Jobs: Alexander Kovalenko, CFO Ecwid and X-Cart and Product Director DZ

Guest column "Jobs" - Alexander Kovalenko. He was Chief Financial Officer Ecwid and X-Cart, Product Director a large software companyAnd founder of Association of Professional Accountants. In this article you will learn the secrets of its productivity: time management, outsourcing, day mode, operating software and "hardware".

What do you do in your work?

My turnover consists primarily of analysts, talks and meetings. Plus, there is a large creative part on drawing up plans for the creation of texts and proposals, presentations, etc. We often speak in front of different audiences. This determines my choice of tools.

His work I love, I work a lot and quickly. And I choleric. People, programs and objects surrounding me, must comply with my temperament and maintain my throwing.

Accordingly, I demand from its environment following the principle of fire-and-forget ( «Shoot it and forget it"). I surround myself with people, which is enough to say once, and you can forget - everything will be done. Others we do not linger.

The same applies to business processes and work space - all should work without straining me.

With regard to the delegation of authority, then I have a few assistants in different areas, which continue to grow and do their job independently, and I take to be something new.

I try to make myself as small as possible, and the result does not tie. "Do not do it yourself, if you have a good deputy!" :)

How do you organize your time?

In my work, I use a few simplified GTD system. For example, I do a weekly Review of upcoming tasks and projects - I emphasize at this time only occasionally.

Task Lists have three.

The first - an electronic organizer (about it below).

The second - on paper, during the working day, are tasks that are born in the course of conversation or thought, something in time to make this day, the remains of zanoshu in organizer.

The third - "marked" conversations in gmail.

I see no reason to clutter organizer tasks such as "answer the letter" or "learn how things work", if it is still done through the mail, and look there already initiated the conversation.

What's your daily routine?

My daily routine I have floating. Right now, I'm an early bird, and I like it. Prior to that, for many years was an owl. My most productive time - morning, while still asleep, and evening when people are out of the office already at odds. It is best to me to work in places that are not adapted to work - on the go, in the country at a fire in a cafe.

change of context is always a beneficial effect on the creative productivity. And the office for me, probably, not the workplace, and the point of communication with the team.

What place sport occupies in your life?

You'll laugh when I tell you how I warm up during the day. For a long time our office was in the private sector, we have summed gas was not, and we warmed-fired boilers. The best way to warm up in the summer it was - to go into the yard and firewood splitting, in the winter - go into the barn and bring a couple of logs :)

How does your workplace?

I'm fairly lax person, okay I have workstation hard. Any cabinets or desk drawers I immediately find themselves inundated with all sorts of trash.

Therefore, everything is simple - in my tables for many years, no drawers, and I can not reach either to one cabinet, not rising.

This limits the place where I can pile the trash, the surface of my desktop and system unit. Place on the table fast is over and I just have to from time to time to restore order.

The subject of my special pride - bookcases own design.

My wife is allergic to book dust, and I have a large library. I had to "invent" a cabinet that dust does not pass. It sounds simple - only a glass door with rubber seal, however, to find the right configuration of the loop, glass and rubber, so that it was still beautiful, had to look for. Now I put these cabinets wherever work. Very comfortably.

And they have one more added bonus - they kept my temper. Thanks to obtain a natural air damper glass and rubber, the door can be, without thinking, to slam with force - they are closed very smoothly, with a characteristic sound wonderful. Also, incidentally, the manifestation of fire-and-forget.

And this is my home cabinet. For safety it is separated from the clothes metal panel. At the bottom left space for a home server (it so far).

Place in the server is also separated from the rest of the metal. Above - a router AitPort Extreme 2011 and the external HDD.

Box on which the router - cable management. It made my wife, when she was fed up with bundles of wires.

What is the "iron" use?

Techniques I - Zoo: a computer with Windows, MacBook Air and iPad, as the mobile device. Phone me at a regular, not a smartphone - the Nokia 8600 glass. I was not able to use the iPhone, as the phone, I need the keys to type without looking at numbers. Although, now have, perhaps, to look at the iPhone - my pipe is clearly living out last year, and the new, such qualities do not.

For many years I used a PDA organizer Palm. And then they simply stopped producing. Until now, no one electronic organizer can not come close in terms of convenience and ergonomics to them. I picked up a set of programs that are most similar to them, and together they replace me one Palm.

What software use?

On the desktop to-do list, I'm in Toodledo, Events - in Google Calendar.

On my iPad Organizer - Pocket Informant, by far the most convenient organizer. It syncs to-do list of Toodledo and Google-calendar. In the last few versions of the developers for the stuffed a lot of features and sophistication, I still get by, but I think a couple of such releases, and have to look for a replacement.

Management accounting, we conducted in several programs: the part in "1C: Managing Professor" (Platform 8.2), and some - in the system at samopisnaya 1C version 7.7. This is one of the reasons that I have to keep the computer On Windows - even in the terminal 1C to work under Mac OS uncomfortable. Plus, there are several specific user-friendly software, which has no analogues to the Mac. On the Windows 8 until the turn - wait for the return button "Start" in 8.1.

All texts and presentations I cook on MacBook'e in Pages and Keynote. I am overjoyed! Texts are obtained beautiful and stylish, working in Pages - a pleasure. Tenders must come out just fine, and the positive feedback I get on them much more frequently. Sorry, the partners Pages, as a rule, it is not necessary, and collaboration have to be exported to Word or Google Docs.

If the texts I have, of course, once prepared in Word, the presentation, I immediately began to do in Keynote. Simple and convenient - a minimum of buttons, beautiful patterns. I thought it must be so in other programs-presenters. Yeah, schaaaz.

Once I had to quickly create a presentation on another computer in PowerPoint... NEVER AGAIN!

Presentations I first cook on paper: write on pieces of the skeleton, then it acquires the meat, ready-theses I have drawn in Keynote. Technology, I took from the book «iPresentation».

To demonstrate the presentations I use a MacBook, for which I have prepared a pile of adapters and wireless mouse. When I will move on the iPhone, to switch slides will use it.

This is with regard to presentations and text.

But for better Excel spreadsheets have not yet invented.

In it intuitively easy to work with the keyboard without touching the mouse, so I get faster. If I need a complex table for me alone, I'm doing it in Excel. If you want to provide joint work, I make table in Google Docs. In Numbers I do not do almost anything - it is inconvenient, and without a mouse in it fails to work.

To work together, I take on projects Yandex. disc (This is a link to invite, who took + 1GB free disk). To him any questions, of course. However, his support answers quickly, corrects errors, shows a lively interest. To support for Dropbox and, God forgive me, "Google Drive," I could not get through.

Our office works hard to win a tender for their search and selection I use now Trade.su. Not the most user-friendly interface, but, again, the real people on the other end. One of their lawyers time to help us correct the mistake of the bank issuing the bank guarantee, literally saved us from the list of unscrupulous suppliers. I recommend.

By e-mail and instant messenger I have a dual attitude.

On the one hand, I run several groups of people and I have to be in touch. On the other hand, when I do something creative, it is necessary to no distraction, at this time I disconnect from everything.

I've been using Gmail and messenger Viber, Hangout and iMessage. Skype in our APB prohibited. Our accounting outsourcer handles information on hundreds of thousands of transactions, security - our all, and Skype is not secure, listen to him in Russian. He also eats iPad battery. For these two reasons, I do not love him, and always new interlocutor on IT offers first option Hangout or Viber. Financial issues with Skype, I just refuse to discuss, with no options. Accordingly, Viber and Hangout I run constantly, and Skype - only the duration of the call, and then disconnect.

Is there a place in your paper work?

Thoughts, lists, projects, I write on paper first. I vezde- in the office, at home and in the country - there are plates tucked into their drafts on which I am writing. Writing I love gel pens, they have me everywhere for several pieces of different colors and feathers.

Layfhakerstvo from Alexander Kovalenko

In the car listening to an audiobook (if the food away) and podcasts (If you ride in the city).

• «Runetologiya"And"Runet today"Maxim Spiridonov, I recommend to all IT-Schnick.
• «Beris and do"Andrei Sharkov - Business Council.
• «Science 2.0"," Science and Technology ","TASS is authorized to declare"And"In the first approximation,"(This, alas, has already ended, but it is so good that it can and pereslushat) - for the overall development.
• «Your favorite rock ballads», «Blues business"And"The Chillout Lounge Mix"- music podcasts.

Video lectures, even the most interesting to me to look busy. I have to download them yourself with the help of ru.savefrom.net, Then cut out of them, and listen to the audio track as a podcast in the car.

Audio versions of the workshops is strongly recommended to find and listen to the "Speech Strategy" and "Managed intuition" Timur Gagina. And it is better to pass them live in his or his students. If you are related to sales and marketing, you need to listen to Igor Mann and Alexander Levitas - live or recorded.

Books:

• «Arts management control"Vladimir Tarasov;
• «iPresentation"Carmine Gallo;
• «Lead expert"Timur Gagina (each manager will be useful to read them).

And, in fact, it is not so important what you read / listen. If during the year you read at least 15 new books on your topic, you have a head taller than most of his colleagues in the profession. Once stopped, it is very difficult to make up.

Read and evolve constantly helpful.