How to prioritize your work? Clear prioritization as the main success factor

Ask yourself a question - what do you really want in life? You can even write down your desires on a piece of paper, then analyze them. Desires may be different, but one thing unites them - having achieved your goals, you will feel truly happy.

It is happiness that is the main goal of any person - even if he himself is not aware of this. Therefore, prioritizing in life must take this point into account. If what you are doing now is not bringing you closer to happiness, something needs to change in your life.

This point is very important. The road to happiness is difficult, and there is not much time. Therefore, every step should lead to your goal. Everything that takes you away from your chosen path, away from your goal, must be discarded. Or at least relegated to the background.

Interests of other people

For many people, the most important priorities in their lives are the happiness, health and well-being of loved ones. At a minimum, many will say that this is exactly the case for them. However, this is a mistake. Yes, people should take care of their parents, brothers and sisters, children. They must be ready, if necessary, to give their lives for them. At the same time, you need to understand that even the people closest to you cannot and do not have the right to deprive you of your dream - whatever it may be.

A person can live for others - if this is his path, his choice. If it makes him happy. But if, due to a sense of duty and responsibility, a person deprives himself of his dreams, this is already wrong. People come into this world to become happy. To deprive yourself of happiness means to live your life in vain.

That is why do not allow anyone, including people close to you, to manipulate you. You have your own goals, your own path. Help your loved ones, take care of them. But don't let them rob you of your dreams.

Prioritization

Some people have many items on their priority list. This is wrong - you cannot embrace the immensity. If you have made such a list, cross out everything from it except the three most important items. It's up to you to decide which items to leave. But there should not be more than three. It is on these three priority goals that you focus all your attention.

Why only three points and not more? Because these are the realities - a person cannot effectively work on more than three tasks at the same time. If there are more of them, the efficiency of work drops sharply, and as a result, it is not possible to achieve a good result anywhere. Therefore, something will have to be sacrificed. Learn to discard the unnecessary for the sake of the main thing.

Changing priorities

It is important to note that priorities may change over time. This is normal - as a person grows up, his values ​​change. At the same time, a change of priorities, if it occurs, must be evolutionary in nature and correspond to the spiritual growth of a person. And it’s very bad when a person simply rushes through life, not knowing what he really wants. In this case, you need to go back to the very beginning and ask yourself: what do I need to be happy?

Never forget about happiness. You can acquire a huge fortune and still be a deeply unhappy person. Money gives opportunity, but it cannot replace happiness. Therefore, consider them as a tool, nothing more. Don’t chase prestige, career, fashion – look for your own path. The one where you will feel inspired, full of strength and energy. If you greet every new day with joy, if you clearly see the goal and go towards it, no matter what, then you have set your priorities correctly and are on the right path.

The recipe for madness is quite simple: divide your attention between several things and be in constant voltage from accumulated tasks. This is how the sense of control is lost, which has a detrimental effect on physical and mental health. What should you do to avoid being crushed by the rubble of unfinished business? One of the most the best ways- learn to prioritize.

This is an important skill because without it we tend to take the path of least resistance. The most difficult, important, unpleasant things are relegated to the background. In the meantime, we are doing something fun and easy. This leads to extreme stress in the end: a drop in self-esteem, loss of self-esteem, awareness of wasted time.

There is a high probability that you are involved in many areas during the day: health, education, work, family. And this is not to mention the fact that you want to have at least a little fun. And when there is a lot to do, the most difficult, but also important, thing is to understand what to do first.

Exploring your life

Before setting priorities, you need to gain control over the situation and time, and for this you need to find out what is happening in life.

How have you been spending your time over the last month?

To change your attitude towards time, you need to evaluate it. Write down everything you've done in recent weeks.

How much time do you devote to each area of ​​your life? The answer to this question will help you understand what your priorities are right now.

Think about the most important areas of your life: career, relationships, personal development, finances, family.

Examine those areas that you rated from 8 to 10. If there are gaps of 2 or more points between the importance of an area and satisfaction with it, this indicates a poor balance. You are wasting your time on the wrong things.

Set new priorities to do more important things.

Third step: find out what actions, actions and tasks are missing in your life. Write down what comes to mind when you read the following questions:

• What is the most important thing in my life right now?
• Which area would I like to spend more time on?
• Where should I spend less time?
• What areas need my attention now? (e.g. health, family, finances)

Write down your actions in the order that is most important. It's your new list priorities.

Let's take a closer look at this step.

How to prioritize

Method one: after a year

Let's say you have three possible ways developments in life, you can only go one at a time. How can you make the right decision?

When faced with a difficult choice, imagine your life 12 months from now. You are a year older, have achieved some of your goals and are looking back on today. Detach yourself from the present with all its worries and problems. What did you do? What went wrong and what worked? What activities helped you achieve your most important goals faster?

Simple step by step process this method:

• Imagine yourself and your life in a year.
• Think about how you achieved all your goals.
• Create a to-do list that will lead to this.

Imagining yourself in a year (five, ten years), you can look at your life from a completely different perspective. You'll be more likely to figure out what works and what doesn't. Using this information, you can change your priorities and choose more effective options.

Method Two: Reverse Thinking

Typically, when prioritizing, you'll be faced with a to-do list and try to figure out which is more important. But not with the Reverse Thinking method.

You need to start with the task that you consider to be your top priority. For example, complete a project by the end of the day. So priority #1 is to complete the project. To make sure that this task is truly the most important, start comparing it with others that are on the main list.

Let's say priority #2: review all business metrics and adjust the schedule if necessary.

When thinking about the long-term rewards and impact of each activity, compare them possible results and make sure that priority #1 is actually more important than #2. For example, the entire company's job and your bonus depend on whether you complete a project. Thus, by figuring out what is less important to you, you can determine what is more important.

Method Three: Balanced Scorecard

This method (Balanced Scorecard) is mentioned in 4,000 books presented on the Amazon website. This at least indicates that it is worthy of attention.

The biggest advantage of this method is its ability to identify the actions and goals that bring the most value in several areas. If you don't know which task provides the most significant benefit on multiple levels, take out a pen and paper and write down the following. But first, think about your goals and expected results. Set realistic expectations based on your skill set and the amount of time available.

Step one: state your goals.

Find out what really matters to success. Make a list of goals and expected results that you would like to achieve by the end of the day, week or month.

For example, as a project manager, you may be interested in the following goals: complete projects A and B, increase productivity, increase monthly income.

Step two: outline all your tasks.

To find the tasks with the highest value, you first need to identify all your priorities. Create a table with the goals and objectives that fall under each activity.

Goal: Complete Project A. Activity: Meet with the team, create an action plan for them, track the results of their work.

Goal: increase productivity. Activities: improve your schedule, meet with your team and familiarize them with it, remove unnecessary tasks or outsource the least important ones, analyze which tasks take the most time.

Step Three: Create a Balanced Scorecard for Priorities.

If you have four main goals, draw four intersecting circles and write the name of your goals in each. Then evaluate which actions result in duplicative benefits—that is, they help achieve multiple goals at the same time.

For example, a meeting with a client can lead to faster progress on a project and increased monthly income. Analyzing your team's work leads to increased productivity and faster completion of projects.

“Two birds with one stone” - this expression suits this method perfectly. Apply it to all areas of your life and you will see that one task can affect several of them. The more thoughtfully you analyze, the more accurately you will set your priorities.

Method four: Covey matrix

You've probably already heard and read about it, but you can't help but include it on our list: this method is too good. It helps in setting priorities and reducing stress levels. When you realize that you are doing everything right, the tension goes away.

Famous writer personal growth Stephen Covey suggested dividing a piece of paper into four sections, drawing a line across and a line from top to bottom. Think about what activities you do in Lately and place them in one of four quadrants:

• Important and urgent.
• Important and not urgent.
• Unimportant and urgent.
• Unimportant and not urgent.

You should keep most of your tasks in the “important and not urgent” quadrant and prevent them from moving into “important and urgent”. And the unimportant, urgent and not urgent must be strictly filtered, and many things must be abandoned.

The simple idea that the Covey matrix leads us to is that in important matters we must not allow blockages and rush jobs. This is fraught with errors, omissions, conflicts and can have a negative impact on life. Analyze your life: what important things will become urgent very soon? The list can contain dozens of different things. This is what is needed and what should be started now.

Method five: ABCDE

Motivational speaker Brian Tracy loves simple and effective techniques. His main credo: think, plan and work faster. He uses this approach in his strategy called ABCDE.

Here's how it works: write down on a piece of paper all the things you need to accomplish in the next month. This alone will help you feel relieved, because seeing a list of goals in front of you means removing the fog from your head.

Tasks A are the most important.

These are the most important matters that have significant consequences for your destiny. They may not be particularly pleasant, but they must be completed - and the sooner the better.

If you do not complete these tasks, you will lose money, health, a loved one, maybe even your life. In Tracy's own words, these are “frogs” that need to be eaten. These are the things that should be done first.

If you have many A tasks, you need to divide them by priority. Now the most important thing will look like A-1, the second most important thing is A-2, then A-3, etc.

TasksB have smaller consequences.

Performing Type B tasks also has minor consequences. Can they be sacrificed? It all depends on the situation. For example, if you have task A, but this moment you can’t do it, immediately get to work on B. And vice versa, you shouldn’t engage in procrastination and self-deception if task A can be completed now.

If you have an unfinished project that will affect your destiny, then you should not clean up until it is completed.

Tasks C have no consequences.

Type C tasks are things that would be nice to do, but that have no consequences whether you do them or not. For example: calling a friend. Such activities do not affect your life in any way.

You cannot perform tasks of type C if A or B remains.

TasksD can be delegated to someone.

Tasks D can be safely delegated to someone else. This helps free up more time for tasks A.

A simple example: invite a cleaner instead of tidying up yourself.

TasksE needs to be removed from the to-do list.

Problems of type E are not problems at all. Gossip, video games, social networks, aimless surfing - all that does not affect your life in any way and that you should not waste time on if you have more important tasks. They can be replaced with type C - instead of social networks, call a friend.

Make a list of important things to do.

This is a very useful practice. You need to make two lists.

First: cases that represent the big picture. For example, studying in English, reading three books on communicating with people and implementing tips in life, creating a startup.

Second: what you need to do every day. These could be repetitive activities: exercise, reading, meditation.

It is important to break down the things on the first list into their components and start doing them. At the same time, make sure that the tasks from the second list are also completed. Balance is what will allow you to live a full life.

Find out what your core values ​​and principles are.

Values ​​and principles are the rules by which people live. They are especially useful when you are faced with a difficult life situation. For example, to act honestly or dishonestly in business? Your moral principles will help answer this question.

Principles and values ​​are also good because they allow you to look at the big picture. Sometimes we are so focused on details that we don’t understand what we are doing and why.

Find out what your most time-consuming habits are.

Almost every person does something that sucks time. He has an excuse: I worked hard, and now I’m resting. But is spending time on social networks a vacation? This habit causes stress to many people.

Make a list of time wasters. Find out how many hours they take up each day. How about a week? This valuable time can be spent on something more important. For example, for type A problems according to Brian Tracy's method.

Find goals for your priorities.

If you have a goal tied to a priority, then working towards it will be much easier. What is the difference? For example, your priority might be to interact with people because you are shy. And the goal could be reading books on, attending events, meeting a certain person.

Use reminders.

This is perhaps the most effective advice to take immediately after you have set your priorities. It allows you to stick to them and not forget about them. After all, how often have you tried to introduce something into your life and gradually forgot about it? We started running every day, after a week we were already running 3 days a week, and after a month we were lying on the couch and thinking, what kind of running is this, are you already so tired?

Remind yourself every day of what your priorities are. A set of multi-colored stickers costs a penny, but can bring invaluable benefits. Post them around your apartment, use reminders on your phone or laptop, bombard your psyche with this information and don’t let yourself forget about it.

Books

Prioritization is a process that requires the development of many skills. You need to learn the art of making lists and much more. Here is a list of books that will be useful at the start:

• "On the Limit" by Eric Bertrand Larssen.
• "Effective Time Management" Brian Tracy.
• "The Book of Self-Power" by Tony Robbins.
• “Power is limitless. How to Achieve Personal Achievement by Tony Robbins.
• “What will you choose?” Tal Ben-Shahar.
• "Don't Distract Me" Edward Hallowell.
• "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
• "To hell with all of it! Go ahead and do it." Richard Branson.

We wish you good luck!

Working successfully means performing the required tasks accurately and efficiently. Decision making involves choosing priority tasks and activities, i.e. establishing goal-oriented and clear priorities.

Successful managers are distinguished, among other things, by the fact that, while they manage to solve many different issues during the working day, for a certain time they are busy with only one, single task. They always do only one thing at a time, but consistently and purposefully. The prerequisites for this are making an unambiguous decision about the priority of important matters, drawing up and observing an appropriate list of priorities.

To illustrate this fundamental, yet often overlooked, interdependence, there is a well-known story called “The $25,000 Advice.”

The president of the Bethlem Steel company set before his consultant entrepreneurial activity an unusual task: to show him the possibility of a better use of time, promising that if this succeeds, he will pay any reasonable fee. In response, the consultant offered the president a piece of paper and asked him to make a list of the most important things that he had to do the next day, numbering them in order of importance. He then advised me to start my work day the next day by solving problem No. 1 and work on it until it is completed. Then recheck the established priorities again and begin solving task No. 2, not giving up until it is completed. Then move on to task No. 3, etc. The consultant noted that even if the entire daily plan is not completed, this is not a tragedy. At the end of the day, at least the most important tasks will be completed and time will not be wasted on tasks of lesser importance. The key to success is to do the following every day: recheck the relative importance of upcoming tasks, decide on priorities, make a list of them, reflect it in your daily plan, and stick to it. This procedure should become a habit of every working day.

The consultant said the president could test the system for as long as he saw fit, and if he was convinced of its value, he could “pass it on” to his staff. If the President is satisfied, then let him write a check for the amount he thinks the system is worth. A few weeks later, the president sent the consultant a check for $25,000. He later said that this lecture he heard was the most rewarding thing he had learned during his professional career.

Prioritizing tasks means deciding which tasks should be given primary, secondary, etc. importance. Prioritization is such a taken-for-granted activity that it is often not done systematically or even consciously. It follows that you need to consciously set clear priorities, consistently and systematically carry out the tasks included in the plan, in accordance with their priority.

Thanks to the regular compilation of a “table of ranks” of upcoming tasks, you can:

Work only on truly important and necessary tasks;

Resolve issues according to their urgency;

Concentrate on completing only one task;

Be more focused on getting started and meeting deadlines;

The best way to achieve your goals under given circumstances;

Eliminate tasks that can be done by others;

At the end of the planning period (for example, a working day), have time to resolve at least the most important issues;

Do not leave unfinished tasks that you really can complete.

The positive consequences of this approach are as follows:

Active regulation of the labor process (self-management);

Eliminate unnecessary conflicts of your goals;

Avoiding conflicts with subordinates, colleagues and supervisors;

There is no need to “redo” what has already been done;

Avoiding unnecessary stress.

Let's consider various criteria and methods, guided by which you can determine the order of the most important tasks.

Pareto's principle general view states that within a given group or set, individual small parts exhibit much greater significance than corresponds to their relative specific weight in this group. The principle, which was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), has repeatedly received confirmation in practice in the most various fields. Thus, American engineers, using the Pareto principle in inventory, discovered that 20% of inventories usually account for 80% of the cost of the inventory being surveyed. The concentration of control precisely on these “vital” elements led to results that far exceeded previously used inventory methods in terms of cost savings. Other examples from business practice confirm that:

20% of customers (products) provide 80% of turnover or profit;

80% of customers (products) bring 20% ​​of turnover or profit;

20% of errors cause 80% of losses;

80% of errors cause 20% of losses;

20% of the initial products determine 80% of the cost of the finished product;

80% of the initial products determine 20% of the cost of the finished product.

Therefore, in connection with the Pareto principle, they also talk about the “80:20 ratio”. Transferring this pattern to the manager’s work situation (Fig. 8) means that in the process of work, 80% of the results (output) are achieved in the first 20% of the time spent (costs). The remaining 80% of the time spent brings only 20% of the total result.

Rice. 8. Pareto principle

In everyday work, this means not taking on the easiest, most interesting, or least time-consuming tasks first. It is necessary to approach questions in accordance with their meaning and importance. First - a few “vitally important” problems, and only then - numerous “minor” ones.

What really matters? Richard Koch, author of a book on the 80:20 principle, answers this question this way: “Only a few things are truly important to us. Most of our cases are not like that.” Most of the things we do are often a waste of time. They have virtually no effect on the final result. Of course, it’s good if such a waste of time is enjoyable. However, as practice shows, 80% of cases do not fall into this category. According to the Pareto principle, 80% of our time brings only 20% satisfaction. Often people are unable to identify the things that are truly important to them. This comes from the fact that most of us are immersed in dealing with urgent problems. 80% of the things we do are imposed on us by other people. “If we learn to see the difference between the important and the unimportant in all areas of our lives, we will multiply that amazing world, which lies before us,” writes Richard Koch. Everything will increase: money, success, happiness and time for relaxation. The main thing is that we do not fall into the pits that Pareto wrote about in his time.

Pareto pits that steal 80% of the time

Most of what other people expect from us.

Work that must always be done in a certain way.

Something we are not very good at.

Something that doesn't give us pleasure.

Activities during which we are often interrupted.

Something that is not interesting to most of the people we need.

Anything that lasts longer than planned in advance.

Any task that we are forced to perform together with incompetent and unreliable people.

Things that take up a lot of our time and do not bring any positive results.

Useless phone calls.

You should constantly ask yourself the question: where are the 20% that total 80? As a rule, these are those things and tasks that we cope well with, which give us pleasure, and which are useful both for us and for those around us. If such matters come into view, you should immediately begin to implement them.

You should try to delegate all other tasks to your employees. Otherwise, after doing hard work and exhausting yourself, you will achieve very modest results. It is not necessary to constantly strain all your strength while working. You just need to do the right things correctly.

The consistent application of the Pareto principle is concretized if all tasks are analyzed in accordance with their share in the final result and then distributed into categories.

One of the main problems of many people is the constant desire to do too much at once and waste energy on solving many problems. At the end of a busy, busy workday, in most cases it turns out that although a lot of work has been done, important things remain undone or have not been completed. People who achieve success are distinguished by the fact that they perform many different things, devoting themselves to performing only one, separate task for a certain time. They always start and finish only one thing, but persistently and purposefully. A prerequisite for this is setting clear, unambiguous priorities and focusing your attention and efforts on them.

The ABC analysis technique (Fig. 9) is based on existing experience, according to which the percentage shares of more important and less important cases in the total number remain generally unchanged. Using the letters A, B and C, individual tasks are divided into three classes according to their importance in terms of achieving professional and personal goals. ABC analysis is a systematic time planning tool that helps you learn to prioritize consistently. Any task should be assessed according to the degree of its importance and urgency, guided by the following categories: A - important and urgent; B - important, but not urgent; C - urgent, but not important, so it should be D - transferred to someone or E - postponed.

Rice. 9. ABC analysis

ABC analysis complements systematic planning and helps improve work practices. Time should be planned according to the meaning and importance of tasks, and not their relative weight in the total number of tasks. ABC analysis is based on the following three patterns, confirmed by experience:

According to the conclusions of the ABC analysis, it is recommended, first of all, to take on the most important, i.e., those that bring the greatest result, cases A, in order to ensure the majority of the overall effect with the help of a few actions. The next most important tasks, B, also account for a significant part of the total result, while completing a relatively large number of less important tasks overall produces a small result.

Table 11

Task importance matrix

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In the “Necessary” square, you should enter those things that can be equally called important and urgent. These can be a variety of tasks that we must do at all costs. Here you can safely include a visit to the doctor, car repairs, an unfinished project, advertising campaigns and a showdown with your spouse. If you miss the time to solve important and urgent tasks, they will gradually turn into “ powder kegs” and will become a real problem. Many important things can become urgent after some time due to the fact that we put them off “for later.” For example, many people willingly postpone the solution to family problems indefinitely, and, as experience shows, nothing good comes of this.

The category of “Qualitatively important tasks” includes important, but not urgent tasks. However, it is this square that helps us move further in realizing our life goals. Important tasks are those whose completion is postponed further and further in time until they begin to “hit you over the head.” All important matters that, due to forgetfulness, are not included in this square will soon certainly appear in the “Necessary” square. But in this case, their implementation may be accompanied by very negative side effects, stressful conditions or even life crises.

It’s not for nothing that the “Deceptive Maneuvers” square bears this name. The fact is that many things that seem important and urgent to us, upon closer examination, turn out to be mostly only urgent (and mainly for those around us). Many people spend their entire lives dealing with such urgent matters and only then realize that in their frantic rush they have completely lost sight of the really important tasks. Many calls and negotiations during the day fall into this category of urgent matters. Other tasks, often willingly delegated to us by other people, are also just deceptive maneuvers on the way to achieving our goals. This square is necessary in order to clearly define our position in the social and work environment and correctly assess the expectations and hopes that others place on us.

A “waste” of the precious time of our lives can be safely called all those things that do not meet the requirements of either importance or urgency. People often make mistakes and waste their time, not noticing the truly important tasks facing them.

You can spend the whole day in a flurry of activity, but at the end of the day you leave your workplace with a feeling of deep dissatisfaction. Just don’t confuse consciously doing nothing with performing useless tasks, since the first brings real relaxation, and the second completely deprives us of vital energy.

Application of ABC Analysis

Analysis of problems using the ABC method can be carried out as follows.

1. Make a list of all upcoming tasks in the appropriate period of time (decade, day, etc.), for which you can use the form below.

Sheet for recording tasks and monitoring their implementation

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2. Systematize tasks according to their importance, establish the order of tasks in accordance with their significance for the activity. We must not forget that urgency fundamentally has nothing to do with the importance or significance of the corresponding task.

The first 15% of all tasks classified as category A (very important, having the greatest significance for the performance of professional functions) are not subject to reassignment. They should be processed first. A-tasks have an absolute advantage in time management. They thereby achieve high efficiency (about 65% of output).

The next 20% of tasks are category B (important, significant, can be delegated to other persons for execution). Here you should consider which tasks you can complete yourself and which you can delegate. In no case should tasks A be neglected to complete tasks B.

The remaining 65% of all tasks are category C tasks (less important, insignificant, in other words, routine, in any case should be delegated). Often, C tasks are completed by themselves. You must always remember that urgency is inferior to importance.

4. ABC analysis works best in practice if:

Plan to solve only 1-2 problems of category “A” per day (about 3 hours);

It is planned to perform 2-3 tasks of category B (in total about 1 hour);

The remaining time is reserved for tasks of category C (about 3-4 hours).

Thus, you can manage your work process, concentrating your energy and attention on the most important matters, and thereby achieving inner harmony and peace of mind. However, many people prefer to do things differently: they only do things right (activity orientation), instead of doing the right, i.e. necessary things (goal orientation).

5. Make appropriate adjustments, focusing the time plan on tasks A, thereby automatically ensuring that less important, but time-consuming tasks B are allocated as much time as corresponds to their importance.

6. Evaluate tasks B and C from the point of view of the possibility of their delegation, also paying attention to the fact that tasks of category C are not, in principle, unnecessary or redundant. It's about that along with tasks A and B, there are many preliminary works, side tasks and routine tasks that also need to be completed.

An important task rarely needs to be completed immediately or in the near future, while an urgent task needs to be done right away. We must learn to free ourselves from the tyranny of haste, i.e. do not allow important matters to become urgent and try to delegate urgent but less important matters personally. Making decisions about priorities, as well as the process of setting goals, is a highly individual process, since all assessments of the situation are ultimately subjective.

The degree of priority can be debated; objective criteria are rarely found here. What is important, however, is that clear priorities are established and these decisions can only be based on facts. Self-management assumes that the manager can independently determine the tasks to be solved and the time for their solution.

Auxiliary criteria for making decisions on tasks A

The following questions will help facilitate the decision-making process when planning and identifying Category A tasks:

By completing what tasks can you come closest to achieving your main goals (goals of the year, month, week, day)?

Is it possible to solve several others at once by completing one single task?

By performing what tasks can you make the maximum contribution to achieving the overall goals of the enterprise, department, working group etc.?

What tasks will bring greatest benefit(short and long term), greatest monetary reward?

Failure to complete what tasks can have the most negative consequences?

Setting priorities is the basic rule effective technology work. Realizing that not everything can and should not be done, you should set priorities and start with the most important things.

Instead of having time for what really matters, we often spend our energy on urgent but less important things. It rarely happens that an important task needs to be completed today or this week, while an urgent task, as a rule, is sought to be completed immediately. Ask yourself: are you used to rushing from one urgent task to another? Are really important tasks left unfulfilled as a result? The rule proposed by American General Dwight Eisenhower (Fig. 10) is a simple auxiliary tool, especially for those cases when you need to quickly decide which task to give preference to. According to this rule, priorities are set based on criteria such as urgency and importance of the matter.

Rice. 10. Eisenhower Rule

Depending on the urgency and importance of the task, there are four options for assessing and (eventually) completing them:

1. Urgent/important matters. You should take them on immediately and carry them out yourself.

2. Urgent/less important matters. There is a danger here of falling under the “tyranny” of haste and, as a result, completely dedicating yourself to solving a specific task because it is urgent. If, however, it is not so important, it should in any case be delegated, since no special qualities are required to perform it.

3. Less urgent/important tasks. They do not need to be done urgently; they can usually wait. The difficulty is that sooner or later they turn into urgent ones and must be resolved by you personally as soon as possible. Therefore, it is recommended to double-check the degree of importance and try to assign tasks of this type, fully or partially, to subordinates. Along with your own relief, this helps to increase motivation in work and the qualifications of subordinates.

4. Less urgent/less important tasks. Very often, matters in this category end up on a desk already littered with papers. If you start doing these things, forgetting about the tasks of the first category, then you don’t need to complain about being overloaded with work. Even subordinates should not be assigned to the tasks of this group. You should refrain from non-essential and non-urgent tasks! It’s better to have courage and resort to the waste paper basket more often (the “Trash” object is shown in the diagram).

Consistently organizing your tasks into categories in accordance with the Eisenhower principle will significantly increase productivity (productivity, effectiveness):

You start with most important tasks and concentrate exclusively on them;

You free yourself up for really important leadership functions and motivate the work of your subordinates;

You involve your employees in your area of ​​responsibility, entrusting them with not only less important (routine) tasks;

You can increase your demands on your subordinates and reward those who have the appropriate abilities.

Mountains of papers on the desktop, unmade decisions, uncompleted tasks - all this sometimes blocks our Creative skills, causes nervous yawning and slows down our work and life rhythm. In order to get out of this painful state, you need to master one simple method- start doing something immediately. We often push many tasks to the indefinite future, forgetting that even small and insignificant tasks accumulate over time. As a result, one day we find ourselves faced with mountains of tasks that we have neither the strength nor the energy to complete. This applies to ironing clothes, calling a friend, booking a vacation package, and much more. How to avoid this? You need to make your motto the expression: “If not now, then when?” Instead of putting things off until later, do them now.

The completed task looks much better than the one planned in the diary. Having completed the work, a person feels a sense of satisfaction from what he has done. He is warmed by the thought that he has his time under control and does everything on time.

Advantages of the direct principle:

When you complete a task you just received, you do it faster because the solution to the problem is in your head and you don’t have to return to the same topic twice;

You control the number of tasks (if we put things off until later, they accumulate). An immediate solution to the problem requires minimal costs. This applies to both ironing clothes and sending a business letter;

You don't forget anything (it is impossible to forget something that you settle immediately). By doing so, you simultaneously increase your reliability and confidence;

You clear your horizon (completed tasks no longer clutter up your desktop or block your thought processes);

Your head remains free (small things like making a phone call, answering an email, etc. are small barriers that block our creative thoughts). Destroy these partitions. Instead of putting things off until later, do them now.

Direct principle in action

Following the direct principle does not mean “jumping” on any job as soon as it comes into view. On the contrary, you must first carefully analyze and evaluate the task received, and only then take on its implementation:

Settle it right away

Refuse immediately

Plan now

Delegate immediately

Decide immediately how, when and who can do the job best. You need to try to ensure that each task passes through your hands only once and does not return to you again.

3 minute job

Get to work immediately, which takes no more than three minutes to complete. For example, respond to incoming emails immediately. After writing a response letter, send it to e-mail or by fax. This will not take you away from important matters, but it will save time and effort.

Immediately write down everything you want to do the next day in your diary. Write down all the tasks that you are going to complete in the coming weeks.

In one go: combine tasks that follow the same pattern. Having done this, you will no longer have to “jump” from one task to another, wasting your nerves and energy.

Write everything down immediately

The path to success is unthinkable without notes. Notebooks and diaries help us not to lose sight of anything. When in doubt, we can always consult our notes, find out when we need to make a phone call, meet with a client, or show up for a meeting.

Decide immediately

Make a decision quickly and regardless of whether your partner asks you to close friend dedicate a Sunday evening to it, whether your colleague has approached you asking you to help him solve a difficult problem, or the children start asking you to take them to the zoo on Sunday. Make it a habit to immediately answer questions asked of you. If you cannot satisfy a person’s request immediately, set another time for this and do not deviate from your promise. Many people believe that it is impossible to make decisions based on the direct principle, since you need to think thoroughly before making any decision. This is wrong. If the decision is not made immediately, mental paralysis sets in. Therefore, decisions should be made immediately. There are no decisions that you are completely sure are correct. Every decision contains uncertainty. We never have all the information. Therefore, there are no absolutely right or absolutely wrong decisions. Therefore, it is better to make a decision right away than not to make it at all. Decisions made release energy. Take advantage of the positive wave decision taken. Each next decision is another step towards the ability to effectively perform any task. A decision motivates us to action, frees up energy and fills us with a sense of satisfaction. By slowing down to make a decision, you can easily lose all this.

It must be said that people have been concerned about managing their time for a long time. According to the American Stephen Covey, a recognized authority in the field of teaching people a holistic lifestyle, author of the bestseller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Return to the Ethic of Character”, there have been four generations of time management methods.

The first wave was characterized by notes, memos, attempts to organize and systematize everything that requires us to spend time and effort.

In the second generation, a variety of calendars and business diaries appeared. This reflected an attempt to look forward, to plan events and activities for the future.

Third generation reflects the modern stage of time management. Adding to the legacy of previous generations is the idea of ​​setting priorities, values ​​and comparing the importance of different things. In addition, the third generation focuses on daily planning, long-term, medium-term and short-term planning and setting intermediate goals are introduced. At the same time, people gradually began to realize that aiming to increase their productivity in this way often turns out to be counterproductive. It creates expectations that clash with the ability to develop fruitful relationships, satisfy human needs, and enjoy ordinary pleasures. Everyday life. People began to turn away from management methods that fit their lives into too rigid patterns.

Today a fourth, completely different generation is already emerging. It became clear that now the task is to manage not time, but oneself. It is not actions and time that are planned, but the preservation and development of relationships and the achievement of results. In other words, we need to start thinking about time in new ways.

And yet, managing your time is not just a fashionable hobby. Many managers, having mastered the appropriate techniques, increase the efficiency of their work by 15-20%. The idea behind most of all techniques is to ensure that every chunk of time during the workday is better planned. Lists of tasks are compiled, from which the highest priorities are then identified, and the schedule is carefully thought out. But often there is still not enough time. As a result, the working day becomes longer and longer, and fatigue becomes more and more intense.

New thinking forces us to look at time from a different perspective. And, in accordance with the Pareto principle, it turns out that 80% of all results are achieved by us within 20% of the total time spent. And this turns all ordinary ideas upside down. It turns out that we have enough time, only productively; only 20% of it is actually used.

In other words, we have time. But what to do with it? How do you find that twenty “right” percent? And how can you be sure that your choice is reliable? If you treat yourself as a holistic creature, you will find that in addition to work, there is also time for rest, for self-development, for family, for sleep. If we are people with the whole complex of human capabilities and limitations, then it is clear why we need to manage not time, but ourselves.

The essence fourth generation time management, according to S. Covey, can be understood from the matrix (Table 12), the initial idea of ​​which is that we spend time in one of four ways.

As can be seen from the matrix, activities are determined by two factors: urgent and important.

Urgent is something that requires immediate attention; it has some kind of almost inexplicable magnetism. Urgent matters are usually pleasant in their ease and obviousness. They demand to be made, they are simple and well known. How often does a phone call make us distract ourselves from an important conversation, from a task that is as necessary for us as life. For many, even the thought of not picking up the phone is unacceptable!

Table 12

Time Management Matrix

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If you have the most important thing to do today, then it will have to contend with many urgent ones. It is routine work that eats up the time that is planned with such hopes for the most important things. What things can be called important? What matters is the results. What matters is what contributes to our mission, our values ​​and our overriding goals.

Important and non-urgent matters require much more initiative from us than urgent ones. We must be proactive so as not to miss the opportunity and get results. If we have no idea about what is important to us, about the results we want to achieve in life, then we easily move on to reacting to the urgent.

If you look at the time management matrix, you can see that the first square is both urgent and important. It is associated with something that produces significant results and requires immediate attention. Each of us has a certain number of similar cases in our lives. But when you focus on square I, it gets bigger and bigger.

Some people find themselves literally bombarded with problems every day. They see the only relief in escaping to the unimportant and non-urgent matters of square IV. This is how people live, driven by crisis situations.

Other people spend a significant portion of their time on the urgent but not important quadrant III. They spend their time on the urgent, considering it important too. But in reality, the urgency of these things is based on the priorities and expectations of other people.

Effective people stay away from squares III and IV, because whether they are urgent or not, they are not important. In addition, they reduce the size of Quadrant I by spending more time doing activities classified as Quadrant II.

The heart of effective time management, and therefore oneself, is square II. It deals with what is considered important but not urgent, and includes activities such as relationship building, personal mission awareness, long-term planning, exercise, prevention, preparation - all those things that we consider necessary but rarely force ourselves to do. take them on, as they are not urgent.

Some results of concentrating our activities in any of the squares are shown in Table 13.

If you want to get it right and effective use of your time, then it is better to focus on the promising and most important matters for you in square II, while simultaneously reducing activities in all other squares. Gradually you will see how things begin to change better side your life, how much more results you achieve with less effort than before.

Table 13

Results of activities according to the matrix scheme

time management

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This will mean a change in old thinking for you. The importance and value of your personality will increase for you. You will begin to devote more time to issues of self-improvement, interaction with friends, members of your family, and children. It will be easier for you to switch from work to sports, from study to household chores, from morning to afternoon and evening chores.

If we come home without disconnecting from work, this can cause conflicts, which, naturally, will not give us the opportunity to fully relax after a busy day at work. Emotionally charged and personality-oriented remarks can trigger a conflict, which, turning into a serious quarrel, may end in strong feelings. Thinking about it the next morning will make it difficult to concentrate on work.

You just need to stop yourself from mixing work problems with home ones. Ideally, nothing at home should remind you of work. Therefore, you need to find for yourself that signal or stimulus that will serve as a “switch” to home life. In the event that someone at home also returns after a difficult day, you can make it a rule not to react to irritated remarks with reverse aggression, at least during the first ten minutes. There is no need to provoke yourself into a breakdown. In the evening, after work, we need to tune ourselves to perceive only things that are pleasant to us. In any case, you need to immediately move to the area of ​​​​pleasant emotions.

In the lives of each of us, a lot of things constantly arise, varying in degree of importance. What to do first, what to leave for later and how to save precious time is a task that is akin to art. And to solve it, it is not necessary to study multi-volume manuals on time management. It is enough to correctly set your priorities.

How is this done and what does it mean to “prioritize”? The literal translation of the word priority means “first.” In other words, it is a priority task or action. Often there are several such tasks throughout the entire period, and many are lost in how to complete all the important tasks and not lose sight of anything. In addition, there are more global goals from a number of life goals. Therefore, the second important question for many is how to arrange life priorities? Only a proven scheme or technique can help in both of these cases. And, fortunately, there are some.

Prioritization Methods

First of all, the ability to prioritize lies in the competent distribution of tasks in order of importance. And at this stage many people begin to have problems. At first glance, many tasks do not seem as important as they actually are. Numerous methods of prioritization are designed to determine this degree. Let's look at the most effective of them.

1. Eisenhower principle. One of the most often used in determining primary and secondary tasks. To understand how to prioritize, create a questionnaire for yourself to learn how to separate the concepts of importance and urgency. For example:

• you want to resume working on a goal you set for the year. However, you just can’t get started with this matter. Is it important or urgent?
• Several letters arrived in the mailbox. Is it important or urgent to read them right now?
• You have decided that you will visit a doctor once every six months. Exactly six months passed, but you still didn’t go to see him. Is it important or urgent at the moment?

Correct answers:

1. Important
2. Urgently
3. Important

This principle is based on a combination of only two possible options, which allows you to analyze and classify all upcoming tasks. This way, you will get a hierarchy of tasks that will allow you to understand what needs to be done and when.

2. S. Covey's quadrants. A method to help you understand how to prioritize your work. According to the author of the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” all human tasks can be roughly divided into 4 parts:

1. Important and urgent
2. Important but not urgent
3. Not important, but urgent
4. Not important or urgent

According to S. Covey, successful people They focus their attention on Quadrant 2 first, and this saves time on other tasks. However, everyone decides for themselves which tasks are more important - from quadrant 1 or 2.

3. A similar principle of how to set priorities correctly is in ABC method. But the tasks in it are divided into 3 categories.

It is vitally important for every person to be able to correctly place emphasis both in work and in personal life. Priority goals and objectives are those things without which life becomes dull, gray and meaningless. Unfortunately, in the flow of everyday affairs, it is sometimes extremely difficult to place such accents. We're just passing by own desires, aspirations, goals, without noticing or not wanting to notice how your own subconscious screams at the top of your lungs: “Pay attention! Don't pass by! Just wait!” And we are in a hurry, in a hurry to do what we promised someone, to do what was imposed on us from the outside. Correct prioritization will help correct this situation.

Take time for yourself

There is one very simple and interesting exercise to get out of the routine and see life from a new angle. Every day for a week, whether you are at work or at home, take one minute for yourself. Set a timer and think about what you can do in this minute that will change your internal and external condition for the better? What action could bring a little warmth and comfort into your life? Maybe you drink a glass of water, or maybe you open a window or go outside. These are the little things that we usually don't pay attention to: Fresh air, drink more fluids - it seems that all these instructions are for impressionable girls, and not for adults. Nevertheless, it is health is one of the most important priorities in the life of every person.

Next week, try to increase this time, set the time to 5-10 minutes a day and pay attention to yourself. You will notice that you will try to spend this time on things for which you previously did not have enough time, which seemed unimportant, but now significantly improve your mental and physical well-being.

Wash the car, read a bedtime story to your child, enjoy the bath, read your favorite book. If you add up these actions, you will see that they revolve around several main directions in your life. Family, health, education, self-improvement, financial well-being, love, new experiences, friends - these are “pieces of the pie” called “life”.

In the flow of everyday affairs, worries and responsibilities at work and at home, we often forget about these priorities, being content with the pitiful crumbs of satisfaction from fulfilling parental or socially imposed orders. What's the end result? And in the end, “it’s excruciatingly painful for a life lived aimlessly.” In order to avoid this, it is enough to start living proactively. Avoid aimless existence. If you are already “swimming with the flow of life,” then swim with a specific goal, for example, how Japanese samurai who have chosen the path of service.

Easy prioritization and harmony in the soul are determined by mental purity or the absence of mental garbage. What is mental garbage? This: negative emotions, psychological complexes, emotional trauma, limiting beliefs, negative attitudes, addictions and other rubbish. Freedom from this clutter brings the energy, determination, and clarity of thought that is critical to both prioritizing and modern life at all. .

Priorities: 5 ways to better prioritize your life

This may seem strange, but for each person, priorities are something unique to them. This happens due to the different values ​​in each of us. For some, the well-being of their family is important, for others they put their whole soul into friendship, and for others, work comes first. But we can all balance our lives so that values, priorities and responsibilities are in harmony (by the way, it allows you to see how harmoniously you move through life). And we need to start with balance. today, in which to correctly place emphasis using prioritization methods.

The ancient Indian poet Kapidasa said that one of our days contains all the charm of the world. And indeed it is. If you want to make your life more balanced, create harmony in your day using these simple tools.

• 1. The easiest way

Make a list of things to do for the day and think about which one is the most important? Which task from this list, if completed, will give the greatest feeling of satisfaction? Next to this task, put the letter A. You may have more than one such task on your list, so rank them in order of importance, denoting them with numbers, for example: A1, A2, etc. Throughout the day, follow the resulting sequence of tasks (without fanaticism, of course). Summarize in the evening. Try to use this method of prioritizing whenever you are feeling tired and frustrated.

• 2. Role-based approach to prioritization

Make a to-do list for the day. On another sheet of paper, write down all your significant, priority ones for you personally. social roles, for example: “I am a friend”, “I am a mother”, “I am a daughter”, etc. After that, divide your tasks into the resulting segments and rank them within each of them in order of importance. Throughout the day, perform sequentially the most important tasks from each segment, gradually descending to more and more low levels importance.

Naturally, you need to start with the segment that is the most priority for you. While completing tasks, pay attention to your internal state. You need to track how well you have set your priorities. Perhaps, while performing some action, you will notice that at this moment your “soul hurts” for something else, or maybe, on the contrary, the day will go by like clockwork. Pay attention to such subtleties, draw conclusions and, when making a list of tasks for the next day, shift priorities in favor of those that turned out to be the most important to you. Setting priorities is a purely individual matter.

It happens that in the morning or during the day it is no longer possible to make a to-do list and rank it in order of importance. As life experience shows, the days when this happens cannot be called particularly successful. To return everything to a normal, controllable direction, use a tool such as the Eisenhower Square.

To do this, draw a square on any sheet of paper, which you divide into four with two vertical segments. equal shares. Label the top two horizontal sections “Important” and “Unimportant,” and label the top two vertical sections “Urgent” and “Not Urgent.” Thus, you have four cells. If we mentally combine the vertical with the horizontal (as in chess), we get four categories of tasks: “Important and urgent”, “Important but not urgent”, “Unimportant but urgent”, “Unimportant and not urgent”. Every time you take on something, mark it in the appropriate box. The “Important and Urgent” category is, as a rule, “hot” projects, tasks that should have been “completed yesterday.”

“Important but not urgent” are proactive tasks that are important for future well-being. “Not important, but urgent” – all sorts of tasks that those around us are trying to “hang” on us. “Unimportant and not urgent” – empty time spent, hanging out on social networks, smoking breaks, etc. Obviously, it would be good to completely exclude the last two categories from your life, and after clearing away the rubble in the first category, pay maximum attention to the second segment.

This prioritization allows you to quickly put things in order during the day and not fall victim to a morning that didn’t go well.

• 4. GTD system (“Getting Things Done” or “How to put things in order”)

In principle, the GTD system is wide range actions aimed at optimizing all tasks related to the life of an individual. But David Allen presented his own principle of prioritization in a very interesting way. Everything is very simple. First you need to “unload” all the affairs and tasks from your head and write them down on paper. Once this process is complete, you can begin ranking. We divide all cases into four categories.

In order to correctly divide into segments, ask questions: “Can I do this task in one step? How long will it take? Maybe this is no longer necessary? Can I delegate this matter to someone else? etc. As a result, you will receive a clearly ranked list of tasks, half of which you can solve in the next fifteen minutes.

• 5. Prioritize based on goals

Describe your ideal day. Indicate every detail: what kind of family do you have, what kind of relationships do you have, how much do you earn, where do you live, what do you think about, where do you go, how do you live? Dream big, let it be small school essay on the topic “When will my life become good?” After that, imagine yourself on this day, think, what advice would you give yourself? What aspects of life would you like to pay attention to so that your life becomes the same as it is there in the future? Based on this image of the future, make a list of things to do that would bring you closer to its materialization. Organize it and begin to gradually implement it.

All of these prioritization methods do not require a ton of time. They require attention and respect, which is the most difficult task for many.

However, all the effort will pay off if you one day decide to live consciously and proactively, devoting time to your highest priority tasks and finding your own method prioritization.