The art of time management: What schedule do rich and successful people stick to?

Immortalized by Benjamin Franklin, “Time is money!” The slogan is familiar to everyone since childhood. However, this is not entirely true because time, unlike money, is a non-renewable resource, which makes it much more valuable.

How do you organize your work day so you can manage everything and not be overwhelmed by deadlines? What program do people who manage to make a fortune through their labor follow? What habits are stealing your valuable time? How can you make a company more efficient and manage it effectively?

These questions were answered exclusively for The Fashion Vibes by organizational consultant and business coach Irina Brazhnikova, who gave examples of how the art of time management helps successful and wealthy people achieve the most ambitious goals.

Irina Brazhnikova, business consultant

How can we do less and get more?

Time management or the art of time management is practiced at two levels: strategic and tactical. The strategic level is necessary to set priorities in order to determine your life goals and use your time in a way that constantly moves towards them. The tactical level is responsible for effective methods of achieving goals.

According to the Eisenhower matrix (time management method – Ed.), it is the “important and non-urgent” issues that are responsible for strategic goals. Unfortunately, many times in life we ​​tend to sacrifice all non-urgent matters when we do not have time to do something. That is why it is important to plan your main strategic tasks in advance: for a month, for a week, for a specific day.

Former Google career coach Jenny Blake uses mind maps to visualize how their current tasks relate to their main goals, which helps them focus on what’s important. And serial entrepreneur (owner of more than four businesses – Ed.), investor and host of the TV show “Profit” on CNBC and the reality show “Save Business” Marcus Lemonis writes on cards 5 main things that need to be done every morning. It will be done today. That’s why he promises himself that he will fulfill them at all costs. Former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault works in a similar way, writing a list of three things to do each night for the next day.

How to deal with time wasters and introduce good habits into life?

You’ve probably noticed that work productivity and concentration drops significantly when we switch from one thing to another. To prevent this, it would be better to turn off your e-mail and mobile phone while doing work that requires concentration. It is better to set aside special time to check emails and answer letters, and leave the rest of the time to other tasks.

Don’t try to do several things in parallel; Our brain cannot concentrate on two tasks at the same time, it just starts to switch from one to the other more frequently. As a result, the effectiveness of doing both decreases, or one becomes almost completely out of our attention.

Take the example of entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, who devotes each day of the week to a specific business management topic: Monday is devoted to daily management tasks, Tuesday is devoted to product development, Wednesday is for marketing and communications, and Thursday is for marketing and communications. is dedicated to developers and partnerships, while Friday is dedicated to company culture and recruiting.

How to find time to relax in the rush of work?

Even if the day seems completely busy, you can always find additional hidden resources in it. For example, you can use your travel time to read a book or listen to an interesting lecture while preparing dinner or going for a morning run.

Also, try to delegate any tasks that do not require your direct participation. However, be careful not to deprive yourself of activities that give you pleasure and fill you with energy. Today, more and more routine tasks can be entrusted to artificial intelligence to free up time for more creative and strategic tasks.

What steps will help increase workforce productivity?

The number of decisions we have to make during the day reduces our energy levels, leading to burnout and procrastination. Free yourself from making decisions that are not very important in daily life. Please note that successful people such as Apple founder Steve Jobs and Telegram head Pavel Durov often have a limited wardrobe and a pre-planned menu of meals for each day. This allows them to focus on what really matters.

Also, many entrepreneurs observe morning rituals that allow them to tune in, establish the rhythm of the day and get into work mode. To save time, install assistant apps on your computer and smartphone: task planners integrated with calendar and email, time trackers, and to-do pages with handy prioritization and reminders.

How can you schedule your personal time to get everything done?

— Define your strategic goals and outline the key tasks to move toward them.

— Analyze the daily schedule of the last 2 weeks – calculate where your time was spent.

— Compare the received data with the planned plan to achieve strategic goals and draw conclusions. The 4D rule is well suited for this: Delete – remove all unnecessary things, such as mindless scrolling of social networks; Delegate – delegate all menial tasks to assistants; Reduce – reduce the time required, but not just the most important things you can do; Do it – highlight the main thing you need to focus on and devote more time to it.

— Get into the habit of planning ahead; Start by making plans for the next day. Plan no more than 3 major tasks per day and break very large tasks into pieces.

— When making a plan, make sure that there is “air” in the program and that it includes activities that fill you with energy and motivation to take action.

— Start your day with a morning ritual that will put you in the right mood.

– Do the most difficult and voluminous of all tasks in the morning – this will help you avoid a situation when you no longer have the strength to implement it in the evening.

– Do not let external stimuli distract you until you complete the task.

How not to go crazy in your quest to be more productive and successful?

Don’t try to be busy all the time

The most common misconception of time management adherents is the desire to fill every free minute with something. This is the wrong approach. The fact is that we cannot maintain concentration for more than 2-3 hours, which means that at the end of this period we only create the illusion of productive work, but in reality we neither fully work nor rest.

Instead, it’s better to leave some “air” in your schedule and create a rotation of activities, as billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates recommend. This will allow us to be as efficient as possible when completing tasks, ultimately saving us time. This approach also allows you to handle schedule surprises without compromising other plans.

Set your own deadlines

Plan ahead how much time you want to devote to the tasks you intend to complete and try to meet the deadline. It’s okay if it doesn’t work at first.

Don’t forget to rest

He who rests well works well. Many celebrities agree that the secret to their productivity lies in the ability to rest well: According to American business news channel CNBC, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and former eBay CEO John Donahue consider adequate rest to be one of the secrets to time management. By the way, we have previously written about which hobbies rich people choose.

Look for effective and less energy-intensive ways to achieve your goals

And the most important thing, which brings us back to the strategic level of time management: don’t confuse busyness with productivity. Successful people achieve success because they know which of the dozens of daily tasks they should concentrate on first. Take the advice of investor Warren Buffett, who made a list of the 25 most important tasks of the year and then crossed off 20, leaving only 5. These are the tasks the financier focuses on throughout the year.