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 and five small ones. There are nine cases in total, no more and no less. The rule will help to gradually clear up the rubble, being in time and not overworking.

2. The rule of three

For those who are out of tune with numbers or cannot do nine things a day, Chris Bailey, author ofMy productive year", invented rule of three. It says that you need to do the three most important things every day to be productive.

Instead of splattering 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. The same rule can be applied to setting goals for the week, month, or year.

3. Method 10 minutes

Do you have some task to which 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 invented by Francesco Cirillo to make it easier 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 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

Method 90/30 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, you devote the first 90 minutes to the most important task that you have to do in the day, and devote the following segments to less important matters.

According to researchThe Enchanted World of Sleep by Yale specialist Peretza Lafee, 90 minutes is the optimal time during which a person can effectively focus on one task. And half an hour is enough for a complete rest, which is confirmed by researchSleep and wakefulness 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 experimentThe Rule of 52 and 17: It’s Random, But it Ups Your Productivityconducted by The Muse recruitment service using the DeskTime app, these time slots help you stay productive and avoid overwork. Therefore, use the 52/17 method if you feel that you are not strong enough to work 90 minutes straight.

7. Eating frogs

Method inventedEat That Frog: Brian Tracy Explains The Truth About Frogs motivational speaker and author of books on self-development Brian Tracy. He calls "frogs" unpleasant and difficult tasks that you must complete despite your unwillingness. Do one thing right from the start of the day — eat the frog. And then it will be easier for you: you will throw off this stone from your soul and ensure yourself a good mood for the whole day.

8. Time blocks

To-do lists have one unpleasant feature: they absolutely do not give an idea of ​​how long this or that case requires. “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. So try the technique “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:

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

You can find out all the subtleties of GTD in our leadership.

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.

1. Collect all information in the Inbox.
2. Process all records without leaving them on the back burner.
3. Plan your main goals for each day and your biggest goals for the week.
4. Focus only on one thing at a time, without scattering your attention.
5. Create simple, short to-do lists.
6. Organize your notes into categories based on their content, just like in the original GTD.
7. Review your notes regularly and get rid of unnecessary things.
8. Simplify. Reduce the list of your tasks and goals, write short and clear.
9. To tune in to work, maintain a specific daily routine.
10. Do what you're really interested in.

11. Kanban

Japanese productivity method, which helps you keep track of what things 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 a 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

it the 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 offload your brain, because you don't have to remember 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 in the same way you can process cases, documents, notes and other information. 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 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 perform one of the specified actions with all elements.

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

14. Fresh or Fried

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

1. At the end of the day, when you're tired, take 15 minutes to create a to-do list for tomorrow.
2. Move the most important tasks to the beginning of the day in 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.
3. Less urgent, less complicated and more enjoyable things go to the Fried section - that is, in the afternoon, depending on your schedule. They will load your brain less.
4. Follow your list the next morning. Then make up 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" inventedThe Autofocus Time Management System performance expert Mark Forster. This planning system fits creative peoplehard to follow GTD.

Write all your activities in a notebook without any order. Then go through the list, pick the ones to get done as soon as possible, and sort them out. When the urgent tasks are solved, proceed with those that you now prefer. If you haven't finished 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 established 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 immediately cross it off the list.
• Delegate - when you cannot or do not have time to execute something, but you have a relatively free assistant, transfer the task to him.
• Delete - Some things are not that important. Discard them by permanently removing them from the task list. If they try to impose unnecessary responsibilities on you, learn politely say no.
• 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 do nonsense. This problem is solved by the "Timing" technique, which was invented by an expert in the field of time management Gleb Arkhangelsky. It allows you to understand what your time is spent on, 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 you flip through the notebook, recognize your “chronophages” by sight and draw conclusions. Maybe you need to watch less funny videos, or drink less coffee, or your enemy is phone calls.

20. Tim Ferriss method

Timothy Ferriss is the productivity guru who came up with his method organization of work, based on two rules. The first is the 80/20 rule, or Pareto principle, according to which 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 allocated 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 your 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.