Time management or how to manage everything and everywhere?

To do everything in 24 hours, not to go crazy and stay in a good mood - is this possible? It’s possible if you manage your time wisely. Many time management methods and techniques have been invented, but are they really that effective? Let's think about this with our CPO. 

Time management is a method of planning time that allows you to get more done and spend your own resources effectively, achieving results without internal burnout.

There is a legend that the first person to mention the need for time management in work and life was the 15th century scientist and writer Alberti, originally from Italy. If you thought about this back in those distant times, then you cannot cope with the frantic rhythm of modernity without a clear approach to work and personal tasks.

There are many techniques that help you build time management in the most productive way and overcome procrastination (putting things off until the last moment).

The most interesting of them:

• Swiss cheese;
• Elephant;
• Tomato;
• Eisenhower Matrix;
• Frog;
• Rubber duck.

We have several solutions, a kind of symbiosis of well-known practices for wisely using resources and saving time.

IN OUR WORK WE USE THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:

1. We write down all plans and promises immediately.
2. We decompose tasks so as not to get bogged down in procrastination.
3. Once we enter a state of flow, we try to stay in it for as long as possible.
4. We set priorities.

RECORDS

Leave notes in your phone, instant messenger, Google calendar, on a napkin in a coffee shop, the main thing is to immediately write down the necessary information so that you can return to it in the future. If a task is not recorded in time, then with a high probability it will be completely forgotten or will come to mind when it is already too late.

To ensure that important information is not lost, we recommend using services such as:

• Notion;
• Todoist;
• Focus To-Do;
• and the like.

Each of them has its pros and cons, but our managers prefer Todoist when planning their time. The free version is quite functional: you can create several projects and subprojects, separate personal and work, record your tasks, plans, promises, or transfer records there from other places. In Todoist, you can customize tags, priorities, add subtasks, and leave comments. The service provides excellent discipline, which is sometimes so lacking, and allows you not to keep too much information in memory, but to return to it when necessary.

DECOMPOSITION

Let's say you took our advice and keep track of your work and personal tasks. But it’s not getting any easier; time management is still a fantasy concept. What to do? In one of the previous articles, we touched upon the importance of decomposition. How do other work and personal matters differ from the project? The same limited resources and high uncertainty, the same deadlines and nerves from pressing deadlines. There seems to be only one way out - tasks and plans also need to be broken down into smaller components.

A big task, let’s call it “Write technical specifications for a new product,” always causes stress. The brain, trying to protect us from negative emotions, switches to more understandable and easy-to-do actions, for example, scrolling through a social network feed - quick dopamine and no cortisol. And the task remains in the “To-Do” section and waits for its deadline (apparently, not soon).

But if you break it down into smaller ones, for example: “Describe the goals and objectives of the product → draw its structure in Miro → clarify the client’s requirements for the feature → describe user paths and so on” - it becomes no longer so scary to step up and start closing one position per one. You just have to start and the process will go like clockwork.

Decomposition of tasks or breaking them into small parts is the basis of the well-known time management techniques “Swiss Cheese” and “Elephant”.

"Swiss cheese". The technique suggests dividing the task into components and first selecting those to which your heart lies most. Gradually “eat holes in the cheese,” that is, methodically close positions one by one until they are all resolved. An example of a method is writing an article: as inspiration comes, you can start presenting the material not from the beginning, but from the middle or even the conclusion, and then assemble a complete picture by dragging the parts to the right place.

"Elephant". Time management technology similar to the “Swiss Cheese” technique. But there are also differences. In a metaphorical sense, an “elephant” is too large a task that cannot be “eaten” at once. In order to do the task, the “elephant” must be divided into several approaches. Unlike the “cheese” method, the “Elephant” method implies a consistent solution of problems (from start to finish), and not a chaotic one.

FLOW

Getting into tasks that require long-term concentration and attention is always difficult, even if you divide them into parts. But this is only at the beginning. There is such a thing as a learning curve. It clearly demonstrates an increase in productivity - at the beginning of the journey, productivity will always be low, but the more time spent on a task, the more involved in the process there is, and the more efficiency increases.

The first 15 minutes of learning something new are the most difficult. It seems that it is impossible to find a solution and it is better to first direct resources to an easier task or one with a more visible result in the near future. But as you get involved in the process, productivity will grow upward, and at some point the long-awaited exit to a plateau is inevitable - this is the very notorious “flow”.

Staying in it for as long as possible is a gamble. To do this, you need to minimize contact with all distractions:

• close all instant messengers and apps - turn on the maximum focus mode;
• we move away from colleagues who are eager to quickly discuss a non-urgent issue (headphones + a piece of paper asking not to disturb, a red flag or something else that will make it clear that now is not the best time for conversations (the main thing is to convey this scheme to colleagues in advance);
• we reduce the influence of extraneous sounds - put on headphones and completely disconnect from the environment with music (if this option suits you) or find a quiet place in the office where no one can interfere with concentrating on the main thing.

The state of flow also needs to be controlled so as not to get carried away and eventually burn out. The Pomodoro method allows you to maintain the desired balance without fanaticism. The point is to set a certain timing for work and rest: 25 minutes for work, 5 minutes for a break, and do it all over again. You can adjust the time to suit yourself if, for example, 25 minutes for a task is not enough. But you still have to follow a certain structure if you choose the “pomodoro” approach.

PRIORITIES

All tasks, at first glance, seem important and urgent, but in reality this is not always true. A useful skill in time management is the ability to identify a truly key task among many secondary ones, that is, to set priorities. To do this, you can use a simple but working tool - the Eisenhower Matrix, which helps determine what is really important and what can be put off and done later (or never). Moreover, the effectiveness of this method has even been scientifically confirmed.

The Eisenhower Matrix consists of four squares, in each of which things should be distributed according to the degree of importance and urgency: urgent and important, not urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent and not important.
You can draw such a matrix on a simple sheet of paper or in any graphics editor. All that remains is to brainstorm, scatter things and gradually close tasks from each square in order of priority.

One of the highest priority but unpleasant tasks that you want to put off until the last minute is best done in the morning. This is exactly what the author of another popular approach to time management advises - the “Frog” method. It becomes easier to do other things when the frog is already eaten at the beginning of the day.

The above techniques are ideal when the task seems difficult, but in general we understand how to complete it and what the result should be in the end. The opposite situation - the task seems to be clear, but how to approach it, where to start, and what the outcome will be - seems very vague. It takes too much time to think about it, and the state of panic creeps in more and more as the deadline approaches. What to do? The “Rubber Duck” will tell you. No, we're not talking about bathing with yellow toy (although that's also a good idea), but about another time management method. Imagine a rubber duck in front of you and tell him about your task, what difficulties it causes, what blocks prevent you from achieving the result.

Finally, we share valuable advice as a bonus: in an attempt to do everything at once, do not forget to use up-to-date business services and tools in order to allocate resources more rationally and find time for yourself.