Last spurt: How to quickly deal with work affairs
alexander savina
By the end of the week (and by the end of the year too) our only desire is to quickly deal with the workings and finally begin to rest. There is a huge variety of books and manuals on time management - to find what suits you is not difficult. For those who are not yet ready to seriously delve into the issue, we have collected a few tips and tricks that will help to cope with working affairs faster and make you more productive.
Do not seek multitasking
The simple advice that few actually follow: in order to cope with a task quickly and well, it’s best to do it alone and, if possible, eliminate all distractions. Not everyone is able to concentrate equally well on several things at the same time, especially if each of them requires immersion and attentiveness - because of this, the quality of work suffers.
Work chat rooms, instant messengers, e-mail - all this is very distracting. Think about how you can get rid of distractions - for example, do not respond immediately, as soon as a notification about a new message pops up, record third-party tasks that arise during the work to solve them later, or group similar tasks and set aside time during the day to solve their. The latter will allow less distractions - no need to rebuild from one type of tasks to another. To follow this principle will require discipline and a serious endurance - but the result will not take long.
Plan your work day
The to-do list is a simple technique that makes work much easier: you can estimate the actual amount of tasks and set realistic deadlines for them to complete. No matter how much you would like to believe in the opposite, but all tasks have different degrees of importance - so, when planning your work, set priorities. Consider what time of day you are most productive, and try to solve the most important and difficult tasks at this time. For example, many people are more accustomed to start the day with checking their work mail, but this is not always the best solution - if you are most active in the mornings before you get tired and lose attention, it is better to leave this time for the most difficult or creative tasks that require concentration.
Meetings can often break a day - for example, if they are held a couple of hours after the start of the working day, for which you do not have time to complete at least one task. When planning your time, think about whether you will have time to do something before and after the meetings or in between them - maybe it is easier to postpone the meeting for the morning? In addition, the work is unpredictable, and you may have unforeseen tasks at any time. Therefore, it is better that the plan for the day was not very dense and there was enough time for surprises - count on 5-6 hours of continuous work.
Set yourself deadlines - and tighten them
One of the reasons why we can not cope with the task faster - the lack of a clear deadline: the work often takes all the time allotted for it. The deadlines for difficult tasks are especially important: very often we shorten and work on a difficult task, because it seems immense to us - a clear deadline helps to make it more understandable.
To begin with, try to reduce the work on a task for which you usually spend several hours, for half an hour - perhaps you yourself will not notice how to cope with everything faster than usual. True, it is worth being careful here - set yourself realistic deadlines (do not try to do all the day’s work in two hours) and don’t bring yourself if you couldn’t manage the task in the allotted time: you don’t work in constant stress and no panic.
Spend less time with unimportant tasks.
Not all work tasks are equally important - so it’s not worth spending the same time on them. Simon Reynolds, a business mentor, advises leaving ten minutes or even less for small tasks: most often they do not require perfect performance, so you can donate them to do more important tasks. According to Reynolds, one can save up to 90 minutes a day - the main thing is to try to reduce the time for tasks purposefully several times a day. In addition, one of the best ways to enter the rhythm at the beginning of the working day is to perform a small (this is important!) And not the most difficult task. This is comparable to the morning workout: you will feel better and be able to do other things.
Another useful technique - try to spend on making decisions just a minute. We often spend a lot of time thinking about it, but not always the decisions that are made become better. If you notice that you often know the right decision, but take time, try to set yourself a 60-second deadline.
Choose a suitable time management scheme.
There are many techniques to help you become more productive and better build your day - the main thing is to find your own. One of the most common is the "tomato technique" (its creator used a timer in the form of a tomato). It is based on simple logic: we need time to get involved in work and perform it effectively, and time to rest. "Tomato technique" means that you divide your work into blocks - "tomatoes".
You need to set a timer for 25 minutes (this is one “tomato”), during which you will only be engaged in work, without being distracted by anything else. After the timer rings, take a five-minute break, and then start a new block. After three or four 25-minute blocks, take a longer pause and rest for 15-30 minutes.
You do not have to strictly adhere to these figures: time intervals can be any, the main thing is not too short - otherwise you will not have time to do a certain amount of work without being distracted. This technique is very effective: for a block of time in which you do not do anything other than work, you can catch a lot more. In addition, in the "tomatoes" you can measure how much time you spend on this or that task - and it is better to plan your time.
Think about what you can refuse
It is important to adequately and strictly assess the amount of your work - then it will turn out to be faster. Coach Mark McCartney advises in cold blood to discard all unnecessary things: assess which of your tasks are the most important and important, and which you can safely leave (well, or try to delegate). According to McCartney, very often we agree to do something on the machine, without thinking about why this task matters and whether it really is so important.
A critical approach helps to make your life easier and prioritize. In practice, this recommendation is primarily concerned with e-mail - think about how you can optimize the process (for example, use templates or automatic replies for emails that do not require a thoughtful response) and whether or not all messages are worth answering.
Take breaks
You already know this: a tired person simply cannot work effectively. Often, to do more, we strive to work longer and without pauses, although it is worth doing the opposite. Anyone who abandoned the student's habit of sleeping a couple of hours a day knows from experience that if you get enough sleep and have a good rest from work in the evenings, you will become much more productive and be able to do much more than if you came to work half asleep. Also, pause as much as possible. At the same time (and you also know this) the break should be of high quality: you should not stick in the smartphone or start flipping through Facebook - it is better to move away from the computer for a short while and distract from the flow of information.
Be honest with yourself
Perhaps the most important advice: only you can understand exactly what is hindering your productivity. Often we have less time because of established habits - and here we should honestly admit that it is worth changing. When you come to work, do you spend twenty minutes getting involved in the process? Do you like to drink coffee with a colleague after lunch? Constantly switching between tasks and can not concentrate on one thing? Stick to messengers? You know what to do.