The three-hour rule: how to plan your working day to get more done

Most time management strategies are not universal - they are suitable for one person, but completely useless for another. Oliver Berkman, time planner and author books "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" sure: there is one rule that will be effective for anyone.

This is the three hour rule.

Set aside three hours each day for challenging or creative tasks. First enter in schedule just such things, and fill the rest of the time with activities that require less effort.

How does the three hour rule work?

A person is able to engage in work that requires maximum mental stress and concentration, no longer than three to four hours a day. The same law applies to creative pursuits.

Therefore, when planning a schedule for the day, it is worth starting with the most difficult tasks. Not from those things that seem unpleasant to you, but they won’t take a lot of energy. And with projects that require serious effort. Usually you plunge into such matters with your head, worry a lot if something does not work out, and rejoice when you see your

success.

It is not always possible to allocate three hours in a row for such cases in the schedule. Yes, and it is not necessary - the brain will get tired and will require rest. Try to schedule two periods of one and a half hours with a break between them, which will allow you to recuperate. It is important not to break up your active work time into many small intervals, because you will not have time to fully immerse yourself in the task every time.

Here's what to do in the most productive period:

• Think about the task, plan.
• Actively write, draw, typeset, draw diagrams, analyze information and draw conclusions - in a word, do your main work.

At first, it may be difficult for you to work at maximum efficiency for three whole hours, even with a break. I want to be distracted, drink coffee, check mail and social networks. Should not be doing that. By focusing on the task, you train the brain and learn not to lose focus. Over time, you will get rid of the desire to be distracted - all the allocated time you will be passionate about work.

Perhaps three hours a day will not be enough for you. Therefore, it is worth freeing one more in your schedule - a spare. But only one.

If every day you devote three to four hours to the main business and do not allow yourself be distracted, you will be able to complete more tasks than with the standard eight-hour scheduling.

The rest of the time can be filled with things that are easier for you.

Why You Shouldn't Spend More Time on Important Tasks

Our limit of attention and efficiency is four hours a day. Already at the fifth hour, concentration drops, attention dissipates. It will be more difficult for you to keep all the details in mind, you will involuntarily begin to be distracted or simply “hang”. This will increase the number of errors.

Each of us can tense up and work for a day or two, or even a week, plunging into the task for 5-6 hours. There are circumstances when it will not work out otherwise - urgent or long-standing cases force us to find reserves. But you can not work in this mode for a long time and even more so constantly. Efficiency will start to fall, and you will spend more time on the same tasks. The next stage will be emotional and physical burnout.

As experience shows, three to four hours is the optimal period to immerse yourself in the task, make maximum efforts to complete it, but not overwork.

According to this principle built their working day, many famous scientists. Charles Darwin, author of works on natural selection and the origin of man, sat down to work three times a day. Two stages lasted an hour and a half, the third - an hour. Henri Poincaré, a French physicist and mathematician, worked two sets of two hours a day. Maybe it was this kind of routine that helped these people stay productive for a long time.

Why It Can Be Difficult to Apply the Three-Hour Rule

At first, you may feel like you are just be lazy. What can be added to the work schedule one or two or three more core tasks. For example, take on the next illustration, write a plan for another presentation, listen to the materials of a new professional conference.

This is a trick of our psyche: we are used to having to run all the time, hurry, strive overtake someone. Otherwise, we will not have time, we will fall behind and lose. So, we will rest when we are completely exhausted.

Oliver Berkman calls this state of pathological productivity. And he advises specifically to develop an important skill: after three or four hours of work on a serious task, switch to simpler things. You will return to the difficult ones again the next day, when you restore your strength. If you didn’t manage to do something today, you will finish it tomorrow, and do it faster.

What to do in the remaining hours

For most of us, an active working day does not last three or four hours, but twice as long. Bennet Garner, author books "50 Tweaks to Change Your Life", advises fill the rest of the time with things that also need to be done, but they will not require excessive effort.

During these hours you can:

• Read messages in messengers and reply to them.
• Parse email.
• Schedule phone calls and meetings and hold them.
• Make a schedule for the next days and clarify plan Until the end of the month.
• Seek information for further tasks.
• Tidy up your desktop, put completed and current projects into folders, delete unnecessary files.

How to apply the three-hour rule

You can make the planning process easier. To do this, first divide all work tasks into two columns in advance:

1. The main projects are those that you will complete in three hours.
2. Additional tasks are those that will be outside the three-hour period.

When you compose work schedule, first select the tasks from the first list and schedule time for them. In the remaining hours, take on tasks of the second category. They can be easily replaced or moved around in a daily schedule. And some are easy to transfer to the next week or next month.

The main advantage of the three-hour method is that once you complete the main task for the day, you will know for sure that you have made serious progress.

This will help you not to worry if did not have time to do something from the additional list.

Over time, you will see that such tactics allow you to meet all priority tasks on time. You will make sure that you keep the most important things under control, while avoiding overexertion and burnout.