How to be the most productive employee in the office and at the same time to go home at 17:30
Productivity / / December 23, 2019
Cal Newport
Associate professor at Georgetown University. He received a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, a doctorate in computer science - at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author of three collections of original tips for pupils and students.
It Cal Newport. And it can be called a truly productive, since it:
- a university professor who spends a full day and, in addition to steam, a variety of activities for students;
- He wrote six (or more) entries per year for scientific journals;
- author of four different books and is currently working on the fifth;
- a caring husband and father;
- leads his blog on productivity and efficiency, which is regularly updated with new records.
Despite all of the above, he finishes work at 17:30 and rarely engaged in the affairs of the workers on the weekends.
No, he's not a superhero, and he had no assistants team of 15 people. Let's stop for a moment jealous of this organization and efficiency and reflect, so Cal manages to still keep up.
Below you are waiting for advice, following which you will learn how to manage your time effectively, stop being lazy, just start doing more and thus will leave the home office at 17:30. So, let's begin.
1. Lists - is evil. Compose your schedule
lists by themselves are useless. They only your first step. You must create a clear schedule. What for? This will help you plan out what you can do really. This will allow you to perform a specific task at a time when you will be able to execute it most effectively, and not just because it goes number four on the list.
As long as your list do not have a specific date and time for each task, you simply gives wishful thinking.
Planning encourages you to confront the reality. You have a limited amount of time and a specific number of tasks. But you can not determine exactly how much time you take each task. When you take a look you full scope of work, will be able to productively spend every working hour, squeeze out more and to work when and where and when you prefer.
Cal Newport
Experts agree that if you do not count the exact time it takes to perform tasks, you advance yourself up for failure.
I'm sure many of you are now thinking that the majority of problems appear suddenly and can not predict and plan. Yes, of course, the sudden problems are very difficult to incorporate in its schedule. But you need not be a rocket scientist. Everything can change at any moment. But you even though it must have a plan, otherwise you will be wasting their time wasted.
Do you want to stop being procrastinator? Schedule will help you.
The realization that you have planned out a clear scope of work, already reduces the desire to delay the execution of affairs. You do not think about what should or should not you work now - the decision has already been made.
Cal Newport
Do you think that this sounds too structured and not too much fun? Wrong thinking.
Studies show that the plan is not only working, but also free time - it's a good idea. So you will increase your quality of life: the standard of living of people who clearly are planning even his spare time, is much higher than those who do not.
Okay, we threw list in the trash can and draw up a specific timetable. Now, we learn to prioritize, because you can not work 24 hours seven days a week, right?
2. Imagine that you are going to go home at 17:30, and then plan your business, which will have time to do up to that time
Work will take itself all the time you are allotted to her. Give her 24 hours seven days a week, and be sure the work will absorb all of these 168 hours.
You must set boundaries, if you want to strike a balance between work and personal life. Time constraints will contribute to your effectiveness.
Set yourself a deadline: you go home from work at 17:30. Then plan out the volume of tasks that you will be able to master this time.
Cal calls this performance due to tough schedule.
You can go the other way: create a perfect work schedule loafer, and then to do everything exactly the opposite. Work hard and persistently, without sparing himself. Believe me, when you work for wear, smart and useful solutions themselves will find you.
But do not forget that you should protect themselves from overtime. You should feel that you control your schedule. The more you feel in control of the situation, the less stress you are experiencing.
Okay, you imagined the perfect day loafer and do the opposite. So you effectively cope with the current challenges. What about long-term projects?
3. Make yourself a plan for the current week
I think you'll agree that short-term plans - it is not cool. If you think only about today, you never find yourself in front.
You want to write a book, to be involved in various activities, engaged in research work and be a good parent at the same time? You need a specific plan for the week.
People do not like to look at the long-term plans, but forget what benefits they can bring to them. I know what I'm doing his every hour, day, week, month of his life. Do you think it difficult? Easier than you think. For this purpose need one hour in the morning on Mondays. Only.
Monday morning I make a plan for the week. Check my emails, I reflect on the tasks that I need to do is look in the calendar and think about how to plan their time well. Make a plan, I send it to yourself via e-mail, now I'll always see it in the "Inbox" folder. Here I can watch it every day, and I can always go back to it many times a day, if you suddenly forget about their priorities.
Cal Newport
And Cal rights. You rationally spend their time follow the plan.
Perhaps you think that it is enough just to think things all coming for a week in his head, and burn them is not necessary. No, it is not.
If you write a plan of cases, you'll stick with it more likely: you will have something tangible, not perfect, it will remind you of your priorities.
So, you now have a clear schedule and a weekly plan. But you feel that something else is missing. And you think correctly.
4. Perform fewer problems, but do it with enthusiasm
Surely you're thinking something like, "I just have too much to do. I never have time to deal with them in the allotted amount of time. "
And Cal recognizes that you may be right. But you should not lose heart or panic fear at 22:00.
You should be less cases than we have now. Remember that not all of your business are important, what want to appear. You say "yes" more often than they should. Ask yourself: "What is really valuable to me in my life?". And then shut off as much as possible unnecessary.
We always appreciated for what we do best. So, if you want to be successful, not sprayed, let you perform smaller tasks, but you will be able to perform them more efficiently. People say "yes" too often. I have lots and lots to say "no." I ruthlessly avoid tasks that relaxes me, if I feel that they are not important to me.
Cal Newport
Do you feel that you have no time, but John Robinson, an expert in time management, not I agree with you, and believe that today we have much more free time than ever.
He insists on the fact that modern people do not work more than their predecessors (though most of us believe otherwise). Studies show that in the last 40 years, people spend a lot less time for implementation of work tasks, and much more likely to be involved in unproductive distractions. Each, according to John, is the time to rest.
What conclusion follows from this? Do you feel that you have no time, because it is torn apart into little annoying tasks that drain your life and you.
So, do less. But do it "less" with passion and enthusiasm.
Your plans are structured, and they are great to fit into your schedule. But one question still remains open: what tasks you need to perform?
5. Pay less attention to smaller tasks - Focus on the fact that a higher priority
At work we are doing different things. Things like parsing the e-mail address, current and, if you think about, is not always necessary meetings and listening regular office gossip does not require us to any particular mental effort. Here you do not use your talents. If you are doing some important work, it requires the activation of all your abilities and skills. This leads to good results.
What is the problem with small tasks? We are drowning in the "shallow water".
People who often work on weekends and at night, feel that they are doing much less than those who say goodbye to work at five in the evening. This is because they work a lot, but the importance of the tasks carried out by them is small.
It is unlikely that someone became CEO just because it responded to all emails or visited one extra small meeting. Yes, the scrupulous implementation of even small tasks will save you from dismissal, but you will be able to develop only when your top priority will be the large-scale tasks.
Suppose you have a time that you devote solely priorities. Getting started is not an easy thing?
The main thing - stop in the morning the first thing to check e-mail.
Try not to check e-mail in the first two hours after waking up. Some people are even difficult to imagine it, they necessarily have questions like: "How can I do this? I definitely need to check e-mail, otherwise I can not get to work. " You will be surprised to know that in most cases this is not true.
Yeah, maybe you really should get into your e-mail and gather information that will allow you to complete the task at 100%. But you can start to run it for 80 or 90%, and then climb into your emails for more information. So you will save yourself the morning of unnecessary and extraneous details that are sure to switch your attention, and will be able to devote himself entirely to work.
Tim Ferriss
So how do we tie all the above? Oddly enough, just to summarize.
Cal gave us five good tips:
- Lists - is evil. Compose your schedule.
- Imagine that you are going to go home at 17:30, and then plan your business, which will have time to do up to this time.
- Make yourself a plan for the current week.
- Perform fewer problems, but do it with enthusiasm.
- Pay less attention to smaller tasks - Focus on the fact that a higher priority.
Now the word "schedule" and "plans" sound cool to you, and you do not understand the specific benefits that they will bring. But as soon as you make them part of your life, you will realize that you have a free time for family and friends. In addition, you will make what can be proud of.
Intellectual work - it's really master work. But it is not as complicated as it sounds: you do not do wood carvings, and work with information. You develop ideas. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff, and sometimes to create the idea of the "raw" material. If you start to look at this process from the perspective of the master, you will become happier, you will be satisfied with their work and, of course, are more successful in their professional activities.
Cal Newport
Select who you want to be: an office or a recluse successful creator?