Time management in simple words. Timing

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Timing is the first step in mastering time management. As an initial examination of a patient, which will give a rough, but a diagnosis. Shows which doctor to go to next. Most often you have to go to the "surgeon":)

What do you spend your time on during the day?

Hmm … An hour for social media, four hours for work, an hour for cooking. The error of such answers will be 300 percent! Why is that?

The point is that the sense of time is subjective. Games, social networks, YouTube videos - it's addictive. And time flies fast. At the same time, work on a boring report can last only 20 minutes, but it seems like an eternity.

We tend to exaggerate the time we spend on useful activities. Conversely, we minimize the harm of time eaters. That is, a mistake always goes in a harmful direction.

Here timing will help us!

Timing is it?

You walk around and write down what you do and for how long. All day.

For example:

• called Vasya - talked about football - 15 minutes;
• went for bread - 10 minutes;
• read Lifehacker - 40 min;
• programmed the database - 50 min.

Error

5 minutes is more than enough.

Even rough timing is extremely useful.

How long does it take to do this?

Of course, there are people who keep timing all their lives. But I, for one, don't do that.

2-3 days is enough to …

… Get the big picture

Yes, you will get a clear picture of what was happening to you, how your time was distributed.

You will see how much REAL time you spend on:

• social networks;
• games;
• calls;
• cooking food;
• reading;
• "Zomboyaschik";
• sport.

You will see how much you REALLY work.

In 100% of cases, a person is surprised looking at these results. Or terrified. This is even better. But now he knows his weak points. It is most important!

How to use all this?

I saw at one time that my weak point was phone calls.

I am an extrovert and a chatterbox. Many extroverts lose their sense of time when they chat. Unsurprisingly, I wasted 1-2 hours a day on idle chatter.

It's bad to be like this!

I have taken the following steps:

1. I have announced to all my friends and partners that email is the preferred method of communication.
2. When a call is still needed, I prepare for it: I make up the main points of the conversation, a list of questions. When I sit down to talk - the cheat sheet is at hand.
3. I'm learning to be short. Again, conversation cribs help. You just run through all the prepared questions. When they end, it's time to interrupt the conversation.

What to use for timing?

There are several options.

1. Notepad, pencil and watch. In the course of the day, we sketch out all our activities there.
2. Voice recorder. This option was used by me, as the biggest promoter of the use of the voice recorder.
3. Various services and gadgets. We live in the Big Data era. There are more and more gadgets that track our activity, which are stuffed with various sensors. I think that in five years time it will be possible to keep the timing completely automatically. And at the end of the day, receive a beautiful chart report with the distribution of our activities throughout the day. Until then, you can install the RescueTime program.

Total

You cannot manage what cannot be measured.

How to start building your time management? Timekeeping!

Even a ninth grader can handle this.

Write in the comments

Did you do the timing? How much time do you spend on social media, TV, etc.?

P. S

The cycle of articles "Time management in simple" words is over!

Here is a complete list of all articles:

• 5 reasons for your procrastination;
• Always say no;
• Grouping tasks;
• Don't try to eat the whole cow !;
• 5 steps to getting more done in the same time
• Priority of tasks;
• Checklists;
• 11 reasons to throw out your to-do lists
• Gamification;
• Out of sync with the stream;
• Automation.

Thanks for reading!