How to get more done in a day and what "time thieves" are. How you start is how you finish

Sometimes, and even more often than sometimes, we do not have time to do everything that we have planned. We have an endless list of tasks on our hands, and there are millions of distractions around. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day, so here are some suggestions that can help you get more done.

25 ways to get more done

1. Create habits

Pick a few things you do on a regular basis and make habits out of them. For example, choose a specific time when you answer emails, or that you make sure to go to the gym after work. Gradually, repeating them every day, these actions will become automatic.

2. Quality sleep

If you don't get enough sleep, your productivity at work can drop significantly. It is recommended to sleep about 7-9 hours.

3. Wake up earlier

If you can get enough sleep and still get up earlier, that's great. This extra morning hour has fewer worries to distract you, so use it wisely.

4. Stop constantly checking email

Choose a time for you to check your email. Unexpected letters with requests and tasks can distract you from your main job for a long time.

5. Make daily to-do lists

Break large tasks into smaller ones. Instead of going for a workout, you might seriously consider signing up for a yoga class. Or instead of writing a term paper in one evening, you can set yourself up to write one sheet a day. Small achievements add up to big wins.

6. Make a List of What You Should NOT Do

Bad habits are just as important as good ones. Maybe you should still watch this movie on another day?

7. Do not do several tasks at the same time

Our brain is incapable of thinking about the two things you are trying to do together.

8. Turn off your phone

When it comes to performing some specific tasks, silence is the key to success. Turn off your phone for a while, if anyone needs you, they will leave you a voice message (or just write an SMS that you will receive later).

9. Exercise during the day

If you can afford it, take a short break during the day to exercise. As it turned out, physical activity activates productivity very well.

10. Lead a healthy lifestyle

Get rid of bad habits. This will give you strength, energy, health and even save you a lot of money. And it will add at least a couple of years to your life. Being healthy is great!

11. Do the essentials first.

Usually these are the things that you want to put off “for later”. Be sure to write down a few of these at the beginning of each of your days. And do them!

12. Sort letters

Once you have checked your mail, be sure to deal with all letters: reply to those that require a response, delete spam, move the ones you need to drafts. Being organized is very important if you want to be the most successful.

13. Brainstorming

Take some time for yourself and let your ideas come out. You can have a lot of good ideas in a relatively short amount of time.

14. Keep a notepad and pen handy

Do the same as Richard Branson and then you will not forget any of your brilliant ideas.

15 Turn Off All Social Media

Vkontakte, Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki - you won't believe how much time they take from you until you turn them off for at least a week.

16. Slow down

You don't have to be first at the finish line. Give yourself time to look back and appreciate the work you've done.

17. Keep track of time

(Again, you'll see how much time you spend on social media!) Keep track of how much time you spend sorting emails, reading, and so on. This will help you plan your day better.

18. Do not jump from one to another

Allocate the same specific amount of time for each specific task. Once the time is up, move on to the next one.

19. Look back

Take a little time each week to reflect on what you've accomplished and what you need to tweak next week's schedule.

20. Unplug

Headphones to help you. By the way, other people are unlikely to distract you when they see that you are busy.

21. Remind yourself

Leave notes and notes about the things you need to do. Put bills and books (which you want to read) in prominent places. Stick notes on the refrigerator!

22. Eat well

Dinner doesn't just satisfy hunger. Foods such as salmon, almonds and carrots increase energy levels. How do you watch what you eat.

23. Don't clutter

Get rid of everything that can distract you. Put away the dishes, sort out the papers on the table, put away all unnecessary things ...

24. Say no

Don't try to do everything for everyone. Learn to say a firm “no” and you will stay focused on your task.

25. Take a break

Take some time for yourself, for rest, for relaxation. After resting, you can return to work with renewed vigor. If you work without interruption for a long time, the efficiency is significantly reduced.

One of the most frequently asked questions to me - How do you manage to do so much?

In fact, I don’t have much time, and even more so now, while the child is small. With its birth, I had to optimize a lot in my activities, it turned out that there was a lot to optimize, and there is still a lot to optimize.

But still, I do much more than before.

Of course, I also organized my life in such a way that everything feeds me.

Constantly sunny, went out barefoot on the ground in the morning, nice, good. You don’t need to take a child for a special walk for the sake of getting some air, dressing beautifully, putting on makeup is not necessary, jumped on a bike in shorts and a T-shirt and additionally recharged with speed, wind, a sense of freedom, drove 5 minutes to the gym, again, you don’t need to undress and change clothes . And so on, solid pluses and time savings - a few hours compared to the average person in a city in Russia. Therefore, I also don’t want to leave Mui Ne - everything here is too convenient and crowded, everything is very close, the roads are not busy.

I work from home, my beloved child is always there. I'm not in a hurry. I don’t communicate with people with my voice - I also save a lot of time and energy on this. There are no meetings at work - I see only those with whom I myself want and with whom I am pleased.

Brains cleaned up, again. Much less energy is spent on fears, worries, frustrations, resentments or blaming other people - the negativity is almost completely gone.

Stodnevka, in which I have been hanging out with pleasure for 2.5 years, significantly contributes to more time. New tools are constantly searched for and tried, other people's successful finds are peeped and discussed. Some work well, some change often.

The benefit of changing tools is a recent realization of mine.

This is also one of the ways to get more done. If some tool “blurs”, stops working, do not leave everything as it is, do not try to revive it for yourself, but take the next one from the analogues - the main thing is that the goal is achieved. The goal could be doing something daily, or following priorities, or building a habit, or something else.

So, at one time I had a very large checklist on the wall, then it was kept in Excel, then in the Habitica program, then in a simple file in the organizer, then it was broken up project-by-project, then again converged into one common list, hung on the wall again, but already 3 times shorter, and so on. Although, of course, there are a number of tools that I have been using for several years and do not see my successful day without them.

Now it is like this (decomposition of goals for the coming months):

In general, I believe that the following things affect academic performance during the day:

- awareness, setting and measurement of your goals, plan

- the level of chaos in different areas of life

- doing what you like or don't like. In general, the ability to hear oneself, one’s intuition, the Soul, to separate it from other people’s imposed programs and not to adapt to someone else’s opinion

- the habit of thinking in positive images and staying on a high frequency wave

- energy tails and everything that sucks this energy - communication with "vampires", indulging a sense of self-importance, the habit of feeling sorry for yourself or feeling like a victim (it's selfishness, inadequate self-esteem, weak boundaries, external locus - speaking in psychological terms), etc.

- interruptions, return to the flow, procrastination

– specific tools and techniques for time management and work organization

That is, I would put specific time management tools at the very end.

And everything else - energetic and psychological, I think - is more important.

I described some of my successful experiences. The author of this project is Armen Petrosyan, who invented and maintains the project with Stodnevki.

I still have a lot of problem areas. I'm still working on, for example, how to make sure that "inbox" (GTD's term) is reviewed regularly after everything is merged into it and turned from ideas into a list of specific actions. Or I can’t yet build a certain period of time into every day or at least a week to view profile articles or watch courses. Recently, I read very little fresh in the profile of activity, and I need to somehow wedge in this as well. Or, it happens, instead of doing an important thing, “I find myself” in social networks. I want to learn creative methods of problem solving and just the science of problem solving - to delve into TRIZ, for example.

Therefore, what I present below is just some more or less successful conclusions in recent years, which so far works for me personally. Only and everything. And so - everything is very individual for everyone. I will write everything.

About 7 elements are retained in our brain plus or minus a couple more.

Therefore, it is extremely important:

1) write a variety of plans,

2) unload the brain in terms of all sorts of ideas and deeds - a list of "incoming" GTD,

3) engage in freewriting, write a diary - unload yourself emotionally, work out situations, structure your feelings, your state, splash out internal monologues, keep a diary of your victories or what you can be proud of during the day, what to be glad about - all this significantly reduces the level of chaos , saves tons of energy and increases depth, satisfaction from the day and life.

In any difficult situation be aware of what exactly is within your area of opportunity to improve the situation, your responsibility, and what you cannot do anything about (for example, you cannot change the other person). And remake the situation and your tasks about it so that you can influence it, make a plan, and fulfill it. Marina Komissarova (Evolution) writes a lot on this topic in her posts about editing the locus. Before her, I did not know this term at all, but acquaintance with it significantly increased efficiency. In general, Marina Komissarova is in the first place in my personal TOP for clearing my brain. .

Develop the habit of not regretting anything, not scolding yourself, just draw conclusions, but do not get emotionally stuck in the affairs of the past day. If you overslept, do not scold yourself in any way, by willpower leave complaints, irritation and negativity, take the starting point where you are and think what can be done now as efficiently as possible, and then think about what can be done so that this does not happen again .

Track your energy cycles throughout the day.
For all of us, the day goes about the same: in the morning - the most energy, at lunch - a decline, after lunch - again a slight rise, in the evening - a decline. The picture may be completely different for some individual reasons or based on the nature of the cases that you are involved in.

But the essence is to be able to sensitively listen to yourself and make a decision what business to entrust to yourself at this stage. Sometimes a strong-willed decision to force yourself to effectively spend the first half of the day, taking on the most difficult things. Engage in effortless brain activity, or again, sometimes forcibly, rest when nothing sensible can be done. In general, treat yourself as a complex organism that you have been assigned to manage.

Read more about what stimulates and inspires you
Determine what kind of books most aroused in you the desire to act. For example, I like to read something like Boris Akunin's series about Erast Fandorin or fantasy. Those books where the characters follow many of the principles that I described above and teach me a lot in the course of an exciting reading. I do not like to read boring and dull through force. The author should be in unison with me in terms of energy, otherwise I don’t see the point in this now.

Now a little about organizational issues.

Plan. Plan. Plan.

I do not see an effective month, week, day without clear plans. Very detailed step-by-step plans for any business - it's easier to see your priorities and eat any elephant, so the likelihood of procrastination is reduced.

I really like trainings like Andrey Parabellum "Self-discipline". He himself regularly not only conducts them, but also passes them. Now he has different subspecies of this training - like, a separate one for cleaning tails, a separate one for a breakthrough, a separate one for finances. Here, passing one of the Self-disciplines 1 a couple of years ago, I took the practice for myself planning from above. I regularly redo my life plan for 10 years, then 5 years, then 3 years, then 1 year. I am writing down 3 projects that will help me realize my plans in the near future. I imagine that I have unlimited time, I can do absolutely everything with them. I give myself 10 minutes, write down a detailed plan for each project. I give another 5 minutes, adding all sorts of details and new thoughts. Now I regularly go through the live “Self-discipline 3. Tailings cleanup” together with Andrey. Those who signed up for the training live once, then free participation is provided.

Also, as part of Stodnevka, I always sum up the results of each month based on daily diaries, which helps a lot to understand a variety of things, about where I am moving, what happened, where I need to strengthen. Just increase the satisfaction from the day passed and do not regret anything, do not scold yourself.

A big post on this topic, which appeared a year after that, with new accumulated insights and experience - "My planning system".

The main things of the day, priorities.
Now for me this is expressed in the fact that I do 3 tasks of the week, 3 tasks of the day and, first of all, I focus on ensuring that these tasks are completed, and the rest in the remaining time. I try to remember the 80/20 principle.

Big Blocks, Uninterrupted Flow
Once upon a time, I went through the Anti-Time Management training by Petr Ponomarev. And there one of the main points was about large blocks. Andrey Parabellum has the same thing about focus buffer blocks. Most of the time, I work all day on basically just one project, 2-3 at the most. Large flows without interruptions are very important. Therefore, I try not to exchange the time of large blocks for turnover.

But at the same time, it is better to switch to a different type of activity every 2-4 hours. Otherwise, you get tired quickly. Those. if you work on the same project for a long time, you can switch between different types of work on it. Although, depending on what project. If you love it, then sometimes it takes a long time and you don’t want to switch.

buffer days
I also took this from Andrey Parabellum from the last self-discipline training. Just like there are “focus blocks”, when I devote myself most often to one project a day, there are also buffer days or blocks, when all the hangings are completed, the turnover. And there are days off (so far I'm just trying to enter it). A bunch of small tails eats up the overall energy very much, there is a feeling of chaos and that “everything is lost” - that there is too much to do. Therefore, if you regularly enter such days, then it becomes gradually easier and easier to work on the main things. While it’s true, I don’t introduce such days often - once every 1-2 weeks or on demand, and I rake up most of the turnover right away, during “buffer hours”. In general, I keep a table by day, where I more or less scatter what day I do what project, when I have buffer or weekend days - this helps to better look at the coming days and better focus on priority matters.

Fighting perfectionism
Yes, I had to fight myself. A student complex and a terrible inner perfectionist often sabotaged many cases on the principle of "nothing better than the best."

I had to get rid of it through force, sometimes come up with some practices like “the worse, the better” in order to swing myself in the opposite direction and add lightness in relation to everything.

Delegation "by force"
There was also a struggle for a long time, because, like everyone else, it seemed that no one would do it better than me. Sometimes for years I would hang out with unloved mechanical work that could be easily delegated. And only over time this skill began to be developed slowly. Yes, partly the way it is, that they didn’t cope better than me, but in some places they performed better than me.

typing
Typing is one of my main skills, which allowed me to achieve what I got, and which allows me to communicate with a large number of people every day, give free consultations without much stress. I have owned it since the age of 19, and if you still do not know how to quickly type with a blind method, I highly recommend investing your time in this skill in the very near future. It saves a lot of time and generally sets you up for fast work. You type fast, you think fast, you act fast.

GTD
I don't know much about GTD yet, but some of the principles are well embedded in my life. For example, doing things right away that take 5 minutes, having some place where you can merge all incoming ideas in a structured way, all the things that need to be done, clear to-do lists.

Some moments of organizing space at the computer.

Password storage software. Now settled on AnyPasswordPro.

Screenshot program, very convenient thing.

I work best by anchoring and focusing. For me, these are headphones (to close the auditory channel from external sounds) and some simple and not requiring strong mental intervention series or film during technical work (although there is also such a habit when writing articles).

So I consciously “kill two birds with one stone” - I disconnect from the outside world and deceive my brain that I don’t sit and clean the database for 8 hours in a row all night until 6 in the morning, or I sit and monotonously promote sites, and watch a TV series and have fun. Only the film should be one in which you are not particularly drawn into, otherwise it starts to, on the contrary, only distract. This method works well for me, although I hardly remember anyone else doing the same. Many use different kinds of music - someone accelerated, someone piano or jazz, someone some kind of "white noise" for similar purposes to mine.

There might also be a drink. If you need to actively work hard, it so happened that I am best anchored by the smell and taste of coffee. And also for a standing workplace - now I organized one for myself.

Blocking social networks and sites
It became easier to live when I found such a program for blocking. Before that, I tried with all sorts of applications, but nothing took root. Sometimes I officially allow myself to "have fun", but only to a limited extent. I don't watch my Facebook feed. On Vkontakte I watch the news of a very cleaned circle of friends and groups (this is a very short feed), Instagram is heavily cleaned only with people who are interesting and inspiring to me - also a short feed. And there are at most a couple of sites where I sometimes allow myself to look - LJ Evolution, a couple of others. So I switch a little, have some kind of social life, have fun, but at the same time I don’t stick for a long time. On Vkontakte, especially in the photo-only format, few people repost articles, unlike Facebook. There I caught myself on the fact that much more often I go to read something and therefore I simply removed it.

Sometimes I put a tomato "tomato". Previously, it was a nice and easy Tomighty program on a computer. And then I bought a real tomato-timer. Here . There is an interesting book “Tomato Time Management. How to concentrate on one thing for at least 25 minutes. How to get the most out of this seemingly simple technique.

What else..

Physical activity, exercise.
Now I don’t have it as often as I would like - all the time I have to prioritize - either a child, or work, or interesting projects for the future, or projects for the soul, or cleaning, or exercising. Of course, it’s impossible to do everything at the same time and every day. But I know well that when the body is kneaded, it is much more pleasant to work. For many years I love all sorts of rejuvenating gymnastics aimed at stretching, joints, blood vessels, plus a little strength. Of the most favorite ones that I do every time - the Eye of the Renaissance, Nishi, something from yoga, a Taoist massage of the active points of the head, neck and shoulders, and I also really love Khada - “exercises for astronauts”. My own complex usually fits in about an hour. When you do such exercises regularly, you don’t feel your body, you don’t have that feeling of a victim that appears when you sit at a computer for several days in a row without physical activity and your neck and back begin to hurt, your whole body stops obeying.

Well, physical activity has been proven to be good for the brain.

When I don’t have time, I do the 50 5 5 rule. Every last 10 minutes of an hour of work at the computer, I do exercises for 5 minutes, and I clean for 5 minutes. And the house is clean, and the body is mashed.

Healthy food.
When the body is at ease, it is much easier to work. For example, thermally processed food makes it heavier, “nails” - it pulls you to lie down, give up everything, laziness appears. Therefore, in my diet there are more fruits, vegetables, “green smoothies”, etc. It is better not to abuse stimulants, but when you still have to work at night, you can’t do without them. For a couple of years I was interested in high-quality nootropics, tried a couple of courses, but then changed my mind about using them. I love natural cocoa. Diversity in food is also very important. In general, after the book by Svetlana Bronnikova about intuitive nutrition, I had some kind of revolution and forbidden foods disappeared from my head, and in terms of nutrition, I also began to rely more on my soul and body, and not on some universal programs.

Find ways to emotionally recharge.
For me, this includes altruism, free consultations and writing useful materials, writing posts on this blog, as well as regular communication with best friends. Of course, my biggest source of such nutrition is a child. This is what gives me daily emotional positive feedback. Bike, adrenaline, nature, music. There are many different ways.

While all. I will update the article as new ideas appear)

Now I am still learning to relax) for example, to make a day of rest. And get more involved in the current process, be “here and now”. When I have a rest or with a child - to relax or to fully enjoy what we are doing with the child, and not to freak out that I didn’t have time for something urgent, and when I work - to work.

And in general, an understanding comes that there will always be new and new tasks, new interesting projects, you will want to do more, more, but you also need to live sometime, and do more for yourself and your loved ones.

There is also a good topic conscious shocks.

For example, spend Hell Week on the book “On the Limit. A week without self-pity. I've done this myself a couple of times. Invigorates like a contrast shower. There are many ideas, plans, activities. With the help of such a hellish week, I switched myself from the hibernation mode that my body entered after long feats into a new mode of feats) At first I thought that this was some kind of stress for the body, it turned out to be an expanding horizons, a very good week.

Or one of the frequent rules of Parabellum - “Do you have time for anything? Take on several times more projects.”

It also works, tested)

I also want to work more actively on the introduction of systematization and the elimination of chaos. There is an excellent book “Systemicity in everything. Universal technology for increasing efficiency» how the author came out of complete chaos, despair and lack of money into a measured and clear life. I read this book once and it made a deep impression on me. But I plan to re-read it again and implement what is described there - everything that we do daily can be disassembled into protocols and improved, improved.

I have a few more books on systemicity on my list. In general, Consistency, Organization of finances, How to learn to learn, Storage and systematization of knowledge, Problem solving are my closest areas of interest to study.

This video by Oscar Hartman is very relevant to my post and expands it, adding additional life hacks from the author:

Share your best life hacks that help you get more done! And I'm very interested, and readers will be very useful!

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Hi friends! The issue of personal effectiveness and organization of one's time is now very relevant for many. Everyone is familiar with the situation when there is not enough time, and we do not know what to do with it. Let's figure out how to get more done in a day and spend your time more efficiently.

Think about how often it happens that you do not have enough time for yourself, for your family or your hobbies and hobbies? Or maybe you don’t even have time to complete the planned tasks?

I will share with you my ways that help me organize my time efficiently and always have time to complete everything that I have in mind.

How to get more done in a day - 5 ways that work

Energize yourself in the morning

Morning exercises will help you with this, yoga is even better, it fills you with energy perfectly, as well as a contrast shower - I already wrote about its benefits in the article “How to recharge your batteries for the whole day”.

Make a plan for the day ahead in the evening

Schedule just a few tasks for the next day that you will definitely complete. It is better to do less, but to do, than grandiose plans that will not be realized. Be sure to write them down in your diary.

Focus on the goal

Always keep your goal in mind throughout the day. If you haven't installed it yet, now is the time to do so. Read more about this in the article "How to set the right goal."

All your actions throughout the day should be dedicated to your goal. Whatever you do, remember her. The goal should serve as your background. Always ask yourself, "Is what I'm doing now bringing me closer to my goal or just further away from it?"

This does not mean that you cannot, for example, rest. Rest also brings you closer to your goal, as it restores strength and energizes you. But if you deprive yourself of the opportunity to rest, you can drive your body to the point of illness, and just this will move you away from your goal.

Don't waste your time

Nothing should distract you from the planned affairs, and, therefore, from your goal. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from accomplishing your goals. Even, for example, going online, think about the goal and the actions that will bring you closer to it. So, instead of looking at pictures on social networks for hours, it’s better to find useful and important information on the issue that interests you.

Do more than planned

If you suddenly have a few free minutes, it’s better to spend them on another, albeit small, additional task that will help achieve your goal. This is exactly what I often do. If everything that was planned for the day, I have already done, I do not think that it is possible to calm down on this. And in the freed 15-20 minutes, I try to have time to do something else.

By putting into practice all these five ways, you will definitely be able to get more done in a day and learn how to use your time more efficiently.

Perhaps you have your own secrets that help you get more done every day. Please share them in the comments.

In the modern world, there is everything, but there is almost no free time. Therefore, if you want to do more in a short time than you can do now, you need to learn only two things: organization and self-discipline. In this article, you'll find 25 top rules to help you get more done in less time.

1. Decide on a goal and focus on the main thing

Without a clear goal, you will constantly wander among the many things that will not only not help you achieve your goal, but rather, on the contrary, will distract from it and take your valuable time.

2. Incentive and motivation

If we like the work, then we do it easily and quickly. Therefore, if you want to do more, find an incentive for yourself in every business. For example, if you finish the report before the end of the working day, then in the evening there will be time for hobbies, communication with family or watching a good movie.

3. Use the 80/20 rule

It doesn't matter how much time you have, what matters is how and what you spend it on. There is a wonderful principle of Pareto, which says that 20% of your efforts bring 80% of the result, and vice versa, 80% of your efforts lead to only 20% of the result. We work effectively no more than 20% of our working day. Therefore, it is important to do the important things first, and then do the rest. The Pareto law also works in everyday life: 80% of the things that we have at home or in the car are practically not used (things that we do not wear, books that we do not read, dishes that we do not use, etc.) . Get rid of excess, freeing up space and energy.

4. Turn off all distractions

It's hard not to react when something clicks under your ear. Therefore, we turn off: the sound of the phone, any notification from social networks, automatic mail checking. And in order not to miss something really important, put an auto-responder on your phone and e-mail, in which you indicate when you can be contacted again.

5. Be decisive

If you have done / said / decided something, then you should not waste time on meaningless thoughts about the correctness of your decision. What's done is done, draw conclusions and move on. Only those who do nothing do not make mistakes.

6. Learn to say "no"

If you want to do a lot during the day, learn to say no. People like to shift their affairs and responsibilities to others. Helping doesn't mean doing someone else's job.

7. Get Things Done

Many people like to put things off for an indefinite period and not finish what they started. The list of such cases tends to accumulate and the burden of unfulfilled and the awareness of how much you still have to do presses on you daily. If you make it a habit not to start a new business until the old one is finished, this will not only stimulate you to finish what you started as soon as possible, but will also teach you not to leave things for later.

8. To do list

Make a list of things that need to be completed and start crossing off what is done from it. Once you're done with your old to-dos, get in the habit of making a to-do list for today, tomorrow, the week, and so on. This will help you be more organized.

9. Do the Important Things First

Make a chart like the one below and write down all your tasks divided into 4 groups: Urgent and Important, Not Urgent but Important, Urgent but Not Important, Not Urgent and Not Important. Of course, do things from the first group first, and you can do things from the last group if you have free time.

10. Keep order

A lot of time is saved when you have things in order, on your desktop and computer. Each thing should have its own place, documents should be systematized, you should not leave work until the workplace is in perfect order. 5 minutes of keeping organized will save you hours in the end, which can be spent looking for the right document or thing.

11. Get rid of pattern thinking

As a rule, our work is monotonous, which is why it is so easy to fall prey to stereotyped thinking. Try to do your job differently, because the usual is not always the best. Perhaps your work can be done faster if you automate it or delegate your responsibilities.

12. Focus on what you are doing

Our mind is so arranged that we think about many things at the same time and as a result, we practically do not know how to concentrate. If you diligently engage in one thing, without being distracted by anything, it is much more efficient both in terms of time and effort expended than if you do several things, jumping from one to another. Multitasking won't help you become more productive.

13. Get to work right away

Many people, before starting work, begin to put things in order in papers or on the table, drink coffee, read social pages, and then they are amazed where the time allotted for work has gone! If you know what to do, immediately get to work, and if you do it quickly, you can drink coffee and look at social networks as a bonus.

14. Make the most of your time

We waste a lot of time, but it could be put to good use. For example, while driving to work, you can listen to an audiobook, while having breakfast, make a plan for the day, and while standing in line, make a shopping list or review notes, crossing off what you have done and adding new tasks for the evening or this week.

15. Track your time

You can save hours of free time by being more selective about the movies and TV shows you watch and the magazines and newspapers you read.

16. Change activities

The body never gets tired as a whole, usually only some muscle groups get tired at the same time. Changing jobs will help you deal with it. For example, if you have been sitting for several hours in a row, switch to a job where you can do something while standing or moving. And vice versa. Practice this method for at least a week and you will see how much more your body can withstand.

17. Start early

It has been noticed that if you come to work half an hour earlier, you can do much more. If you organize your day correctly, you can go to bed with your children, i.e. no later than 10 pm, and get up at 5 am. For 2 hours in the morning, until the children get up, you can do much more than in the evening from 22 to 24, when you are pretty tired at the end of the day.

18. Work when you work

You probably noticed that there are days when the work is “boiling and arguing”, and there are days when you don’t feel like doing absolutely anything. This is normal and should be treated with understanding and calmness. If there is no urgent work, then it is quite possible to afford a day or two of rest.

19. Set your daily routine

We will be much more in time if everything is done on time and at the set time. The daily routine will allow your body to work like clockwork. To do this, carefully plan your day, including meals and sleep. You will fall asleep much faster and wake up more easily if it is at the same time, even on weekends. If you eat at a strictly set time, it will also have a positive effect on your digestion and overall well-being. If you leave work at the same time, it will not give you a reason not to finish the work.

20. Be careful

If you want to save time, listen carefully, write down directions and information, and clarify if necessary. This will help you avoid misunderstandings, repetitions and rework.

21. Get rid of the "eaters" of time

Fortunately or unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day. And no matter what you do, there won't be 25 or 30 of them. So if you really want to have time to do a lot during the day, you need to get rid of those activities that waste your precious time.

22. Go on an information diet

Nowadays, we are constantly exposed to information attacks, our brain practically does not rest: news on TV, gossip of colleagues, work moments, home conversations, etc. As a result, we feel that our head swells from an overabundance of information, we become distracted and sluggish. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Work Week, suggests we go on a "low information" diet.

23. Optimize your work

Think about what takes up a lot of your time. For example, cooking. Now there are multicookers that will perfectly cope with cooking with little or no participation from you. Or let's go shopping. Learn to order and buy things online. This will save you a lot of time, effort and money. When buying products via the Internet, you, firstly, do not buy anything superfluous, but only what is on your list, secondly, you will not waste time going to the supermarket, standing in line, thirdly, you have everything they will bring it into the house, why should you strain yourself once again.

24. Only three tasks a day

Do you want to be more successful? Eat a frog for breakfast - that's what Western time management experts say. To eat a frog means to do something not the most pleasant, but very important in the morning. When this task is done, the rest of the tasks will seem trifling compared to the morning. Plan three important things for today, the first of which will be the “frog”. Having completed three important things, the rest of the things to the best of your ability and ability. Thus, every day will be effective for you, because at least three things have been done!

Steve Pavlina is, of course, a maniac. But it is this frantic workaholic who knows best what time management is and can teach us how to manage to do a lot of things and how to allocate time to do everything. Three life hacks from the most famous and successful expert in self-development and personal effectiveness.

Do not be distructed

If you are doing any creative or mental work, then you must definitely set aside time when you know for sure that you will not be interrupted.

You need a period of time (2-3 hours minimum) without checking mail, chats, websites, phone calls, visitors, colleagues, etc. etc.

Just knowing that no one will interrupt you makes it much easier to get into a workflow where you can do a lot more than usual. Every time something distracts you for a couple of minutes or more, you should know that it will take at least 15 minutes to return to the workflow. A few seemingly insignificant interruptions throughout the day add up to a huge amount of wasted time each month.

When I'm working on a project or writing an article, I don't check my email. If the phone rings, I don't pick up. I lock myself in my office and hang a sticker on the door: "Writing Troll - Go away!"

I have to disconnect from the whole world and create conditions where nothing else exists except the topic that I am writing about. When I get into the flow, then writing an article does not cause any effort. I usually don't even realize what my fingers are typing.

You set your own boundaries, so don't even think about blaming others for your lack of productivity. If other people do not respect your time, you should recognize that this is happening with your tacit consent ... If you use your work time correctly, then you will have much more free time for your personal life.

Keep track of your time

Write down where your time goes. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. Review at the end of the day. If you're like most people, then don't be surprised that 50-75% of your time each day is simply wasted.

You will most likely find that you spend a lot of time on not very important things, you get distracted and switch between tasks very often, and spend a lot of time on the Internet. Even this simple way of measuring your time can boost your productivity.

Divide time into blocks

Timeboxing is a great way to get things done that you would otherwise put off. By using time blocks, you agree to work on a task or project for a fixed amount of time, usually 30 to 90 minutes. 10-15 minutes is fine too.

Usually after 15 minutes, you no longer want to quit what you started.

Timeboxing is a great way to overcome your initial resistance to completing a particular task. You say to yourself, “It's only 30 minutes. It's not so scary. I can do it with no problem if it's only 30 minutes." But then, after 30 minutes, it is much easier to continue working.

You will not always work on a task more than you originally planned. And that's okay. You must give yourself permission to stop. You can always set aside time later to move even further. If you keep working on a task a little at a time, then at some point (hooray!) you will finish it.