Yesterday I crossed two borders, completed three current projects with clients, closed a deal with great prospects, and in the evening I had dinner at home with my soulmate.

I work 25 hours a week, sleep eight hours a day, don't make a schedule, and still manage to get a lot more done than when I was glued to an office desk 60+ hours a week.

I'm far from superhuman. Everything described above is just an illustrative example.

You see, being freelance and self-employed for over a year has taught me some valuable lessons in efficiency and time management.

Below is a list of life hacks that may seem very simple. However, once you really try them out, you will notice that your tasks take less and less time.

1. Take Advantage of the Zeigarnik Effect

The brain has an annoying built-in function to constantly remind you of the things you left unfinished, thus pushing you to finish the task. This is what it is, and it will help you complete the things that you have already begun.

Whether you like the problem you have to solve or not, take at least one tiny step towards it.

Facing a creative block and unable to write? Open an empty file and start typing whatever you like. Need to start planning your wedding? Start by looking for a wedding bouquet. Need to develop a marketing strategy for the company by tomorrow? Record a couple of ideas on video to get started.

In 99% of cases, you will work on the task to the bitter end.

2. Use project management tools (not just work cases)

Our brains don't like complex tasks. When he is faced with some abstract task, say "create a monthly marketing campaign," he immediately becomes discouraged and prefers to do easy habitual things.

That's why it's important to break down every big undertaking into a few simple, tiny, achievable steps.

This is where project management tools become important. You don't want to miss any important steps, right?

There are a myriad of both free and paid personal project management apps. I like the visual approach to management in Casual the most.

What's great about this app is that you can structure information the way it comes to your mind - in relationships rather than linearly. So, instead of drawing a linear step-by-step plan, you can create a detailed picture of a project with several streams of activities happening at the same time or one after the other. (More about mind mapping and tools for it).

In other words, you draw a visual map that allows you to see the entire project at a glance plus helps you take small steps towards your goal.

Here is an example of such a project:

Why this visual approach works great for me (and maybe works for you too):

1. You always know what step should be next, so you don’t even leave yourself a chance to procrastinate.
2. You have a big, clear picture of your goals at a glance.
3. Planning a whole project is as easy as drawing it on paper (which I have done before), and using a plan is much more convenient.
4. If you work in a team, it will always be clear what has already been done and what is being done now. This means fewer errors and missed deadlines.

Other popular tools I've enjoyed using are Basecamp, Podio, and Microsoft Project.

3. Change your habits

Today it is easy to find information on how to keep up with everything you do, but how many of you put these tips into practice? I was on that boat too.

We all have habits, and change them a lot. However, one clever solution to this problem can be found in Charles Duhigg's book "". The author calls it the habit cycle. In short, a habit has three components: a stimulus (the "trigger" that precedes the habitual behavior), a habitual behavior (the actual repetition of the action), and a reward (the external and internal reward you receive for performing the habitual action).

Now the bad news is that you can’t influence irritants in any way. The good news is that you can change habitual behavior.

The solution is to plan what needs to be done in networks and media the night before. Set a specific time for yourself to do it, and do it every day.

This approach is applicable to any stimulus that leads to negative behavior.

Every time you do your new habit, make sure you reward yourself for it. Create a ritual for yourself that will help you anticipate your negative behaviors, such as mindless web surfing, spending money, or eating sweets, and every time you manage to avoid it, reward yourself with something nice.

Repeat for 21 days until the new habit sticks.

About 50 years ago, neuroscientist Nathaniel Kleitman discovered that our body goes from peak to trough every 90 minutes throughout the day. This phenomenon is also known as ultradian rhythm. Simply put, we can only be productive for 90 minutes.

What happens after 90 minutes? We start looking for additional fuel in the form of caffeine, sugary bars, or our own stress hormones: adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol. At this point, we lose focus, stop thinking clearly and see the whole picture.

My day yesterday went like this: I got to the airport and worked in a coffee shop for 90 minutes before boarding (there was no Wi-Fi), watched a movie during the flight and went back to work on the train from Switzerland to France. When I got home, I quickly checked my inbox, had dinner, and worked another 90 minutes.

As a result, in just 4.5 hours, I did most of the work that I would have previously spent an 8-hour work day on.

5. Prioritize to the last

One Pentagon executive summed up this advice brilliantly:

First, I make a list of priorities: first, second, third, and so on. And then I cross out everything below the third.

This is the golden rule for any daily to-do list. Move all tasks after the third one to the next day.

Can't decide which tasks are more important?

1. Consider whether there is a dependency between tasks. Is it possible to take step A without taking step B? If not, then task B is more important. Choose those tasks that affect your future success.
2. Use a decision matrix.

Everything in the upper right corner should be labeled "Do it now". High-impact tasks that are difficult to do should be mixed in with others that are less complex. Tasks with little impact that are easy to do should be delegated.

For me, a super-productive place of work is airports and airplanes. In fact, I tend to take connecting flights more often than direct flights (they are at least $100 cheaper, by the way) and try to get as many things done on days I'm on the road as opposed to when I'm working from home.

Now let me explain.

You have strictly limited hours (before departure or before landing) and limited free Wi-Fi. This means you can work in 90 minute sprints to stay at your peak.

There is nothing to distract you when you are sitting on an airplane: your phone is turned off, and there is only clean, efficient work that needs to be done in a limited time. I often try to recreate a similar environment at home: I turn off the Internet and do my job for 90 minutes without being distracted by anything else.

Let's summarize. Here's a plan to do more and work less:

1. Take the first step in your journey and let the Zeigarnik effect help you complete it.
2. Use project management tools to be clear about what needs to be done and stay focused.
3. Track your irritants and convert them into positive habits.
4. Prioritize and work on the most important tasks.
5. Eliminate everything that distracts you. For example, arrange an "airport day" for yourself.

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 converged again 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, an 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, within the framework 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 improve. 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 websites
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 up circle of friends and groups (this is a very short feed), Instagram is heavily cleaned up 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, there is no 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 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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Hello 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

1. Energize yourself in the morning

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

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

Taking on several things at once is risky, but quite real. And the ability not to lose sight of several aspects at once helps to dramatically save time, and such a grouping of activities develops attentiveness. Therefore, it is useful to train in the “chasing two hares” business from time to time, the main thing is not to abuse it and soberly assess your capabilities.

think and do

The simplest exercise to develop the ability to do several things at once can be conditionally called "think and do." The essence of the exercise is to load the brain not only with this work itself, but also with other thoughts during the performance of any physical work. You can, for example, remember the multiplication table or your favorite poem. Washing dishes and reading poetry, for example, is not so difficult.

When a simple reading of poetry and solving simple mathematical examples in the mind will be obtained, the task should be complicated for the brain. Along with cleaning, which is often done automatically, try to think through plans for tomorrow, look for ways to solve pressing problems, or calculate the expenses for the last month. Such an interweaving of physical work with extraneous thoughts, by the way, helps to quickly cope with routine tasks, and the time for their implementation flies noticeably faster.

think, do, remember

Three things at the same time is also easy to do. So, while a cake is being baked in the kitchen, you can check your email or repair the faucet in the bathroom. And, besides, in parallel, no one forbids mentally calculating the cost of the next repair in the apartment.

The difficulty of the lesson is not to forget about the pie. It turns out that in addition to immersing yourself in thoughts, monitoring the oven and fixing the tap, you will also have to control your internal timer so that the cake does not burn. At first, it is better to start an alarm clock, the sound of which will remind you of the pie. Over time, after 1-2 months of training, it will be quite easy to cope with three or even four things at the same time.

The most difficult thing for the followers of Caesar, who, as you know, could easily do a dozen things at the same time, keep all the cases in memory and not lose sight of anything. To do this, you need to train your memory, which is facilitated by memorizing poetry, reading books and playing musical instruments. Creative people, by the way, get used to saving time more easily by doing various things in parallel.

Lying on the couch, watching TV, cracking nuts, spitting at the ceiling and at the same time being happy, successful, wealthy and contented with life - only cartoon characters can afford this, but no more. The frantic pace of life, a lot of tasks and responsibilities, responsibility, study, work - this is what a modern person has to face every day, especially those who want to reach new heights and better results.

That is why talking about how to keep up with everything will be very helpful. This article will be useful for both a student and a manager, and a mother with children, and a freelancer, and a loader in a warehouse, and a businessman, and even someone who is still in school. Everything you learn about will help you put your affairs and personal life in order, stop being a squirrel in the wheel of endless rush jobs and deadlines, learn how to build your day and even your life so that there is time for everything in it, and you felt full of strength and energy. Let's start!

In general, the question of how to manage to do everything is quite voluminous. Answering it, you can say a lot of interesting things. But we will limit ourselves to three main sections:

• The first section will be devoted to personal time management
• The second section - the daily routine
• The third section is useful tips for everyday use

Lyrical introductions are already redundant here, so let's get down to business right away.

Personal time management

As we have all known for a long time, time is the most valuable resource we have (besides health, of course). But we cannot turn back time, which makes its value increase many times over.

Any person has every right to distribute his time not only as he wants, but also so that there is practical benefit from this. However, some people have time to do all the important things and still leave time for rest and entertainment, while others do not have time to do anything and cannot afford to relax. Why, after all, everyone has 24 hours in a day, and 60 minutes in hours?!

And the answer is trivially simple - people who do not have time to do anything are completely unable (or unwilling) to manage their time. In the literal sense, of course, it will not be possible to manage time, but everyone can learn how to use it rationally (and manage it in this sense). There is even a special discipline for this - time management.

Time management is the accounting and planning of time. In our case (since we are talking about personal time) it is the accounting and planning of our personal precious time resource. Thanks to them, we can structure our working and non-working time with amazing ease. But the even greater magic of time management is that you can work not "out there", but right now - by lining up things for days and weeks in the right order.

Many people think that time management is the prerogative of managers or leaders, but this is not at all the case. It is useful and accessible for development not only at work, but also at home. Time management will help a young mother to keep track of the child and keep herself in great shape (in fact, this applies to people with children in general), he will allow the student to have time to prepare for the session without compromising meetings with friends and romantic dates, he will give the student at school the opportunity to have time to do lessons and play football in the yard.

Simply put, time management will benefit anyone who wants to put their studies, work, life, and even relationships in order; who wants to become more efficient, efficient and successful.

If you want to know how to keep up with everything, you need to understand the main principle of time management. According to him, time should be measured not in minutes and hours, but in events and actions. It is this original perception of time that will give you a sense of the fullness of life and an understanding of how to live with benefit for yourself.

Make it a rule to spend your time and your energy on what you really need: what leads to success, moves towards the goal, pushes the boundaries. We also recommend mastering three useful skills:

• Learn to prioritize (read our articles "" and "")
• Learn how to set goals correctly (you can find out how this is done in our articles "" and "")
• Learn to plan competently (we talked about this in our articles "", "", "" and "")

Well, in conclusion - this is what Brian Tracy, an American motivational speaker, time management guru and self-development expert, thinks about how to do everything.

Schedule

Planning your day is the first step to successful time management. You will not find a single outstanding person, business coach or successful public figure who does not plan his day.

If you are already creating at least some kind of schedule for the coming day, this is commendable. But your task is to learn how to masterfully organize your day, and do it seven days a week. And this does not mean at all that from now on you will become a “slave of the diary”. In fact, you will get rid of multitasking, procrastination, meaningless and leading to nothing.

Deeds, tasks, meetings, plans and goals, of course, it is desirable to fix on paper or, following the trends of our time, in the planner of your favorite gadget. By making notes and constantly referring to them, you will always keep your worries within the reach of attention, and you will not forget anything. In addition, the remaining unfinished business can become unfinished gestalts - things that will not give you rest until you do this.

Another important point in creating a daily routine is the division of cases into more and less important ones. This will help you a lot, which will come in handy at school, at the institute, and at work, and in your personal life. Don't forget to also write down the time when you need to complete a particular task. You will stop thinking about how to manage to do everything, because you will just do everything in order and in due time.

And a few more tips to help you stick to the plan:

• Try to start and end at the same time every day (read about). Get up earlier - start your day more productively and have more time, go to bed at 4 in the morning - sleep until noon or not get enough sleep. What's better? Of course, the first. And if you accustom your body to the regime of an effective person (there is even one), he will thank you with vigor and energy, and you yourself will be able to move mountains!
• Remember: order at home - order in the head, order in the workplace - order in business. Try to keep absolutely everything in order: your home, car, clothes, workspace. Firstly, when all things are in their place, they are easy to find, and secondly, by surrounding yourself with order, you will automatically bring everything you deal with into a system, and this will allow you to better understand the same matters. And, thirdly, putting things in order is a kind of meditation: by cleaning, you stabilize your mental state and organize your thoughts.
• Get rid of as many distractions as possible. TV, social networks, phone conversations in vain - this is good and helps to unwind, but everything should be in moderation. Before you once again devote time to some nonsense, think: is it worth it? Do you really need it? Perhaps there are more important and more interesting things to do?
• Form the right habits. Habits are actions brought to automaticity. You already know how it works - just think about what you do automatically and constantly: tap your fingers on the table, chew on the pen, smoke, etc. Try to "catch yourself", i.e. see what you are doing unconsciously that does not benefit you, and replace it with good habits. For starters, you can learn to do daily.

Healthy habits are important at work, at school, in the family, in society, and in business. So do not waste time and learn new skills that will make you and your life better, teach you how to do everything and become happy.

Well, since we are talking about skills, it's time to move on to life hacks for people who want to learn how to manage their time. By and large, there is nothing so special about them, but, as you yourself have probably noticed more than once, even the most banal things can “switch the toggle switch” if they are presented intelligibly and competently.

Life hacks to increase productivity

Not always the reason for lack of time is the inability to manage this time. Very often, a person simply does not have enough strength to carry out everything planned. Let you have amazing motivation, let you be full of enthusiasm, let your day be scheduled by the minute - but what does it matter if your head is no longer cooking anything, when the brain refuses to serve you faithfully?

So much has already been said about the fact that the life of a modern person is an endless stream of information, a lot of events that end stress. We will not go into lengthy reflections, but simply summarize: our performance tends to zero under the influence of all these factors. And in order to be able to live at all, you need to keep yourself and your health in order.

You probably know that, for example, a little chocolate helps to lift your mood, increase vitality, and improve brain activity. So, eating a chocolate bar is already a life hack - a trick that allows you to become more efficient. But we will not insist on chocolate, but will give a few other tips.

Take breaks

Thinking about how to do everything, many people begin to work tirelessly. But this is fundamentally wrong, because the brain (and the body in general) overworks and performance decreases. Therefore, while working during the day, be sure to take breaks. Set aside some rest time to allow your brain to rest, recover and return to normal. Neglect of rest can knock anyone down, and even lead to serious illnesses. Don't forget about it.

Rest productively

A logical continuation of the previous point: spend your leisure time so that thoughts about work recede into the background. Do you know the saying: “when you come to work, leave household problems at home”? Similarly, here: during non-working hours, disconnect from work worries. Watch movies, listen to music, play with your child, go for a walk, do housework, but just leave work alone - it will not run away anywhere. Otherwise, you will not be able to relax even for two weeks of vacation, because. the brain simply will not relax, which means that you yourself will not rest.

sleep enough

And again about the rest - sleep as much as you should - about 7-8 hours a day. This time is optimal for proper rest and recuperation. Of course, it can be problematic for the same young mother with children, a student before a session or an eternally busy businessman, but "beauty requires sacrifice." How to manage to do everything - sleep well. In addition, the morning, as they say, is wiser than the evenings, and when you wake up, you can look at everything with a fresh head, including understanding when and what is best to do on this day.

Eat Right

Another component of the lifestyle of a productive person who always has enough time for everything is proper nutrition. The body must receive the necessary amount of vitamins, minerals and trace elements to ensure its stable life. The brain "loves" potatoes, legumes, nuts, sugar and starch in acceptable norms (in general, we have an article "" and even a whole course ""). Here we will say that you should not abuse food - overeat, but you can eat in different ways, and if you are very interested, read about. Having provided your body with all the necessary resources, you will be able to remain cheerful and active throughout the day, and how to keep up with everything will cease to be a problem for you.

To improve the functioning of the brain and, accordingly, to become a more productive and all-successful person, it can be advised to resort to aromatherapy and color therapy from time to time. In the first case, you simply buy yourself an aroma lamp and several types of essential oils that stimulate brain activity and intellectual activity, for example, oils of eucalyptus, lemon, basil, lavender, jasmine, rosemary or peppermint. In the second case, it is recommended to look at a certain color for several minutes during the day: red helps to cheer up, orange stimulates the production of hormones of joy, yellow increases efficiency and perseverance, green gives optimism, blue activates thought processes, blue cures addictions, and purple has a positive effect on thoughts and feelings. emotions.

Work physically

If you really want to find time for everything, then include in this "everything" and physical activity - an integral part of the life of any productive person. You can’t work with your head all the time, and sometimes you need to work with your hands. Why are there arms - legs, shoulders and, in general, the whole body. Charging in the morning, training in the evening, installation work on weekends, football, hockey, boxing, tennis - any physical activity will benefit. It improves blood circulation and metabolism, restores old neural connections and creates new ones, kneads joints and prevents the accumulation of salts and other harmful substances in the body, including toxins. And during working hours, you can do or give yourself a head massage.

read books

Spend some time every day reading useful and interesting books. It is best to give yourself at least 30 minutes for this activity. While reading, a person is distracted, rests, increases the efficiency of his brain. If you want to understand even better how to keep up with everything, you can find (buy or download) books on this topic. In addition, reading contributes to better concentration, the development of imagination, analytical and imaginative thinking, broadening one's horizons, self-development and personal growth. It's not difficult to set aside half an hour for a book, and if you include it in your to-do list, it will show one more completed task, and you will be happy with yourself again.

Cut off the excess

Above, we almost all the time talked about useful things, including good habits, but said very little about bad ones. We're fixing it. Bad habits, especially those that cause addiction, are not only often detrimental to health, but also take the lion's share of time. Because of this, the amount of work that we could do is reduced, efficiency is reduced, and attention is defocused. One thing clings to the other, and instead of doing some important business, we go to the smoking room, run to the coffee machine, quietly chew the bun. If you don’t want to harm your health and at the same time do more, give up bad habits and devote more time to useful ones.

Calculate the forces

In order to do more, do not try to embrace the immensity, i.e. do not take on so many tasks that you cannot handle, otherwise you will face the Everest of tasks that you will never climb even with the help of hundreds of Sherpas. Any workflow should also be optimized: follow the plan, do not get distracted, let everything you need always be available. Look for ways to reduce time spent on simple tasks and routine activities. Beware of the accumulation of unfinished tasks - do everything on time, do not put it off for later. If needed, don't be shy, don't be ashamed, and don't be afraid to ask for help. Help is good in almost any business. Delegate authority whenever possible.

Use Gadgets

Modern mobile devices do not exist just to scroll through Instagram, take selfies and play Fruit Ninja. Laptops, tablets, smartphones, iPhones have many functions designed to serve the benefit of a person. Multifunctional calendars, task planners, reminders, alarm clocks, e-readers, etc. There are also a lot of cool applications that allow you to solve the problem of how to manage to do everything. Among them are Clear, Rescue Time, Wunderlist, Clara, Workflow, Trello, Timely, Pocket and others. So do not turn your gadget into a tool for “sticking”, better make it an assistant, because it will help a student in learning, a student in the classroom, a person with children, etc. Just think about how you can use the same smartphone wisely, and a bunch of ideas will come to your mind.

Reward yourself

Motivation is the engine, but sometimes a person is exhausted from the fact that his actions do not give feedback. Well, what does it mean to cross things off your list every day? What is a small step towards the goal that you decided to realize only in a year? Endless things can suck all the energy out of you if you don't see progress. To motivate yourself, when you feel like you're losing motivation, reward yourself. Give yourself small gifts. Done all the things for a day early - go to the cinema, “without jambs” worked for a week and managed to do everything - go to the store and buy yourself a new cool jacket or boots that you have long wanted, passed the session - go snowboarding! You can think of anything - there would be a desire. The main thing is to understand why you are doing something at all. Look for what inspires you and strive for it. Any work can bring joy and pleasure if you know how to ignite yourself in order to keep moving.

In fact, it is not so much important how to do everything, but what for the sake of doing it. Your own goals are your motivation. By any means, remind yourself what you want to come to, in what, for which you are ready to get up at six in the morning and, headlong, run to study, work, act, achieve. Learn to give up everything unnecessary and be sure, be sure to evaluate your every day. Only you can help yourself learn to do whatever you need to. We just show one of the paths, and it's up to you whether to follow it or not.

And finally, watch this interesting and very easy video about increasing personal productivity.