20 effective time management techniques

1. Rule 1-3-5

Your hours of work during the day are limited, and the 1-3-5 rule allows you to spend it most wisely. Its essence is as follows: in a day you can do only one large task, three medium ones and five small ones. There are nine cases in total, no more and no less. The rule will help to gradually clear up the debris, being in time and not overworking.

2. The rule of three

For those who are out of tune with numbers or can't do nine things a day, Chris Bailey, author of My Productive Year, came up with the rule of three. It says that doing the three most important things every day is enough to be productive.

Instead of scattering your energy and attention over a couple of dozen items on a checklist, just pick the three most important tasks for the day and focus on them. Select three more the next day, and so on. This will keep you focused. This same rule can be applied to setting goals for the week, month, or year.

3. Method 10 minutes

Do you have a task that you don't want to start? Tell yourself, “I’ll only do this for 10 minutes and then I’ll go get some rest.” Most likely, during this time you will be drawn into work and will no longer be able to stop.

4. Pomodoro

This system was invented by Francesco Cirillo to make it easier for himself to prepare for exams. It helps focus people who are easily distracted. It's also a good way to control how much time you spend on a particular job.

This is how Pomodoro works: you take a timer and set it to 25 minutes. After that, focus on your work. When the 25 minutes are up, you rest for 5 minutes and then do it all over again. After four cycles, you will have a big break for half an hour.

5. Method 90/30

The 90/30 method is used by writer and blogger Tony Schwartz, Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich, literary critic Benjamin Che Kai Wai, and entrepreneur Thomas Oppong.

Its essence is as follows: you work hard for 90 minutes, then rest for half an hour, and then repeat the cycle. At the same time, the first 90 minutes you devote to the most important task that you have to do in the day, and the next segments you devote to less important things.

According to research by The Enchanted World of Sleep by Yale specialist Peretz Lafee, 90 minutes is the optimal time for a person to effectively focus on one task. And half an hour is enough for complete rest, which is confirmed by the research of Sleep and Wakefulness by neurophysiologist Nathan Kleitman.

6. Method 52/17

This is a private version of the previous method. It is no different except in numbers: you work 52 minutes, and then rest for 17 minutes. According to the experiment The Rule of 52 and 17: It’s Random, But it Ups Your Productivity, conducted by The Muse employment service using the DeskTime app, these time periods help you stay productive and avoid overwork. Therefore, use the 52/17 method if you feel that you do not have the strength to work for 90 minutes in a row.

7. Eating frogs

The method was invented by Eat That Frog: Brian Tracy Explains The Truth About Frogs motivational speaker and self-help author Brian Tracy. He calls "frogs" unpleasant and difficult tasks that you must complete, despite your reluctance. Do one thing right from the start of the day - eat the frog. And then it will be easier for you: you will throw this stone off your soul and ensure yourself a good mood for the whole day.

8. Time blocks

One nasty thing about to-do lists is that they don't give you an idea of how long a task takes. “Buy bread” and “Finish report” occupy one line in the list, but these tasks are incomparable in complexity and importance.

A calendar is much better than a to-do list: it allows you to visually control the time. You see a large block and realize that the task is not easy. Therefore, try the technique of "time blocks": put them on the calendar and allocate time for each according to the complexity of the task. And while doing this or that task, do not be distracted by others.

9. GTD

GTD (Getting Things Done) is a productivity system invented by business coach David Allen. Its main principles are as follows:

Write down all your deeds and ideas in one place, the so-called Inbox.
Sort your Inbox content periodically by prioritizing and timing tasks. Place notes in folders according to their content - "Work", "Home", "Shopping" and so on.
Conduct revisions - throw away unnecessary notes, cross out completed cases, move materials that have lost their relevance to the archive.
When everything is planned out, proceed with execution. Tasks that can be done in a couple of minutes, solve them right away. Others can be delegated or placed on a calendar.

You can find out all the intricacies of GTD in our guide.

10. ZTD

Leo Babauta, author of the productivity blog Zenhabits, believes David Allen's GTD system is very complex and requires too much effort. He offers his Zen to Done system. To follow it, you need to develop 10 simple habits.

Collect all information in the Inbox.
Process all records without leaving them on the back burner.
Plan your main goals for each day and your biggest goals for the week.
Focus only on one thing at a time, without scattering your attention.
Create simple, short to-do lists.
Organize your notes into categories based on their content, just like in the original GTD.
Review your notes regularly and get rid of unnecessary things.
Simplify. Reduce the list of your tasks and goals, keep it short and clear.
To tune in to work, maintain a certain daily routine at all times.
Do what you really want to do.

11. Kanban

The Japanese method of productivity, which helps you keep track of what you are doing, what you have already done, and what needs to be done in the future. Kanban visually visualizes the workflow.

You take a sticker board (or sign up with some to-do manager like Trello) and draw three columns on it: To do, Doing, Done. Then write your affairs on sticky notes and place them in the appropriate column depending on what you are doing and what you have already done.

12. The two minute rule

This rule is an integral part of GTD, but it can be used even if you are not a fan of Allen's technique. If the task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. So you unload your brain, because you don't have to remember about this case anymore.

13. Zero Inbox

Zero Inbox was invented by writer and performance expert Merlin Mann, and it works well with GTD. Mann applied it to emails, but you can handle cases, documents, notes, and other information in the same way. As the name suggests, the goal of this technique is to keep your Inbox empty.

In the original GTD system, the Inbox kept piling up a bunch of entries. You have to take the time to sort them out, and it's easy to overlook something important in a packed Inbox. Mann recommends disassembling content as soon as it arrives. You open an Inbox and decide what to do with each item: delete, delegate, reply, defer, or complete. Do not close it until you have performed one of the specified actions with all elements.

In addition, automatic mail filters, smart folders and programs for sorting documents will help you to save time.

14. Fresh or Fried

Fresh or Fried translates to "Fresh or Fried." This philosophy was created by Dominate Your Day With the “Fresh or Fried” Prioritization System by blogger Stephanie Lee. According to her, when you wake up in the morning, your brain is "fresh", but as the day progresses, it "fries". This means that you must determine the time of your peak of productivity and have time to do all the most important things in a day during this period. This is how it works.

At the end of the day, when you're already tired, take 15 minutes to create a to-do list for tomorrow.
Move the most important tasks to the beginning of the day, to the Fresh section. Things that you do not like are sent there - the very "frogs". They need to be done while you still have strength.
Less urgent, less difficult and more pleasant things go to the Fried section - that is, in the afternoon, depending on your schedule. They will load your brain less.
Follow your list the next morning. Then compose a new one in the evening.

Stephanie recommends FoF to people who find out every night that they are completely exhausted, but did not have time, even though they worked all day.

15. Iceberg method

Ramita Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, uses this method to save information for later. It works like this: you save all emails, notes, articles, lists in one place - for example, in a note-taking service like Evernote or Notion, or as documents. Then distribute these materials using tags, folders and categories - as you like.

Review this information every 4-6 weeks and consider whether it can be applied in practice. If something is useless, throw it away or archive it. This allows you to create your own knowledge base.

16. Autofocus

Autofocus was invented by The Autofocus Time Management System by performance expert Mark Forster. This scheduling system is suitable for creative people who have a hard time following GTD.

Write all your activities in a notebook without any order. Then go through the list, pick the ones that need to be done as soon as possible, and sort them out. When the urgent tasks are solved, proceed with the ones that you like best now. If you haven't completed something - move it to the end of the list, you will come back to this later. And repeat these steps day after day.

17. Eisenhower Matrix

This scheme was created by American President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The matrix has four sections for tasks: Non-Urgent and Not Important, Urgent But Not Important, Important and Non-Urgent, and Urgent and Important. Divide your tasks into sections and you can find out what you spend the most time on and which tasks should be given more attention.

18. 4D method

4D was invented by Edward Ray, a motivational writer and consultant. The method is intended to help people who are horrified at the sight of their to-do list and do not know how to approach all the accumulated items.

Ray argues that you only need to memorize four words for the letter D, and then you will not lose heart in front of mountains of work. Here they are:

Do - If you've been assigned a task, it's best to do it now and cross it off the list.
Delegate - when you cannot or do not have time to execute something, but you have a relatively free assistant, delegate the task to him.
Delete - Some things are not that important. Discard them by permanently removing them from the to-do list. If they try to impose unnecessary responsibilities on you, learn to say “no” politely.
Delay - When a task is too large or does not require immediate execution, it can be postponed. But you must definitely set clear deadlines for her, otherwise she will remain dead weight.

Select a task, do one 4D action with it, and then move on to the next.

19. Timing

Usually, people trying to be productive keep track of the time they spend on important things, and completely forget to consider the periods in which they engage in nonsense. This problem is solved by the "Timing" technique, which was invented by the expert in the field of time management Gleb Arkhangelsky. It allows you to understand where your time is spent, teaches you to be more attentive to what you are doing, and less distraction.

Take a notebook and write down all your actions and how much you did them, with an accuracy of 5-10 minutes. Record working moments, negotiations, meetings, and even time spent on YouTube and in games. Take a couple of weeks for this. Then flip through the notebook, recognize your “chronophages” by sight and draw conclusions. Maybe you need to watch less funny videos, or spend less time drinking coffee, or your enemy is phone calls.

20. Tim Ferriss Method

Timothy Ferriss is a productivity guru who came up with his own two-rule method of organizing work. The first is the 80/20 Rule, or the Pareto Principle, which states that 80% of our work can be done in 20% of the time. The remaining 20% will take 80% of the time. The second is Parkinson's law: work fills all the time allotted to it.

The implication of this, Ferriss says, is that you don't have to work harder to do everything - you need to focus better. Let you work with full dedication only 20% of the working time, but you can redo all the really important things. And the remaining 80% can be devoted to simple routine so you can focus on priority tasks and avoid overwork.