What is time management and how to master it

Time management will not increase the number of hours in a day, but it will teach you how to prioritize correctly and get more done. The main goal of planning is to make the day productive, without wasting extra time on insignificant tasks.

Balancing life and work is perhaps the main challenge of today. People strive to develop their personality and not negate home comfort. In the modern world, where there are many tasks, time management is especially relevant. It will help not to turn into a robot constantly performing tasks. UNN will tell you how to master planning and prioritize correctly.

Where to start with time management 

Before changing anything, you need to analyze yourself and your day. Most people have illusions about what they spend their time on. 

For three to five days, record absolutely everything you do. Use a notebook or apps. Write everything down to the nearest 15 minutes. After the experiment, analyze the results. You are almost guaranteed to find so-called chronophages - unnecessary conversations, aimless wandering on the Internet, frequent coffee breaks due to unwillingness to tackle a difficult task. Recognizing the problem is already 50% of its solution.

Eisenhower Matrix

When you know where your time goes, it's time to sort tasks. Not all tasks are equally important. The best tool for this is the Eisenhower Matrix. It divides all your tasks into four categories:

• Crisis square. These are deadlines, accidents, critical problems. They need to be done immediately. If this square is constantly overflowing, you live in a state of permanent stress;
• Strategy square. This is planning, learning, health, building relationships, working on long-term goals. This is the most important square. This is where your success lies. The more time you spend here, the fewer tasks move to the first square;
• Illusion square. Sudden calls, colleagues' requests, routine current affairs. They seem important due to their urgency, but they do not bring you closer to your goals. Delegate them or minimize them;
• Degradation square. Meaningless internet surfing, gossip, watching TV. This is what should be eliminated or strictly limited to relieve the brain.

There is Pareto's Law, which states that 20% of your efforts yield 80% of the result. Find these 20% of key actions and focus on them.

Planning techniques

Eat the frog in the morning

"The frog" is the most difficult, most important, or most unpleasant task of the day. The one you most often procrastinate. When the hardest part is behind you, the rest of the day will pass with uplift, because the burden of an unfulfilled task will no longer hang over you.

"Pomodoro" method

If you find it difficult to maintain focus for a long time, break your work into intervals. The classic scheme: 25 minutes of intense work without any distractions, then 5 minutes of rest. After four such cycles - a long break of 15-30 minutes. This helps the brain not to overwork and maintain a high level of concentration.

Time blocking 

Instead of keeping an endless to-do list, allocate specific blocks of time in your calendar for specific tasks. For example: from 10:00 to 12:00 - deep work on a report, from 14:00 to 15:00 - another task. This creates strict boundaries and prevents small tasks from stretching throughout the day.

Two-minute rule

If a task takes less than two minutes to complete (reply to a short message, wash a cup, put a document in a folder) - don't write it down in your planner. Do it immediately. Writing it down and then remembering it will take more time than the action itself.

The most common mistakes in daily planning

Our brain is not able to focus on two complex tasks at the same time. It just quickly switches between them, spending a colossal amount of energy. As a result, you do everything slower and with more mistakes.

Turn off notifications on your phone and computer. Every "beep" of a messenger pulls you out of a state of flow, and, according to research, it takes the brain up to 23 minutes to return to the previous level of concentration.

Time management skills

Among the basic skills are the ability to set goals, assess their complexity, prioritize tasks, keep a to-do list, and delegate part of the work if possible. Equally important is the ability to control oneself and track one's own progress.

Time management methodologies

Among the well-known methodologies are GTD ("Getting Things Done"), which focuses on recording all tasks and gradually completing them, and Agile planning, which allows you to quickly respond to changes and adjust plans. It is important to choose a methodology that suits your work style and personal habits.

Top 5 tips for effective time management

Start your day with priority tasks that require the most concentration.

• Keep a to-do list and update it regularly;
• Use the Pomodoro technique to increase focus;
• Learn to delegate and refuse unnecessary tasks;
• Analyze your day: what worked, and what took more time than planned.

Proper use of time management helps not only to increase productivity but also to maintain a balance between work and personal life. Effective planning and time allocation skills become especially important in the modern pace of life, when high performance is expected from each of us without loss of quality.

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