How to save a wasted day

Emergency fire alarm, the sudden fall of the meteorite, the pipe break in the house... One thing is clear: today everything went wrong and seriously distract you from working cases. As a result, you had nothing at all.

The clock already 17:00 working day draws to a close, and panic starts to creep up slowly but surely. Tomorrow tell the boss? Like everything in time?

First, get away from your computer. If you can - just leave the workplace. Then follow this algorithm.

1. Set the timer

It is important to capture the moment when time has ceased to be productive. Allison advised to take a pen, paper, grab a smartphone with a timer and set it for exactly seven minutes.

Remember, you have absolutely no time to develop a well thought out plan of action. The only right decision now - just try to work with maximum concentration. In those seven minutes, you should consider five things that need to be performed on the next working day.

The more time you spend trying to recover the lost work enthusiasm, the longer you will be in a state of irritation and dissatisfaction, not to mention a ruined ambitions. And that's not productive.

From the outset to give yourself to understand what will not be able to enter in the right direction, and stop even the most timid hope for it. Instead of futile regrets, better direct the energy to perform more specific tasks.

2. Schedule 5 small tasks ...

So seven minutes passed, and in front of you is a list of five items. These are the things that you will do in the near future. On each of them you can not spend more than 20 minutes. That's how long our brain It can focus on the task as efficiently as possible, and attention is not scattered on trifles.

The beauty of this approach is that a large project or goal consciously broken into several stages, including mikrodeystviya, ie subtasks necessary to achieve desired.

Several interrelated mikrodeystvy = one big project.

On mikrodeystvie is given a very short amount of time, and therefore it must be fully completed by you at this 20-minute window. It is worth remembering that mikrodeystvie has great significance, because it is one step closer to your goal. And this is a pretty good incentive.

Please note that if you need to make a phone call to get from somebody approval or go to a meeting before proceeding to the problem, then it can not be considered mikrodeystviem. For example, the collection of statistics for the day - it mikrodeystvie and protection of the monthly report to the boss by appointment - is a project that can be divided into sub-items.

3.... and follow them

The most important thing you have to do in the morning - to overcome the temptation to view an endless stream of messages that come to you in the mail or in a working chat. Instead, slide closer to him yesterday, to-do list of five items. After completing them, you are 100% ensure yourself a kind of "safety cushion" of cases of completed already by about 11:00.

Even if you strike out only one item from the list of cases after yesterday's terribly unproductive day, the brain has to be grateful to you and will provide dopamine, the pleasure hormone responsible for "feeling rewards. " This will be the impetus to bounce back and enter into a working rhythm.

4. Make planning a daily habit

We have a habit to plan his time. But too often things are going not for originally conceived scenario. When our plans begin to fall apart and you find yourself involved in a swift whirlwind completely obscure cases, it is really a lot of stress for the whole organism. Unfortunately, in most cases, there is nothing we can do about it.

Our brain has a very useful feature, which is called neuroplasticity. It helps rebuild the habitual behavior based novopriobretonnogo experience, and also to restore lost connections after injury. The brain is able to adapt to everything, even to everyday stress.

The old nerve cells may be damaged, but they will be replaced with new ones. Usually, when there is an emergency, the nervous system itself triggers the mechanism. If something bad starts to happen with surprising regularity, the voltage state becomes familiar to our brain, and this is not good. However, there is little way to ease this pressure.

If you still do not have time, then drawing up a list of five mikrodeystvy at the end of each day will help you smooth out the situation and prevent the occurrence of stress. Make a daily habit 7-minute planning session.

Whenever finishing execution of another mikrozadachi, the brain will reward you a portion of dopamine. On ordinary days, it will help increase productivity, and stress - to get back into the working channel.

It may seem strange, but sometimes the stress becomes the best antidote. Take advantage of the situation wisely.