. Duration from an hour to an hour and a half is the most comfortable interval for a person for continuous work. Remember school and university: a lesson is 45 minutes, a “pair” is 1.5 hours.

No matter how busy your working day is, no matter how busy the office reigns, all the same, allocate these 5 minutes per hour. Invest time in these five minutes of rest, work without them is extremely inefficient.

In the MC-Bauchemie-Russia Group of Companies, time management seminars were held in the evenings. At one of the seminars, the following dialogue took place among the participants:

"It's strange, for some reason, English classes also take place in the evenings, at the same time, but we get tired of them much more." – “Naturally, in time management in the middle of the lesson, we always take a break for 15 minutes. And we work in English all 4 hours in a row without interruptions.

"Maximum Switching" in Rest

You need to rest rhythmically during the day, five minutes per hour. But how exactly do you relax during the working day, how do you fill these five minutes, what holiday scenarios do you use? Each of us usually has several of these typical scenarios. For example:

call a friend;

I'll go out for a smoke;

I will look for something interesting on the Internet;

I will water the flowers;

I'll have a cup of tea.


Let's try to evaluate the degree of "switching" that different scenarios give, on a five-point scale. For example:

For 1 point. Staying at the same workplace, in the same position (sitting), looking at the same computer, straining the same intellect - to read something not related to work on the Internet.

For 2 points. Staying at the same workplace, turning away from the computer, talk with a colleague on non-work topics.

For 3 points. Reach the "smoking room" and discuss working and non-working issues there; have tea with colleagues. We have changed location, perhaps - changed the topics with which our brain is "puzzled".

For 4 points. Get out of the office to the street, admire the blue sky and green trees, completely disconnect from the office environment.

For 5 points. Go outside, do a few simple exercises that allow you to stretch your joints, give rest to eyes tired from the monitor, completely forget about all work problems.

The stronger the switch during the five-minute rest, the better you will rest and recuperate. Be sure to leave the workplace, take a "physical break". If it is not possible to go outside, walk along the corridor. If you worked with people, be alone. If you analyzed the numbers, call a good friend and discuss something emotionally pleasant. I also recommend doing some simple physical exercises: tilts, squats, etc. This will perfectly restore your strength and energy for work!

The famous Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who knew and supported the scientific organization of labor movement well, expressed the principle of maximum switching in a simple slogan:


Comrade, remember the rule is simple:
Working while sitting
Rest standing!

creative laziness

Speaking of rest, it is impossible to ignore the topic of laziness. Laziness is not always bad. Often this is a normal defensive reaction of our body. Its reasons may be:

Overwork, objective exhaustion of the body, waste of physical, energy and emotional resources.

The discrepancy between our “must” and our “want” is when we spend time of our lives on things that are not “native” for us, desirable.

Intuitive feeling of uselessness of the task being performed at the moment.


A fourth reason is also possible. Your subconscious mind gives you a signal: “Wait, don’t fuss, cleanse your soul of small current thoughts, give birth to something new.” It is often in this state that the best ideas and creative insights come.


The rules of creative laziness are simple:

If you are already lazy, then 100%, not trying to do something else at this time, think, solve problems, etc. Pure laziness is a pure feeling of the fullness of being and the universal harmony of the universe.

Consciously make a decision: "I want to be lazy - and I will do it." Without hesitation and remorse.

Before creative laziness, load the brain with information on an important creative problem for you. But do not think about the problem during laziness itself!


Subject to these rules, creative laziness will become an inexhaustible source of beautiful ideas and solutions. And also - a wonderful rest and recuperation. The main thing is not to overdo it and not confuse creative laziness with ordinary laziness.

Effective sleep

“Sleep is rare!” – often complain participants in time management seminars. Sleep is the most important way to rest and rejuvenate. But do we always organize it correctly? Even without increasing the amount of time for sleep, you can significantly improve its quality.

Sleep efficiency is greatly improved by consistent bedtime and wake-up times. Your body gets used to a certain time, falling asleep and waking up becomes easier. It is also advisable to ventilate the room well and do not eat a few hours before bedtime.

I recommend finding and applying the best way for you to switch to sleep mode. For example, in the last half an hour or an hour before bedtime - calm reading, walking, music, light gymnastic exercises, etc. The lesson can be anything, the main thing is that it helps you unload your brain from daytime worries, switch to a slower rhythm.

The duration of sleep can be different, it is important to determine the optimal one for yourself. How to do it?

Our sleep consists of several cycles of REM and non-REM sleep. The duration of one cycle varies from person to person and ranges from 1 to 2 hours. It is desirable that the total duration of sleep be a multiple of the duration of one cycle. For example, if your cycle length is 1 hour 30 minutes, then it is better to sleep 7 hours 30 minutes than 8 hours. When the duration of sleep is a multiple of the duration of the cycle, a person wakes up with a feeling of cheerfulness, freshness and well-restored strength. Observe yourself, try to vary the duration of sleep, and you will soon determine its optimal duration for you.

Marshal Vasilevsky shares his experience in planning sleep patterns. “... On especially stressful days, Stalin repeatedly told the responsible employees of the General Staff that we are obliged to find at least five or six hours for rest per day for ourselves and our subordinates, otherwise, he emphasized, fruitful work cannot be done. In the October days of the battle for Moscow, Stalin himself set a rest period for me from 4 to 10 in the morning and checked whether this requirement was being met. Cases of infringement caused extremely serious and most unpleasant conversations for me. The most intense work, and sometimes the inability to organize one's time, the desire to take on the fulfillment of many responsibilities often forced responsible workers to forget about sleep. And this, too, could not but affect their performance, and therefore in practice.

Sometimes, after returning from Stalin at about four o'clock in the morning, in order to implement the decisions taken at Headquarters, I was obliged to give the executors or fronts the necessary instructions. Sometimes it dragged on for more than four hours. I had to go for the trick. I left Adjutant Senior Lieutenant A.I. Grinenko. When Stalin called, he was obliged to report that I was resting until ten o'clock. As a rule, the answer was: "Good."

(Vasilevsky A.M. The work of a lifetime. In 2 books. Book 1. - M .: Politizdat, 1988.)

It is important to organize not only the process of sleep, but also the process of awakening. I advise you to set several different melodies in your alarm clock or mobile phone and use them to make the process of awakening gradual. For example, you need to wake up at 8:00. Let the first melody play at 7:30, pleasant and calm, on which you will wake up, be glad that you don’t need to get up yet, and fall asleep again. At 7:45 - something more cheerful, perhaps with words to which the brain reacts more actively than to a melody without words. And at 8:00 - the most joyful and energetic melody, on which you will finally wake up, get out of bed and welcome the new day of your life with pleasure.

Use of sleep during the work day

Have you, the reader, had to nod off in the afternoon trying to focus on an important task? What to do when you get sleepy at work?

Look at the average chart of daily human biorhythms.


Human circadian biorhythm chart


It is believed that our working capacity and activity during the day has two declines and two rises (for "larks" the first rise is higher, for "owls" - the second, falling in the evening). It is easy to see that one of the recessions falls just in the afternoon.

The simplest solution to the problem is daytime sleep, covering the afternoon decline in biorhythms. Recall the famous Latin American siesta, the obligatory nap in the afternoon heat. Let us also remember the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who lived to the age of 90, despite an unhealthy lifestyle and a huge burden of worries and responsibilities. His assistants had the right to interrupt his obligatory daytime sleep for no less than the beginning of the war. Daytime sleep was also an obligatory element of the routine of the Russian Boyar Duma before Peter I.

An example of a corporate organization of daytime sleep was given by a participant in a corporate seminar at Sibirtelecom OJSC, Novosibirsk. “In China, in the city of Shenzhen, we were taken on a tour of a telecommunications equipment factory. At the tables for testing equipment, we noticed strange fixtures. It turned out to be reclining folding beds built into the tables. Lunch for workers lasts two hours, of which an hour is officially allocated for sleep.

What if you do not yet have your own office with a comfortable leather sofa and you cannot afford a full day's sleep?

Dedicated to my grandfather, Herman Arkhangelsky,

with gratitude for joining

to the tradition of managerial thinking

and for the timely presented book about Time

"This strange life."


From publishers

The book that saves time is the book of life!


Surprisingly, everyone will make good money on this wonderful book.

The author, Gleb, will earn. Not so much money as fame and popularity - and many new grateful students. The publishing house will earn - and again, not so much money as many grateful readers. And, finally, each reader will earn. And - unlike Gleb and the publishing house - three times. At first, he will earn a lot of positive emotions - after all, the book is written very easily, accessible and interesting! Then, with certain efforts on himself, he will begin to earn "temporary points" - first hours, then days and weeks of his time. And then the most valuable “earnings” will come, which bring very, very much. These are changes for the better - both in his personal life and in his career. You will really start to have time to live and work!

One of the readers once told me that my prefaces to books remind him of good Georgian toasts - they are moderately long and interesting. I understood the hint, I round off.

Well ... for a time drive!

Igor Mann

Publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"

Foreword: Our Time Capital

Dear reader, we are all on an equal footing in the face of the inexorable passage of time. Whatever material well-being we have achieved, each of us has very little time. There are no millionaires in the realm of time. The time capital available to us until the end of life is approximately 200-400 thousand hours. And most importantly, time is irreplaceable. Lost time, unlike lost money, cannot be recovered.

"The art of being on time", time management, time management is one of the most necessary arts for a modern person. More and more information. Events are happening faster. It is necessary to respond in time, to keep within ever more stringent deadlines. At the same time, somehow find time for relaxation, hobbies, family, friends ...

Five years ago, when we created the Time Management Community, the topic of time management was little known in Russia. It was believed that in the conditions of the "broad Russian soul" and the Russian "off-road and slovenliness" it was impossible to plan time. Few people knew that back in 1926 there was a league "Time" that disseminated advanced time management technologies; few people were familiar with the rich history of domestic time management. The experience of participants in the TM community and corporate TM projects has shown that it is necessary and possible to plan time in Russia. You will find real examples of this in the book.

Time management is not only diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time of your life in accordance with your goals and values. Whether you use flexible planning or rigid planning, timekeeping or self-motivation, Outlook or a paper notebook - there is no difference. Technique is secondary. It is important to find your "native" life goals - and allocate your time in accordance with them. Wasting irreplaceable time of life on what is really want.

Three years ago, the Piter Publishing House published my monograph Time Management: From Personal Efficiency to Company Development, which has now gone through two editions. It was the first non-translated book on time management in Russia over the past 30 years, summarizing my author's developments and the experience of members of the TM community. Numerous responses led me to write a second book, a more popular format.

The first book was a "maximum program", containing all the richness of classical and modern TM tools, setting the foundations and boundaries of time management as a new discipline in management science. The book you are holding in your hands is the minimum program. Here, in the simplest possible form, the most necessary and widely used personal time management techniques are outlined. As in the first book - necessarily on real Russian examples.

The unusual title of the second book was not chosen by chance. "Time" is an energetic, technologically advanced, effective "time" of the Western world, well mastered by the Russian language. “Drive” is a root that has also taken root in the Russian language and is associated with two things: control, energetic movement - and, the second meaning, a vivid pleasure from what you are doing. As the Russian language has adopted these two roots, so we all, in my opinion, should learn an energetic, active, purposeful approach to our time. Let's add this energetic approach, this "time drive", to our traditionally strong trait - the ability to dream, create, set high goals. And then we will not be equal.

Our time capital is small. This applies not only to each of us individually, but to the entire nation as a whole. We have little time - the 21st century is in the yard, and in this century we have a lot to make up for, a lot to learn. Stop worrying about past failures, don't be afraid to set bold goals - and achieve them. To learn not only to dream, which we can do well, but also to turn dreams into reality in an organized, purposeful manner.

Establish a competent rest during the working day and after hours. Human life is subject to various rhythms, so rest should also be rhythmic. For example, 5 minutes every hour.

During the rest, distract yourself to better recuperate. Instead of surfing the internet, take a walk or do some exercise.

Make laziness creative. During periods of laziness, load your brain with information on an important creative topic for you and be 100% lazy without trying to solve problems and without tormenting yourself with remorse.

Increase your sleep efficiency by falling asleep and waking up on a schedule and optimizing its duration. Our sleep consists of several cycles lasting 1-1.5 hours. When the duration of sleep is a multiple of the length of the cycle, waking up is much easier. Before going to bed, ventilate the room, do not eat up and unload the brain from daytime worries - take a walk or read an art book.

Apply "microsleep" during the working day. Human biorhythms have two ups and two downs during the day. The first decline occurs around 13-15 hours, the second - in the evening. If you rest 10-15 minutes during the first recession, the work will go much more efficiently.

Motivation: how to deal with unpleasant tasks

To complete difficult and unpleasant tasks faster, learn to tune in to them using "anchors", material bindings - music, colors, rituals. But don't use a work-related anchor when you're on vacation.

Apply the "Swiss cheese method" - do the task not in a logical order, but in an arbitrary one. After a while, so many holes form in the "cheese" that it will be quite easy to "finish" it.

Break the task into several parts and reward yourself by completing one part. Eat at least one "frog" every day - perform a simple but unpleasant task. Usually such tasks accumulate and become a problem. If you solve one of them every morning, then they will quickly end and provide a good mood for the whole day.

Break up "elephants" (large tasks) into "steaks" (pieces). If the task is huge and impossible, break it down into manageable chunks. Measure the time spent on elephant tasks. Fixing a quantitative indicator pushes a person to action.

"Burn the ships" - create a situation where it is impossible to refuse any task. Such situations allow certain types of people to work more efficiently.

Create a daily to-do list and mark completed tasks in it. Too many omissions on any item will give you an alarm signal and force you to do the right thing.

Make a pinafore calendar. In the upper line, write the past years in numbers, in the bottom - the future, and in the rows of the table - the days of the months. Every morning, when starting work, cross out half of the day that has come. In the evening - the second half. This will help you feel the passage of time.

Goals: how to bring dreams closer to reality

Define a mission, define personal values, and set long-term goals. Instead of a "reactive" approach - a reaction to external circumstances, use a "proactive" one - build life as you wish, actively influence events.

To set goals, imagine how you want your day to look in a few years. Try to get rid of imposed stamps - expensive cars, watches and other attributes - if they are not of real value to you.

The “memoir” will help to determine the values. Write down the main events of your life. The Memoir will allow you to create a list of core values ​​and will encourage you to spend a few minutes each day on the question of the Main.

Formulate a personal mission in the form of an epitaph. What will change in the world and what will be left after you when everything is over?

Look for your calling. If we can change the mission, then the vocation cannot. Calling is when you understand that no one will take this cart apart from you. It can be not only a revolutionary discovery, but also a simple life task.

Identify 5-7 key areas of your life in order to see the overall structure and establish harmony in various areas of activity. The key area map is like a tree. Instead of a chaos of small deeds, there are clear branches with deed-leaves.

Chart your life goals by key areas and future years to track where and how you are moving. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what you want, but it’s better to make a little mistake and subsequently adjust your plans than to realize years later that time has passed and nothing has been achieved.

Make the closest and most understandable goals measurable using the SMART technique:

  • S specific - specific
  • M easurable - measurable
  • A chievable - achievable
  • R ealistic - topical
  • T ime-bound - limited in time

Be clear about what you want and in what time frame, and then express it in terms of money.

Working day: how to organize it in a rapidly changing world

Contextual and medium-term planning using the "Day - Week" method will help you always meet the deadline.

For tasks that are difficult to tie to a specific time, a contextual approach is suitable. For each such task, set up a separate diary page or task category in a computerized planning system.

When working as a team, contextual planning boards are useful, where projects are listed in rows, and team members are listed in columns. Tasks are listed at their intersection. The manager will immediately see the tasks for which the subordinate is responsible, and the issues that need to be discussed.

It is more efficient to plan tasks with a strict due date for a year, a week, and a day, following the rules for moving tasks between sections. In the evening, when planning the next day, the “Week” section is viewed. Everything relevant is transferred to the "Day" section. When planning the next week, the Year section is viewed.

This approach allows you not to drive yourself into a rigid framework and ensures that the desired task is remembered while viewing the Year and Week sections.

The "Week" section can be supplemented with the following planning tools.

  • List of tasks for the next few weeks on a separate page of the diary.
  • List of tasks on stickers in a special section of the diary. Looking through the section every day, transfer stickers with “ripened” tasks to the coming day in the diary.
  • An overview schedule of regular tasks.
  • Planning board with tasks for the next few weeks.
  • Planning with a list of "flexible" tasks for the week next to the "hard" time grid or a bookmark with "flexible" tasks.

The "long-term" section is a "strategic cardboard box" with a list of key goals for the next six months or a year. It may contain:

  • plan of key events for the year;
  • deadlines for key projects;
  • a list of small tasks with a long deadline that did not fall into the contextual sections of the diary;
  • schedule of birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Similarly to the "Day - Week" principle, you can organize the work of employees on the planning board. To do this, list employees in columns, planning horizons in rows, and tasks at their intersection.

To control routine tasks, a table is useful, in the rows of which these tasks are listed, and in the columns - the time in which they need to be completed. At the intersections, done and not done things are marked. Skipping such a task does not play a big role, but a large number of omissions will immediately become noticeable.

For long-term tasks, determine how much time per day they will take, and enter them into a weekly plan. To do this, take the total amount of work, labor productivity, and calculate how much time the task will take in total. Then divide this time into parts and implement them into a weekly plan.

Planning: how to meet deadlines

Set up a personal work day planning system using "hard" and "flexible" tasks. Take 10 minutes to create a complete picture of the tasks for the day. The plan of the day must be collected in one place and must be in writing. Choose the format and media of your choice. The main thing is that you really like it, and want to return to it.

Adjust the plan throughout the day as circumstances dictate. A drawn up plan is not a dogma, it is needed for changeable situations.

Get a "strategic card" with key long-term goals. On the same sheet, you can write out tasks that are not tied to a specific day, so that they are always in front of your eyes; keep a list of current contacts; write out "topics for reflection", etc.

Separate “hard”, “flexible” and “budgetable” tasks in your daily plan.

  • "Hard" - tied to a specific moment.
  • "Flexible" - not tied to the exact time.
  • "Budgetable" - large and important tasks that take a lot of time, which do not have hard deadlines.

Plan first hard, then budgeted, then flexible tasks.

Select 2-3 priority tasks in the list and start working from them. Priority cases include urgent and supervising the work of subordinates. Completing tasks in this order will allow you to get the most important things done, even if some of the lower priority tasks remain unfulfilled.

Plan "hard" meetings with a reserve of time. Coordinate with partners the accuracy with which you need to come to the meeting.

Stock up on redundant information in case things don't go according to plan. This will save you time if the partner does not meet you, the recorded mobile phone will be unavailable, and there will not be a single taxi at the airport at night.

Priorities: how to weed out the superfluous and find time for the main thing

Learn to weed out unnecessary cases and highlight key tasks. Expand your arsenal of "giveaway strategies" to clear your life of unnecessary things. Teach others to say “no” without giving reasons.

Use "healthy don't care" and put off unnecessary things for as long as possible. Often things just don't get done.

"Buy" time by hiring professionals. At the same time, you can not hire permanent assistants, but limit yourself to one-time services.

When giving assignments to subordinates, do not make them obligated to remind you of them. Create an overview of tasks on your own and control their execution.

Use weighted estimates to prioritize tasks. Determine the criteria and significance of each of them so that they add up to 100%. Then evaluate the task for each of the criteria, multiply the scores by significance, add them up and get the final score. Then sort the tasks by those grades.

Information: how to manage creative chaos

Implement techniques for filtering, storing and quickly moving information to keep it under control.

Read at least one serious business or fiction book per week. Leave speed reading to specialists who deal with large amounts of information. Read less is more.

Return to key information more often - write out page numbers, thoughts, make photocopies, draw diagrams.

Apply knowledge in practice, and only after that start reading the next book.

In the process of reading, prioritize - it is better to carefully read a few key chapters than skim through the entire book.

Filter out information garbage received from the media - try to get only the information you need. Record programs and watch them at a convenient time and without advertising, spend less time in front of the TV or on the Internet.

Use email that doesn't require an online presence. You can write and the addressee read the letter at a convenient time.

Master the ten-finger touch typing method - you will start writing quickly and save a lot of time.

Turn off the new mail notification, which distracts from current affairs. Check your email 3-4 times a day. Agree with colleagues on a clear time for verification. Set up automatic e-mail sorting and give attention to it in order of priority.

Use email folders as a "Day - Week" control tool. Distribute letters into thematic folders and leave no more than 15-20 of the most important messages in the Inbox.

"Grow" order in the documentation by the method of limited chaos:

  1. Create a "place of chaos" - an incoming drive where all documents are stored.
  2. Clear the "place of chaos" by selecting the most easily identifiable types of documents, and next to the place of chaos, a "place of order" will begin to form.

Get a card file of thoughts. The accumulated thoughts can combine with each other and give birth to new ones. As you develop any ideas, separate them into separate directions.

Organize the information space in accordance with the structure of human attention. Consciousness can work with only one object, preconscious - with 5-9, subconscious - with an infinite number. If you bring something closer to the center of your attention, be sure to move something away from it. This will allow you to optimally spend your attention.

Allocate an area on the desktop for 5-9 main current tasks, incoming and outgoing drives, contextual trays and control trays using the "Day - Week" method. At the end of the working day, arrange the documents from the outgoing drive into thematic folders.

Devourers: how to find reserves of time

Use sink-detecting techniques to tap into time slack. Keep track of your time for 2-3 weeks to understand what you spend it on. About once an hour, record all the cases with an accuracy of 5-10 minutes. Mark small breaks with checkmarks in the margins.

Create 2-3 quantitative performance indicators and track them over time. As soon as you begin to visually fix a quantitative indicator, it will begin to change for the better.

Periodically re-timing to stay “in good shape” and correct distortions in your personal time budget in time.

A typical reserve is travel time. Fill transport and travel time with useful things for you.

Have a plan in case of technical force majeure. The computer broke down - do what you didn’t have enough time for. And be sure to back up your important data.

Run your meetings more efficiently:

  • determine the format of the meeting and do not mix different formats within the same meeting;
  • determine the circle of participants, the leader who directs the course of the discussion and makes decisions, and the secretary who draws up the minutes;
  • make a list of questions for discussion;
  • determine the duration of the meeting and assign a person responsible for the time;
  • organize the environment, equipment and distribution of information materials;
  • present all issues discussed at the meeting in the form of diagrams;
  • record and circulate the decisions made so that you can refer back to them at the next meeting.

Remember that the time management system requires constant improvement.

"TM-bacillus": how to convey the TM-idea to others

We will not achieve 100% efficiency if we do not coordinate our personal time management with the people around us. Bring the "TM-bacillus" to those around you so that they use their time wisely. Consider the value of your time and fight for it as hard as you do for money.

When offering TM ideas to your manager, show their usefulness for the business, not comfort for you. Start with tools that are useful and cheap for the boss. Imagine them “in action”, not in theory. Your idea should come to the leader's head on its own - this will facilitate its acceptance.

Convince subordinates of the effectiveness of time management by personal example. Motivate its use - employees must understand why time is needed and can be managed. Suggest new techniques regularly.

Implement TM techniques gradually, using a minimum of tools. Come up with simple and quick "carrots and sticks". Try the techniques on one employee or department so that everyone can see the real pros and cons.

To implement time management in personal relationships, learn to negotiate. Do not try to impose your preferences on your partner, look for compromises that allow you to take into account the tastes of both parties.

Take time to restore your energy and performance. What is obvious to you is sometimes not so to another person, so clearly explain or write down the principles of the relationship.

Offer time management to children in the form of a game, developing in them a “proactive” approach to life.

TM Manifesto: From Tool to Ideology

Applying time management techniques without understanding the ideology will allow you to use only a small part of their capabilities. But having understood the ideology of TM, you will learn how to manage your personal time and reach a new level.

Time management is a multi-level system that can change a person's values. From technical time management, you will move on to thinking about your goals and priorities.

Axioms of time management:

  • you always have freedom of choice;
  • only you are responsible for your actions and choices;
  • without constant development, you are just an amoeba.

Even small actions change the world for the better. Grow, move, never stop.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

© Arkhangelsky G.A., 2005

© Arkhangelsky G.A., 2010, with changes

© Cover design. Studio Art. Lebedev, 2005

© Design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2018

Dedicated to my grandfather, German Arkhangelsky, with gratitude for joining the tradition of managerial thinking and for the timely donation of the book about Time “This Strange Life”

From publishers

The book that saves time is the book of life!

Surprisingly, everyone will make good money on this wonderful book.

The author, Gleb, will earn. Not so much money, but fame and popularity - and many new grateful students. The publishing house will earn - and again, not so much money as many grateful readers. And, finally, each reader will earn. And - unlike Gleb and the publishing house - three times. At first, he will earn a lot of positive emotions: after all, the book is written very easily, accessible and interesting! Then, with certain efforts on himself, he will begin to earn "temporary points" - first hours, then days and weeks of his time. And then the most valuable “earnings” will come, which bring very, very much. This is a change for the better - both in his personal life and in his career. You will really start to have time to live and work!

One of the readers once told me that my prefaces to books remind him of good Georgian toasts - they are moderately long and interesting. I understood the hint, I round off.

Well ... for a time drive!

Igor Mann,

publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"

Preface. Our time capital

Dear reader,

we are all in an equal position before the inexorable course of time. Whatever material well-being we have achieved, each of us has very little time. There are no millionaires in the realm of time. The time capital available to us until the end of life is approximately 200-400 thousand hours. And most importantly, time is irreplaceable. Lost time, unlike lost money, cannot be recovered.

"The art of being on time", time management, time management is one of the most necessary arts for a modern person. More and more information. Events are happening faster. It is necessary to respond in time, to keep within ever more stringent deadlines. At the same time, somehow find time for relaxation, hobbies, family, friends ...

When we created the Time Management Community, the topic of time management was little known in Russia. It was believed that in the conditions of the "broad Russian soul" and the Russian "off-road and slovenliness" it was impossible to plan time. Few people knew that back in 1926 there was a league "Time" that disseminated advanced time management technologies; few people were familiar with the rich history of domestic time management. The experience of participants in the TM community and corporate TM projects has shown that it is necessary and possible to plan time in Russia. You will find real examples of this in the book.

Time management is not only diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time of your life in accordance with your goals and values.. Whether you use flexible or rigid planning, timekeeping or self-motivation, Outlook or a paper notebook - there is no difference. Technique is secondary. It is important to find your "native" life goals - and allocate your time in accordance with them. Spending the irreplaceable time of life on what is really want.

A few years ago, the Piter publishing house published my monograph Time Management: From Personal Efficiency to Company Development, which has now gone through two editions. It was the first non-translated book on time management in Russia over the past 30 years, summarizing my author's developments and the experience of members of the TM community. Numerous responses led me to write a second book, a more popular format.

The first book was a "maximum program", containing all the richness of classical and modern TM tools, setting the foundations and boundaries of time management as a new discipline in management science. The book you are holding in your hands is the minimum program. Here, in the simplest possible form, the most necessary and widely used personal time management techniques are outlined. As in the first book - necessarily on real Russian examples.

The unusual title of the second book was not chosen by chance. "Time" is an energetic, technologically advanced, effective "time" of the Western world, well mastered by the Russian language. “Drive” is also a well-established root in the Russian language, associated with two things: control, energetic movement - and, the second meaning, a vivid pleasure from what you are doing. As the Russian language has adopted these two roots, so we all, in my opinion, should learn an energetic, active, purposeful approach to our time. Let's add this energetic approach, this "time drive", to our traditionally strong trait - the ability to dream, create, set high goals. And then we will not be equal.

Our time capital is small. This applies not only to each of us individually, but to the entire nation as a whole. We have little time - the 21st century is in the yard, and in this century we have a lot to catch up, a lot to learn. Stop worrying about past failures, don't be afraid to set bold goals - and achieve them. To learn not only to dream, which we can do well, but also to turn dreams into reality in an organized, purposeful manner.

I wish you, the reader, to find a common language with the Time and help your loved ones do it. Then the time of all of us will always be filled with that “drive” that makes our life bright and interesting!

Thanks

The author thanks the members of the Time Management Community who were at the origins of the TM theme in the new Russia and helped promote the theme in society at the most difficult stage, in the first five years. Especially:

Olga Strelkova, the initiator of the creation of the TM community and the TM club, who gave a lot of intellectual and energy incentives to my first book and Time Drive;

Vitaly Korolyov, the invariable ideological inspirer of the TM community from the first days of its existence, the "parent" of the idea of ​​the TM manifesto;

Sergei Kozlovsky and Aleksey Babiy - elders and patriarchs of the TM theme in Russia;

Nikolai Vodolazsky, Vadim Ivanov, Anna Ivanov, Dmitry Litvak, Alexander Miskaryan, Elena Nabatova, Nikolai Pavlenko, Maria Sharova - active members of the TM community and TM club;

The author thanks the clients of the Organization of Time company, whose invaluable experience can now be made available to other managers. In particular, the initiators and leaders of corporate TM projects (in reverse chronological order):

Victoria Petrova, Deputy Director General for Human Resources, Russian Aluminum;

Alexandra Selyutina, Deputy Director of the Informatization Department of RAO "UES of Russia";