Time management or time management - what it is, expert recommendations on how to manage everything. Time management for a manager: effective techniques

Introduction

Theoretical foundations of time management

1 The essence and principles of time management

2 Reasons to use time management

3 Modern time management techniques

Analysis of domestic approaches to the time management system

1 Introduction of time management into the company

2 Time management in Russia

Assessing and improving the time management system in the company

1 General characteristics of the analyzed enterprise

2 Evaluation of the time management system in the company

3 Improving the time management system

Conclusion

Introduction

In modern conditions, time management is an integral part of the activities of any successful company. Time management refers to the technology of organizing time and increasing the efficiency of its use.

Time management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities in a manner that specifically increases efficiency and productivity. Time management can be helped by a number of skills, tools, and techniques used to accomplish specific tasks, projects, and goals. This set includes a wide range of activities, namely: planning, allocation, goal setting, delegation, time analysis, monitoring, organizing, listing and prioritizing. Initially, management was attributed only to business or work activities, but over time the term expanded to include personal activities with the same basis. A time management system is a combination of processes, tools, techniques and methods. Generally, time management is a necessity in the development of any project as it determines the project completion time and scope.

The purpose of the presented work is to consider time management as a time management system. The tasks in the work are the following:

consideration of the concept and functions of time management;

characteristics of modern time management techniques;

identifying the features of implementing time management in companies;

analysis of the application of successful implementation of time management in Russian companies;

identification of features of the use of time management in the activities of Megafon OJSC.

The object of the work is time management. The subject of the work is the peculiarities of applying time management in the activities of an organization.

The structure of the work includes an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

The first chapter presents the essence and principles of time management, defines modern time management techniques and substantiates the need to use time management in the activities of an enterprise.

The second chapter identifies the features of implementing time management in organizations and analyzes successful approaches to time management in Russian companies.

The third and final chapter provides a general description of the analyzed enterprise, provides an assessment of the time management system of OJSC Megafon, and identifies directions for improving the time management system of the enterprise under study.

1. Theoretical foundations of time management

.1 The essence and principles of time management

“Time management (Time Management) is an interdisciplinary section of science and practice devoted to the study of problems and methods for optimizing time costs in various areas of professional activity.” Time management - translated from English means “time management”. The task of time management is to organize the use of time (both work and personal time) of the day and week in such a way as to have time to do all the most important things. Time management is the accounting and operational planning of time.

Basic principles of time management.

Painstaking independent work. A manager can only develop a high-quality, effective system for organizing his time on his own. This important work cannot be entrusted to a consultant or secretary. Only the manager himself can choose the appropriate solution and rebuild it to suit his needs.

Individuality of the solution. In organizing personal time, it is not the general rules that are important, but the individual style that the manager finds for himself. If it is comfortable for him, it gives maximum effectiveness. We should rather focus on those methods that allow us to navigate even in conditions of uncertainty. Therefore, it is important to determine such parameters as a person’s temperament, sensory preferences, biorhythms of his body, work goals, etc.

The need to track your own effectiveness. Using timing, you can identify moments of unforgivable waste of time and discover its hidden reserves. When analyzing the data obtained, it is recommended to use the method of comparing what was achieved with the maximum possible, and not what was achieved with what was planned, as is done in Western time management technologies. But the main result of using timekeeping is the emergence of a certain ability to constantly independently monitor your effectiveness. Tracking your own time for several weeks develops a special kind of attention to time, and the leader begins to look at his actions completely differently.

Efficiency-oriented thinking. Direct change in thinking is paramount. A person who has learned to identify ineffective processes and improve them, striving to optimize and increase efficiency, is able to apply existing methods, customize them to suit his needs, or develop his own. And the very technical methods of organizing time and personal work and their direct implementation in life are precisely a matter of technology. Once a change in consciousness has occurred, it begins to work and bear fruit in any type of activity.

Achievability and inexhaustibility of efficiency reserves. A fundamental principle, next to which no technological issue can be compared. Based on the assumption that the reserves of efficiency, development and self-improvement are not only realistically achievable, but also potentially inexhaustible, the search for the right solution and the development of the necessary method are purely tactical and obviously solvable issues.

1.2 Reasons for using time management

Timing of personal time should be carried out over several working days, perhaps weeks, in order to analyze your working style and reveal the reasons for the time shortages that arise. Alarming symptoms of imminent emergence of temporary problems can be identified by the following signs:

Lack of priorities when doing things (solving minor tasks while regularly rescheduling the main ones);

Haste when completing large tasks (often caused by late start of work on them);

A large flow of all kinds of routine tasks (the risk of drowning in trifles);

Untimely study of business correspondence (current documentation);

Work in the evenings and weekends (there is not enough time during office hours);

Constantly doing work for your colleagues or subordinates (it seems that this will be faster or more reliable);

Working outside your profile (ineffective use of opportunities);

Continuous interruptions in work (endless phone calls and influx of visitors);

Clarification of information, constant asking again (difficulty perceiving information as a result of fatigue).

After timing, it is necessary to analyze all types of activities in which the person participated. To do this, you can use tables on the distribution of areas of work relative to time costs - real and theoretically achievable, and draw up a list of obstacles.

Further analysis can be carried out from the point of view of two positions: positive and negative, i.e. identify strengths and weaknesses to rationally use the former and avoid the latter.

"Time Sinkers" By conducting a detailed analysis of the main time sinks, you can better control your work process and avoid distractions. The main reasons that force us to waste time are recognized:

Phone calls rightfully take pride of place, disrupting the work mood and preventing you from concentrating on business. With the widespread use of cell phones, the problem has become global.

Visitors coming to the office are more distracting than telephones, because they cannot be ignored or done in parallel with other work.

Poorly organized exchange of information between departments.

Problems with computer equipment and office equipment.

Changing the order of work imposed by colleagues.

Lack of organizational planning. Dist

Inability to listen to other people.

Unsatisfactory organizational structure.

Confusion in the mail. This is especially relevant for managers whose correspondence is untimely or does not pass through the secretarial filter for determining the importance of letters.

Correcting errors that could have been avoided. Errors are caused by the same haste, inattention, reluctance to work, etc.

Indecisiveness in business matters.

Poorly organized and coordinated meetings and planning sessions.

Distractions in the workplace. A gigantic list of little things according to the specifics of each person’s personality.

Excessive office bureaucracy.

Useless discussions about your work and the work of others. And just empty chatter.

1.3 Modern time management techniques

Setting a goal. Goal setting involves analyzing and forming personal goals. The goal describes the end result and gives clarity about which direction to move. Setting goals is a temporary process, because... When certain parameters are changed, the necessary adjustment occurs.

“To achieve success, you need to choose the right goals; intermediate stages will help you stay on the right path. It is advisable to conduct a register of personal resources and means for achieving goals in advance in order to find out which of your strengths need to be encouraged and which weaknesses to work on to further develop your potential.”

The goal must be clear, precise and understandable. The specific formulation of practical goals is important for subsequent planning. When setting long-term goals, you can't take on too much.

) Not only do things right, but also do the right things;

) Not just solve problems, but also create creative prospects;

) Not so much to save funds as to optimize their use;

) Not just fulfill debts, but also achieve results;

) Not only reduce costs, but also increase profits.

Classic planning. Classical methodology for developing plans and alternative activities. It means preparing for the implementation of goals and organizing time. As practical experience shows, minutes spent on planning reduces hours spent on direct implementation, ultimately leading to overall time savings.

In order to properly perform his functions and achieve his goals, a manager must clearly understand his time budget. There are several basic planning rules:

When planning your day, it is better to leave 40% of your working time free. Those. 60% - planned time, 20% - unforeseen time, 20% - spontaneous time.

Document the time spent, indicating how and on what it was lost, so that you have an idea of ​​how it was spent.

To bring all the tasks together, you need to have an idea of ​​the upcoming tasks and divide them according to the degree of urgency.

Create realistic plans only with the volume of tasks that you can handle.

Learn to determine the pace of work and the amount of information needed to complete it.

If interference regularly arises in your work in the form of urgent, spontaneously arising matters, provide time in your plan for resolving such matters.

Trying to complete a large volume of work and scattering your efforts on separate unimportant matters leads to the fact that at the end of the day the main problems remain unresolved. Setting a priority means dividing the entire flow of tasks by degree of importance, giving them priority, secondary, etc. meanings.

“Golden” proportions of time planning. Time planning is based on certain principles. One of the most famous was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. It is designed for the rational use of time and states: “If all work functions are considered from the point of view of the criterion of their efficiency, then it will turn out that 80 percent of the final results are achieved in only 20 percent of the time spent, while the remaining 20 percent of the result absorbs 80 percent of the working time.” . In everyday work, this means that you should not take on the easiest, most interesting or least time-consuming tasks first. When planning, it is necessary to solve vital problems first, and only then numerous secondary ones.

Consistent application of the Pareto principle helps to use in practice the technique of analyzing the complexity of ABC problems. It is based on dividing the entire scope of tasks into three groups.

A. The most important tasks - make up approximately 15 percent of the total number of all tasks and affairs. The self-worth of these tasks (achieving the goal) is approximately 65 percent.

B. Important tasks account for an average of 20 percent of the total number of cases, and the importance of this category of tasks is also 20 percent.

B. Less important and non-essential tasks, on the contrary, make up 65 percent of the total number of tasks, but have a small share (about 15 percent of the total “cost”).

The technology for analyzing problems using the ABC principle can be carried out as follows:

Make a list of all upcoming tasks in the relevant period of time (day, month, quarter, year).

Systematize tasks according to their degree of importance, establish the order of tasks in accordance with their “cost” of activity.

Number the tasks.

a) the first 15 percent of all tasks classified as Category A are not subject to reassignment;

b) the next 20 percent are tasks of category B;

c) the remaining 65 percent are tasks of category B.

Double-check the time plan to ensure that the allocated time budget corresponds to the value of the tasks: 65 percent of the planned time is task A; 20 percent of the planned time is tasks B; 15 percent of the planned time is tasks B.

Make appropriate adjustments, focusing the plan on tasks A.

Evaluate tasks B and C from the point of view of the possibility of their delegation.

Delegation of powers. “The general meaning of delegation is to delegate tasks to one’s subordinates or colleagues. Many managers, who consider themselves experienced and efficient, prefer to do things themselves that they could entrust to other employees, citing the inexperience, lack of education, and incompetence of their subordinates. This phenomenon indicates, rather, a lack of experience in delegating authority and an inability to train staff in the necessary functions, rather than the high merits of a manager.

The main advantages of delegation:

The manager has more time for more important tasks;

Use and development of professional knowledge and skills of employees;

Stimulating the development of abilities, independence and competence of subordinates;

Positive impact on employee motivation.

To delegate correctly, you must adhere to the following rules:

Select suitable employees;

Distribute areas of responsibility;

Coordinate the implementation of assigned tasks;

Stimulate and advise subordinates;

Monitor the work process and results;

Evaluate your employees;

Suppress attempts at reverse or subsequent delegation.

It is necessary to delegate routine work, specialized activities, private issues and preparatory work. The transfer of tasks or activities can be carried out for a long period or limited to one-time assignments. The manager does not under any circumstances delegate his/her managerial functions, high-risk tasks and management responsibilities.

Monitoring results and adjusting goals. Results control serves to optimize the work process; it covers three tasks:

Understanding the physical state. Does planning bring results, does it contribute to comfort;

Comparison of what was planned with the maximum possible. It is necessary to regularly analyze activities, identify moments of loss of time, and draw up interference sheets;

Adjustment based on established deviations. It is necessary to double-check plans and change them if they turn out to be unfeasible or do not allow achieving the goal by the deadline.

There is a distinction between monitoring labor results and monitoring specific tasks; neither one nor the other should be neglected.

Thus, time management is the accounting and operational planning of time. The task of time management is to organize the use of time (both work and personal time) of the day and week in order to have time to do all the most important things. Basic principles of time management: painstaking independent work, individual decision-making, the need to track one’s own effectiveness, thinking aimed at efficiency, achievability and inexhaustible efficiency reserves. Alarming symptoms of the imminent occurrence of temporary problems can be identified by certain signs and the causes of “time sinks” can be identified.

2. Analysis of domestic and foreign approaches to the time management system

.1 Introduction of time management in the company

The fact that time needs to be managed rationally is an obvious fact today. Everyone faces a lack of time or its complete absence - from low-level managers to managers and business owners.

Until recently, time management was mainly considered in relation to an individual person. That is, each specialist, at his own discretion, can apply time management methods regarding his time.

The latest trend has been the introduction of a time management system in enterprises (corporate time management). Time management is a new direction in enterprise management. In most Russian organizations, management does not think about what actions their subordinates spend time on during the working day, or how they organize their work within the framework of their job responsibilities.

It is quite natural that the head of an enterprise or his key employees is not able to cope with the task of implementing time management on their own. As a rule, they resort to the help of time management specialists. And it is quite natural that demand creates supply.

Thus, the duration of courses and trainings on time management ranges from 2 to 10 days, and the cost is from 5 thousand rubles. up to 25 thousand rubles. The programs offered are also different: these include “Time management courses for top officials”, conducted in the form of a seminar, and courses for ordinary employees. There are technologies for introducing time management into enterprises.

All these courses have one thing in common - they are all based on Western technologies and are not always correlated with Russian reality. In addition, the bulk of seminars and trainings on time management are individual in nature, that is, we are more likely talking about personal time management than about corporate time management.

As for comparative time management, in our opinion, three areas should be distinguished:

For example, using MS Outlook allows you to significantly save time in the process of transferring the necessary information. This happens due to the ability to more concisely and clearly formulate the essence of the problem. Written information is perceived faster and more accurately than information communicated orally.

In addition, in the process of communication using information technology, it becomes possible to significantly save time in the process of transmitting information. This is due to the lack of need to move from office to office, or from one organization to another.

You can also save quite a lot of time on personal communication in the process of transmitting information via the Internet, thanks to existing templates and symbols that replace phrases that are elements of polite communication.

In general, corporate time management of an enterprise is a system of rules and norms for the interaction of employees in an enterprise, rules and mechanisms for the exchange of information. In many ways, such time management duplicates the communication process in an enterprise. And accordingly, it is difficult to attribute it to a completely new direction in the field of enterprise management.

The use of techniques for improving communications and optimizing the communication process in an enterprise within the framework of time management will allow achieving greater organizational and economic effect.

One of the main problems in this area of ​​time management is the relatively small number of employees who can be combined into a group of people performing identical duties, and a fairly large number of such groups in one enterprise. Thus, to optimize the time work of each group of specialists, it is necessary to develop recommendations and time management techniques that are unique only to this group of specialists. As a rule, time management specialists either simply do not do this, preferring to use collective seminars and trainings based on individual time management techniques, or the service of creating a time management system for each individual division of an enterprise is quite expensive.

It should be noted that, as a rule, not all departments of an enterprise need to implement a time management system. The problem of time management arises where there is an alternative to using it. In those departments of the enterprise where employees perform monotonous mechanical work, the need arises to study the physiological and psychological capabilities of a person in performing a given algorithm of actions under the existing conditions of severity and intensity of work.

It is often unjustified to say that management processes at the enterprise are not carried out and employees are not interested in the fastest, high-quality performance of their official duties. This is due to the fact that each employee has his own job responsibilities, fixed in job descriptions and an employment contract. The employment contract also, as a rule, stipulates the number of hours he must work per day and the number of days he must work per week. That is, there is a certain amount of work (responsibilities fixed in the employment contract) and time to complete it (working hours and schedule fixed in the employment contract).

As a rule, when developing programs for seminars and trainings on time management, not enough attention is paid to the physiological characteristics of a person and the conditions of the severity and intensity of work.

As for individual time management of leading specialists, in essence, it represents individual time management of a manager and a person. This direction is currently the most developed and effective from the point of view of practical use.

In general, corporate time management is a fairly promising area in enterprise management, although there are currently many difficulties in applying it in practice. When determining the need for the introduction of corporate time management and the scope of its application at a particular enterprise, one should:

in which departments (or for which job units) the introduction of time management is advisable;

what economic and organizational effect will the implementation of corporate time management at an enterprise achieve? That is, we are talking about the ratio of costs and results obtained;

what is the likelihood that the effect of implementing a corporate time management system at an enterprise will be long enough to allow the economic and organizational effect to manifest itself?

The corporate time management system must be individually developed for each enterprise and must combine all three areas of corporate time management: enterprise time management, corporate time management of individual departments and individual time management of leading specialists. Moreover, corporate time management of individual departments in some cases should rather be based on the physiological characteristics of a person and the conditions of the severity and intensity of work than on the process of competent time distribution.

2.2 Time management in Russia

Today it is hardly possible to find a Russian company whose management would not be concerned with the issue of increasing its competitiveness. To solve this problem, it is necessary to do a tremendous amount of work to optimize all business processes: from R&D to logistics. However, this is a long and difficult task, and therefore many companies in Russia prefer to increase work efficiency with little expense. For example, through time management. However, “classical” time management is already having difficulty coping with the tasks that modern business poses to it. “It ceases to be a panacea for all managerial ills. Over the past five years, nothing fundamentally new has happened in this area, and interest in time management is noticeably declining,” notes Pavel Bezruchko, executive director of ECOPSY Consulting. - To increase their efficiency, modern companies are primarily engaged in optimizing business processes. Against the backdrop of these measures, time management remains useful, but rather an additional skill: the scale of time gain is small.”

A common practice in Russian companies is a situation where a manager, on a “voluntary-compulsory” basis, distributes among his subordinates some book he likes on time management or recommends one or another “advanced” organizer. The executive director of the Yekaterinburg company Bank24.ru, Boris Dyakonov, became interested in the idea of ​​time management about three years ago, when he became a co-owner of a small bank. “I implemented a lot of what I read,” he says. - Organized lectures on time management at the bank, introduced meeting standards, and improved the culture of communication. At first, the innovations were opposed, because lectures covered weekends. Bank employees considered the idea of ​​​​teaching them time saving to be just another management whim.” But subsequently, thanks to the persistence of the company’s top officials, who made it clear that they value people who know how to save time, Bank24.ru became one of the first Russian credit institutions to introduce ISO 9001:2000 quality management standards.

Rigidity and consistency in solving assigned tasks are a necessary element in the implementation of any personnel motivation program. Usually, the initial excitement after the distribution of “good books” fades away after about a month. “The introduction of any idea into a team requires mandatory control,” confirms Mikhail Molokanov, president of the Business Coaches Club. - And control by default involves additional costs. This is precisely the main reason for the lack of a systematic approach to time management in domestic companies.”

The general director of the MC-Bauchemie-Russia group of companies, Alexander Mondrus, solved a specific problem with the help of time management - he removed a number of components from the work process that were the main “eaters” of time. A simple example: all telephone conversations within his organization now begin with the question “are you comfortable talking?” This allows both interlocutors to save precious minutes. “Several years have passed since then. Most of the employees who completed the training then remained with the company, says Alexander Mondrus. “For newcomers, we provide materials on the topic and instill fundamental skills in working with time.”

“Those who have once adopted time management skills only need to refresh their memory from time to time,” says Gleb Arkhangelsky, CEO of Organization of Time.<#"justify">“The main idea of ​​time management is that you first need to understand what you want and why you need it, and only then think about how to achieve it,” says Mikhail Molokanov. - Recently, the most noticeable innovations in the field of time management appear precisely in the issue of goal setting. According to my observations, Russian companies often and very readily assign deadlines and responsibilities, but at the same time do not spend enough time conveying information to the employee about what exactly needs to be done and why.” As a result, the work is completed on time, but turns out to be of no use to anyone.

“Previously, when receiving the next task, I silently wrote it down in a notebook, because asking unnecessary questions or, in professional language, clarifying goals was considered an activity that did not do me any honor,” admits one of the Wimm-Bill-Dann managers, who was trained at the corporate company university. “In addition, I expressed my dissatisfaction with the fact that too many tasks marked “urgent” were being dumped on me only to myself.” Today, this manager not only seeks a clear formulation of tasks from the boss, but also clarifies which of them is the most important in each specific period of time, thus building a system of priorities for himself. Since this manager's boss has also undergone appropriate training, he is understanding and patient with the new demands of his subordinate.

“The formation of a unified information field and management tools is the main achievement of our training programs,” believes Natalya Bekker, manager of the “Internal Knowledge Management” project in the HR department of Wimm-Bill-Dann. “Students’ expectations are primarily related to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills necessary for them to effectively solve professional problems, as well as the systematization of basic knowledge and ideas acquired at school and institute.” With a serious and thoughtful approach to time management, it makes you think about seemingly simple questions, the answers to which are sometimes amazing. For example, using simple arithmetic operations, you can calculate the number of hours that a person has already lived and that he still has to live, for example, until retirement. Or try to more clearly define for yourself what is everyday routine in your life and what is truly significant.

Time management is a very universal skill that, by and large, has no cultural boundaries. Both Western and Russian training programs now mainly use native Western technologies: setting goals according to SMART, prioritizing according to the Eisenhower method, the Pareto principle, etc. (although Russian researchers also managed to make their own contribution to the theory of TM.

The traditional form of training in work time management skills is a two-day training. Students of such programs, as a rule, are middle and lower level managers (back office, sales department, production, etc.). During the training, participants master the basic tools of prioritization and planning, try to apply them in various situations, honing their skills in games and exercises. However, despite the fact that TM itself does not have national characteristics, several related courses are offered to Russians studying it. “One of the topics close to time management is stress management,” says Pavel Bezruchko. “It is extremely important and useful, since in general the Russian business environment is much more volatile and stressful than the Western one.”

While trainings on the topic of improving the general management culture have already become quite commonplace in Russian companies, managers still do not pay due attention to the issues of self-organization of employees. Many of them - and perhaps quite rightly - believe that the manager's personal organization is his own problem. TM assumes that every employee should have the opportunity to invest time not only in work, but also in their personal goals: self-development, leisure, health, family. Only then will this person be satisfied and effective. The company is unlikely to be able to resolve issues of this nature - this is entirely the prerogative of the employees themselves. “It is impossible to manage only working hours. If a company introduces the principles of TM among its employees, then, willy-nilly, it will have to seize their personal time. But then associations with conscript soldiers, prisoners, sectarians come to mind...,” says Mikhail Molokanov.

In addition, in practice it often turns out that the working time of some specialists cannot be planned, while for others the savings resulting from TM are minimal. For example, Mainstream, a subsidiary of ECOPSY Consulting, conducted a study among the personnel of a number of its clients. The results of this quick survey showed that employees of the companies studied manage to actually plan no more than half of their time, and often no more than 30%. In conditions of dynamically changing priorities, a permanent lack of information and the lack of so-called managers. helicopter view (literally “view from a helicopter” - a look at the situation from above, understanding its driving mechanisms and internal connections that are not visible in everyday routine) traditional planning tools do not work. It is for this reason that experienced time management specialists recommend reserving up to 40% of your working time for solving unforeseen tasks, and directly managing only the remaining 60%. However, not all employees manage to plan even 60%. So, if we talk about working in help-desk mode, that is, about solving auxiliary, for example, secretarial tasks, then in this case you can at least somehow manage no more than 30 - 40% of the time. This ratio is typical for many specialties, as well as for some client-oriented businesses in general - for example, brokerage. And really, what do you tell a PR person to do with such an important recommendation for time management as reading email only at certain hours? It is difficult to imagine a public relations manager who would adhere to it, because in this way he would be deprived of the information that helps him to be effective. By failing to respond in time to a request for urgent comment, he risks losing the company's image. And to react means to postpone your schedule and deviate from the plan. “It is important not to forget that a person is not a computer, but a creature with its own biological rhythms,” adds Valeria Silina, director of PR and marketing of the Rosinter Restaurants holding. - Some people are effective in the morning, while others can work with maximum efficiency only in the evening. It is clear that such nuances cannot be taken into account within a large company.”

Director of Corporate Finance at Meridian Capital Management Sergei Trofimov doubts that a TM consultant will be able to tell an experienced manager how to save time by at least 5-10%. “The main message of time management, ‘time is a resource that can be managed,’ is very accurate,” he notes. - However, I will find 80% of the information on TM on the Internet and adapt it to myself. Why do I need the other 20%, which is the consultant’s charisma and mood?”

Many accomplished experts are convinced that everyone should come to the need to study the theory of time management on their own. Any attempts to forcefully dive into a topic, especially on the scale of an entire company, smack of totalitarianism. A separate and painful issue is people of creative professions who strongly protest against any restrictions on their freedom. At the same time, “creators” need the ability to effectively use their time no less than representatives of the “handicraft” workshop. “The result of such “freedom” is often non-compliance with obligations and project deadlines, which leads to dissatisfaction on the part of the rest of the team,” says Maria Timirbaeva, co-owner of BBPG and editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business magazine. “Time management skills won’t ruin inspiration, but they will allow employees to assess life situations more realistically.” A creative person is called creative because he can intelligently approach the use of available useful information and create, based on books, publications in the media and - most importantly - his life and professional experience, his own planning system that suits him personally.

“Most of today’s bright business leaders have developed an optimal working regime for themselves without any training or seminars,” says Igor Minevich, owner of the Stolichny Vkus company. - Take, for example, Andrei Bilzho or Arkady Novikov - their activities cannot be unified, and their projects cannot be streamlined. If Anna Akhmatova had attended a time management course, would we have one more volume of poetry?”

“Every company is a community of people with different levels of intelligence and life experience, the effectiveness of whose work often depends on the charisma and talent of the leader,” adds Minevich. - Only around truly effective specialists is a business environment formed, bright people and projects appear. How employees achieve such efficiency is their own business.”

And indeed: if you even skim through any popular book on time management, you will be struck by the highly “everyday” nature of the advice given in it. To apply them with the greatest impact, it will be more useful for the employee to “reach” them himself. For example, it’s not enough to read about the ease of use of the electronic planner built into most modern business phones. This information is obvious and of little use to the case. However, once a person gets to grips with a simple program once, he will immediately become much less “forgetful” to the envy of his colleagues. Simple pragmatics and lack of fear of something new. And what does time management have to do with it?”

Many of today's popular time management technologies were developed back in the 1970s in Western Europe and the United States. However, it would be a mistake to perceive time management as a 100% Western technology. The domestic school of scientific organization of work and personal time (NOT) can boast of a number of its own achievements that have no analogues in Western science. One of the “fathers” of scientific management, Frank Gilbreth, having read the publications of the Central Labor Institute (CIT), said: “Russians have a deeper understanding of time management than we do.”

The impetus for the development of NOT in Russia was given by the developments of two of the most prominent representatives of domestic management science at the beginning of the last century. Thus, the director of the CIT, Alexey Gastev, was the first to refute one of the most common objections to the scientific organization of the work process, according to which it is incompatible with creative thinking. In his opinion, the standardization of actions and the development of automatism contribute to the fact that “nervous energy is freed up for more and more new initiative stimuli, increasing the power of the individual to infinity.”

Platon Kerzhentsev, the leader of the “Time” movement, set the main goal of his organization to reduce ineffective time costs. The movement itself began in 1923 with an article in the newspaper Pravda, which provided data on the unforgivable waste of production time at general meetings. In particular, it described a case when the total waiting time for a speaker by a large number of qualified employees of an aircraft factory was assessed by the American specialists present as sufficient to build several airplanes.

The second wave of popularity of time management in our country began with the publication of Daniil Granin’s book “This Strange Life” in the early 1970s. In it, he was the first Russian researcher to voice the idea of ​​timekeeping as the basis of a personal time management system, and also presented his theory of “budgeting” time - a much more flexible tool than traditional Western planning.

So, the latest trend has been the introduction of a time management system in enterprises (corporate time management). Time management is a new direction in enterprise management.

corporate time management of the enterprise;

corporate time management of individual departments;

individual time management of leading specialists.

Corporate time management of an enterprise is, first of all, focused on the formation of an effective system of interaction between departments and officials of the enterprise. It involves the widespread use of local networks and information technologies in the communication process.

Thus, the use of a corporate time management system in an enterprise will be effective only in the case of an integrated approach to the time management process in a single organization

3. Assessment and improvement of the time management system at Megafon OJSC

.1 General characteristics of the analyzed enterprise

time management megaphone

Open joint stock company Megafon was created in 2002.

Name of organization: OJSC Megafon.

Legal address: 115035, Moscow, Kadashevskaya embankment, 30

The main goal of Megafon OJSC is:

provision of cellular services (GSM<#"justify">MegaFon operates in all 83 constituent entities of the Russian Federation<#"justify">The officials include:

General Director - Tavrin Ivan Vladimirovich

Director of Internal Audit - Zheimo Yuri Antonovich

Director of Public Relations - Lidov Petr Alekseevich

HR Director - Likhova Irina Borisovna

Chief Accountant - Strelkina Lyubov Nikolaevna

MegaFon is one of the three largest mobile operators in Russia, providing a full range of mobile communication services throughout Russia. In June 2010, MegaFon acquired 100% of the shares of Synterra, which made it possible to strengthen its own network infrastructure and strengthen its position in the markets of long-distance communications, fixed and mobile broadband Internet access, as well as convergent services. The number of active subscribers of the company exceeds 62 million. However, the attractiveness of the MegaFon brand is explained not only by its coverage area, which has no analogues in Russia. Living up to the slogan “The future depends on you,” the company always tries to be one step ahead - of the market, competitors, and customer desires.

MegaFon has traditionally implemented the most advanced technologies. At one time, the company became the first all-Russian cellular operator of the GSM 900/1800 standard. And today MegaFon is the first company in Russia to launch commercial operation of a new generation network, 3G, in the most promising communication standard UMTS, making the mobile Internet a convenient and effective tool for users. This allowed us to become leaders in the number of users of third generation networks, as well as in the volume of revenue from the services sold in them.

The development of third generation networks will be a priority for the company in the foreseeable future. At the same time, MegaFon does not stand still, mastering new technologies: in 2010, the fourth generation (4G) wireless data network operating using the LTE protocol was successfully tested. In November 2010, MegaFon became the first operator in Russia to implement in its network support for innovative HD-Voice technology, which provides high quality voice transmission and significantly increases sound clarity.

The margin of safety gained by MegaFon over the years of operation and the extremely conservative policy of financial management and borrowing allowed the company not only to confidently survive the peak of the financial crisis, but also to strengthen its position in the market by responding to new challenges.

In 2010, MegaFon became the winner in the “Cellular Operator” category according to the results of the popular vote “Brand No. 1 in Russia 2010”, and the CEO of MegaFon, Tavrin Ivan Vladimirovich, was recognized as the best leader of telecommunications companies in Russia in the annual TOP- 1000 Russian managers."

3.2 Evaluation of the OJSC time management systemMegaphone

According to analysts and operators themselves, the cellular communications market is one of the fastest growing in Russia. At the same time, competition in it, as befits a developed market, is very high: the main players, as a rule, are neck and neck, and therefore you cannot give yourself the slightest concession. You should not miss a single opportunity to be at least in some way more effective and better than others. You need to find resources that you can manage in order to achieve results, keep ahead of competitors, and control time.

The company's management came to the understanding that it was necessary to use the resource - time - as efficiently as possible. This resource must be directed primarily to achieving the company's goals. The head of Megafon OJSC and the Organization of Time company made several notable projects, conducted trainings and consultations in order to introduce TM ideas into organizations.

“Time cannot be managed alone.” These methods were primarily considered by the head of the company from the point of view of his personal time management. Every day a leader faces many tasks. Therefore, the manager considered TM specifically as applied to himself, because there are both personal matters and company matters that require time. And only later, when the implementation of this system began, it became clear that it was necessary to solve problems together with the entire working staff.

Therefore, it is very important for a manager to control his time - and at the same time manage the time system of his colleagues. When organizing any meetings, meetings or conferences, the manager must know in advance what plans his subordinates have, so that joint work can be coordinated so that processes do not overlap each other. Conversely, when employees plan their day, they should see and relate to the manager's calendar. It is an axiom: if you want to manage your time effectively, you can only achieve this if your colleagues interact with you just as effectively.

The Megafon company uses Microsoft Exchange Server and maintains calendars in Outlook. Now the manager can see where colleagues are and where they will be over the next three months, and can plan a meeting with them. Time is a category where one cannot manage alone, everyone must act together.

Control of orders. In order for the time management system to work throughout the company, it was necessary first of all to set up an order management system in Outlook in the manager’s affairs management. Today the company has a clear system of instructions and control. Instructions are given orally, by e-mail or on paper, and all fall into a single list, which is used to track deadlines. If something is not completed on time, the manager receives notifications, and based on them, the secretariat requests additional information about why the failure occurred. Next, the performer reports to management, and a decision is made: either reschedule or do something else. The main thing is that not a single order is lost or forgotten - because it is under control, which is very important.

The next step after establishing a system for monitoring orders is the introduction of uniform time management standards in the company. Calendars and tasks stored on the Exchange server were synchronized with mobile terminals. For example, a manager needs to schedule a meeting. He takes his communicator, looks at the numbers, finds a “window” - and calls the time. This information will immediately go to the Exchange server. If a meeting is not scheduled by the manager, then the secretary plans it, choosing free time, and the manager sees this update in his calendar and already knows when and with whom to meet. Accordingly, you can instruct your subordinates to prepare materials for this meeting. This way, time is not wasted. Everything is clear, everything is scheduled, each person’s time is used as efficiently as possible. And most importantly, all information is stored on the server. If previously mail accumulated in personal laptops and could be accidentally deleted, now everything is in one place, on the Exchange server. This means that the email will not be lost - it has become a full-fledged document.

This management model can be illustrated:

The manager distributes tasks among subordinates, setting priorities and dividing them into projects. This means there is no need to keep everything in your head; modifications are carried out simply and at every moment of time there is an up-to-date version of what is happening.

Figure 1 - Model of task state change log

If necessary, the manager clearly sees both the progress of work on the project and the workload of a particular employee. As a result, time is significantly saved for all parties, but especially for the manager, and work efficiency increases.

Figure 2 - Task change log model

Once entered, information can be used many times. For example, in one form - to determine the progress of work on the project, in another - to analyze the workload of employees, in the third - to prepare reports on the project.

Figure 3 - Task change log model

As a result, time spent on unproductive labor is reduced, and more resources remain for the project itself.

The introduction of simple regulations for entering and presenting information on a project, as well as a history automatically accumulated by the system during the course of work, make it easy to switch employees between tasks, reduce or increase the number of performers.

Megafon, using such a management system, most effectively distributes the working time of the company’s managers and employees.

3.3 Improving the OJSC time management systemMegaphone

At Megafon, unexpected questions and problems arise that disrupt the schedule, disrupt important work, and force you to lose concentration and get distracted by them. For each of them, the author offers several solutions. At the same time, it’s not just an emergency response, but proactive procedures that need to be carried out in advance in order to successfully cope with surprises later.

Phone calls. It is necessary to develop a quick categorization of these calls. So that you know right away, from the first seconds, which script to apply to the “incoming”. Below we offer a number of categories of incoming calls and response scenarios.

Personal Calls

Ask to speak briefly

Ask to call back at another time

Set aside time for personal calls, and warn all loved ones to call during the windows provided.

Set up an answering machine

Professional calls

A. Calls from Management

Phrase: “Sorry, I’m talking to a client right now.”

Phrase: “I’m talking long distance”

Idea: an answering machine takes busy periods from the schedule and reports this by voice or text (SMS, e-mail, ICQ)! Technically feasible.

In response to the call, an SMS is sent when you can call back. To make this move economical, you should first configure SMS response templates. Calls from colleagues

Postpone call

Quickly understand the essence of the topic and reschedule the conversation for another time

Designate areas for communication (when is the best time to call you)

Suggested options, two windows in the morning and evening

Require a structured presentation of the essence. Calls from Clients

Make a request to call back: “they are calling the authorities to the carpet...”

Listen in a structured manner, respond quickly

“I understand the task, I’ll call you back at such and such a time...”

Receive the call, recording it on the incoming form and transfer it to an authorized person

Suddenly a man comes. This is the most common problem in open offices. When everyone who is not busy and who is bored is constantly distracted by their neighbors or the people sitting next to them. Visitors who arrive unexpectedly and unexpectedly also reduce work efficiency. It is possible to apply the following branches of solutions to these “time stealers”.

Suddenly a man (visitor) arrives

Occupancy indicators: flags, signs, caps, etc.

Make a red button, when you press it, the phone rings in a minute and you urgently need to leave!

Create a guest room where a mini library and video library is located, so that the visitor can wait with benefit

At the entrance, a list of questions is filled out. Some kind of client questionnaire in which he notes what he came with. Formalizing questions speeds up communication

Reorienting his activity in your direction, towards your goals

Redirect to another person: “manager on duty”, “space manager”

On the business card, indicate the office opening hours: from... to... Thus, limiting visitors at inconvenient times

Reception schedule (multi-channel telephone for easy access):

Combine meetings with lunch. Business lunches, “travel for lunch”

Organize a place for open meetings in the company (meeting rooms)

Internal problems. This section contains horizontal and vertical task breakers. That is, we will talk about superiors, subordinates, and colleagues. The Megafon company has a tradition of unscheduled meetings and sessions of “strategic meetings” and questions for 15 minutes that drag on for hours. With a regular, irregular schedule, work productivity decreases and it is almost impossible to accomplish what was planned.

The manager was scheduled for a “snap meeting.”

Participate in a meeting by phone

Conduct a meeting standing. For example, the Beeline company has a meeting room with no chairs. With this organization, all issues are resolved promptly. There is no desire to drive a pitchfork through the water, since everyone wants to leave quickly, to more comfortable conditions.

Develop a list of meetings that are not resolved by flyers. The result: a register of meetings, opposite each of which is a list of issues being resolved.

Segment the time of the meeting. Set time markers, pacemakers, in the form of a timer for 10-15 minutes. Check each period of time with the agenda to speed up progress towards the goal.

Agree on the format of the meetings. For example, at the PPE Group company there are posters on the walls: “10 Rules of Meetings.” This helps the meeting participants adhere to established procedures, stimulating high-quality and quick resolution of issues.

It should be stated in the corporate manual that the agenda for the meeting is sent no later than 24 hours before the start time of the meeting. By definition, “surprise meetings” disappear and you have 24 hours to prepare for them.

Introduce a meeting protection rule. Describe when you have the right to “decline a meeting invitation”

Take minutes and conduct meetings according to the minutes. In this case, there must be a leader who monitors the rules of the issues raised.

Hold the meeting before lunch: in this case, each participant strives to speak constructively, since a delay results in a late lunch and a shorter lunch.

Unscheduled order from management (interference from management)

Organize a Referent who distributes instructions from the manager to subordinates in certain windows

Give the manager feedback in the form of training on what unscheduled “twitches” of staff lead to

Receive a “responsibility interval” from your manager. The period of time during which the manager does not interfere with the employee’s work. For example, in the morning an employee was given a list of tasks and in the evening the quality of completion was checked. In this case, the responsibility interval is equal to a working day, 8 hours. If you set tasks on Monday and check them on Friday, then the responsibility interval is a week.

Equipment failure. The Megafon company has a complex system, so there is a high probability that it will fail. Due to the fact that the modern pace of life does not allow one to abandon technology, one must be prepared for failures. Solutions to these minor and major technical troubles are described in this part.

Equipment failures

Draw up a schedule for monitoring equipment (regular technical inspection).

Troubleshooting instructions

There should always be a spare printer cartridge in the office.

Think over duplicating functions (scanner, copier, digital camera)..

Conduct drills and practice emergency situations

Create Cognitive Maps. Description of the infrastructure within the office radius. Where can I buy something to print, etc.

Establish positive communication with neighbors, whose help you can use in case of emergency

"Mail doesn't arrive"

Have a reserve in the form of free servers. Recommended: mail.ru, yandex.ru

Set up your email client for quick access to recently sent emails

Personal problems. This section contains personal reasons for “unexpected” disruptions to the work schedule. This includes traffic jams, problems with body tone, invasion of relatives and natural disasters. This is the least developed segment of time loss prevention today. Therefore, we are ready to accept and consider each of your new decisions not described below. Finds can be sent to: [email protected] with a note in the Subject: “Thieves of Time”

A good solution is parallel activities

Make a series of short calls

Using free hands to make a series of long calls

Listen to audio courses: business, foreign languages, etc.

Listen to audiobooks

Requires knowledge of traffic flow. What time are there traffic jams, detour options. Plan trips during traffic-free times

Learn to use webcams. Conducting virtual meetings instead of traveling is much cheaper

To avoid traffic jams in the morning (before work) - you can get up early before the traffic jams start

Use a “mixed” method of transportation around the city

If you need to bring/drop something and does not necessarily require personal presence, you can use a courier service

Sudden personal problems with oneself (fell ill, unwell)

Keep one employee updated on the project. Work in pairs (cluster model)

Provide the possibility of “virtual work, home office”

Take vitamins regularly, get enough sleep, and engage in physical activity.

Invasion of Relatives and/or Friends

Discuss with loved ones situations when it is worth calling and when it is better to wait

Clearly indicate what is urgent and what is important.

Have an agreement with the hotel: where to move them

Partial participation in communication with them, redirection to others to solve problems. Participation with resources other than time

So, in order to conduct a detailed analysis of the management system of Megafon OJSC, the author in the work identified the advantages and disadvantages of time management and analyzed the functions of the company's manager. Analysis of the management structure showed that it meets modern requirements, i.e. the duties and responsibilities of employees are clearly distributed, the grouping scheme for individual departments and the principles of their management are outlined.

In addition, the work examined the Outbook method in time management to analyze the environment.

Conclusion

Time management is the accounting and operational planning of time. The task of time management is to organize the use of time (both work and personal time) of the day and week in order to have time to do all the most important things. Basic principles of time management: painstaking independent work, individual decision-making, the need to track one’s own effectiveness, thinking aimed at efficiency, achievability and inexhaustible efficiency reserves. Alarming symptoms of the imminent occurrence of temporary problems can be identified by certain signs and the causes of “time sinks” can be identified.

Modern time management techniques: goal setting, classical planning, “golden” proportions of time planning (Pareto principle), delegation of authority, monitoring results and adjusting goals. By studying the causes of time problems and using basic time management techniques, a manager will be able to achieve high-quality and quick results.

The latest trend has been the introduction of a time management system in enterprises (corporate time management). Time management is a new direction in enterprise management.

There are three areas in corporate time management:

corporate time management of the enterprise;

corporate time management of individual departments;

individual time management of leading specialists.

Corporate time management of an enterprise is, first of all, focused on the formation of an effective system of interaction between departments and officials of the enterprise. It involves the widespread use of local networks and information technologies in the communication process.

Thus, the use of a corporate time management system in an enterprise will be effective only in the case of an integrated approach to the time management process in a single organization

Time management in the Russian Federation is still far from the parameters set by globalization at all levels: from an individual company to society as a whole. Now leading managers are actively discussing the possibilities of developing time management in Russia according to the principle of one of the Western “models”. However, without taking into account our national mentality, historical differences in the theory and practice of management, not a single method of using time can be rationally applied to Russian conditions.

In order to conduct a detailed analysis of the management system of OJSC Megafon, the author identified the advantages and disadvantages of time management and analyzed the functions of the company's manager. Analysis of the management structure showed that it meets modern requirements, i.e. the duties and responsibilities of employees are clearly distributed, the grouping scheme for individual departments and the principles of their management are outlined.

An assessment of the management organization at the enterprise under study was carried out on the basis of the company's use of time management methods.

In addition, the work examined the Outbook method in time management to analyze the environment.

For managers, time is always a scarce resource. Companies do not allocate a special budget for additional time, and it cannot be added like in computer games. What typical mistakes do major directors make when planning their working time? What should you pay more attention to, and what time management techniques should you completely abandon?

Why is time always in short supply?

Every leader daily faces a range of problems and tasks that require attention. Unforeseen meetings and events are added to the simple daily circle of worries, notifications about which come at the last minute. Meetings take longer than originally planned, and employees ask questions that are not relevant to the discussion. All this can be called the specifics of a person’s work in a leadership position. However, this most likely means that a major miscalculation was made in the planning.

As Harvard Business School researchers found, “the average manager spends one out of three hours of work completing unexpected tasks and attending unplanned events.” Thus, in a week, 13 hours of work accumulate, which were not initially included in the diary, and which postponed the resolution of other issues indefinitely.

There are several techniques that lead to a decrease in the success of both the company as a whole and its leader. Kevin Kruse, a best-selling author on time management and president of Kru Research, calls keeping to-do lists ineffective because failure to complete an item leads to frustration and, as a result, decreased motivation. Meetings involving a large number of employees are also considered unproductive, which leads to an increase in discussion time. Among other problems in his books, management guru Peter Drucker notes the lack of free time for solving problems and self-development of the manager, as well as distrust or reluctance to delegate some of the issues that the manager has to deal with, but which can be better performed by another employee.

Efficiency VS Time management

Anything that a manager misses leads to a planning error. This term was introduced back in 1979 by Daniel Kaniman and Amos Tversky (“Intuitive prediction: biases and corrective procedures”). Scientists have come to the conclusion that sometimes our expectations are overly optimistic and do not take into account previous experience in solving a similar problem, as well as underestimating time.

Even earlier opinions about time and its use were expressed in the pages of The Economist magazine in 1955. Cyril Northcock Parkinson wrote a satirical piece that was later called "Parkinson's Law". It says that “work fills the time allotted to it.” That is, if you ready writing a letter or browsing social networks and email for an hour means exactly that long it will take you to complete these tasks. The amount of work in this case does not depend on the number of employees who perform it. But reducing the time for this type of activity by 6-7% will not significantly affect the quality of work.

“Work fills the time allotted for it.” That is, if you ready writing a letter, or browsing social networks and email, for an hour means exactly that long it will go away from you.

Another study by Harvard scientists also speaks about the time spent on work. It showed that the time you spend working doesn't matter that much. It doesn’t matter whether a manager spends three, 12 or more hours in the office. It is much more important for the productivity of the company when the manager gets into the essence as best as possible and treats tasks more carefully.

A similar idea is expressed by Cal Newport in his book “Deep Work”. Newport writes that time management in general is not that important, especially in routine work. It is much more important to set your priorities correctly. Immersive work allows you to concentrate on specific (and even immediate) tasks and at the same time remain flexible with respect to the established schedule, continuing to adhere to it.

How to manage your time as a leader

The ability to manage time for directors and managers is always a double-edged sword. It is obvious that there is a certain and exhaustible amount of time; it is also clear that the higher the leadership position, the less time is spent on completing those tasks that the manager himself is directly involved in. As Peter Drucker writes in his book The Effective Leader, top managers rarely have 25% of their total time to devote to important tasks that directly affect the success of the company. What the remaining 75% is spent on is clear from the range of problems of managers, which were described a few paragraphs above. But the question is not how to do everything in a quarter of the working time. The main question is how to use it more effectively?

One technique that can help you better manage your time is time analysis. As Peter Drucker notes, for this the director does not need to independently record all past meetings and completed tasks; this work can be done by a secretary or personal assistant. Analyzing time spent records will lead to a more fruitful distribution of tasks for the implementation of future plans, since the actual time spent on work is not always distributed as we assume. There is often a very large discrepancy.

How to organize time effectively

After a fruitful analysis of time, you need to understand how to fill it. Kevin Cruz interviewed more than 800 entrepreneurs and directors, and found that the most effective technique is to strictly limit the time for completing specific and unplanned tasks. Thus, senior managers noted that they use in their work 15-minute blocks to complete tasks (sending letters, business calls, etc.), a schedule with strictly fixed time (30 minutes for a weekly meeting, 20 minutes for reviewing emails , 10 minutes per phone call). According to Peter Drucker, rigid division of time is not so effective. He talks about a longer period of time during which the solution of the problem takes place more systematically, namely in 90 minutes. Kevin Cruz also writes about 90 minutes, but calls 25 and 60 minutes of concentrated work, followed by a break, just as effective. It is these temporary areas that allow you not to get bored while performing a task.

In addition, Kevin Cruz in the book “15 Secrets of Time Management. How successful people manage to do everything” ( 15 Secrets of Successful People Know About Time Management) recommends scheduling important tasks in the morning, when productivity is higher, and also leaving planned buffer time for unscheduled meetings and not canceling, but rescheduling plans. Cruz advises devoting at least another 60 minutes to your morning ritual: waking up early, eating a healthy breakfast, exercising, watching the news or listening to podcasts that will help you improve yourself.

1. What can I stop doing?

2. What can I delegate?

3. What can I do differently?

The answers to these questions will help in the future to relieve yourself of some of the tasks, the failure of which will not lead to a deterioration in performance or which a subordinate or you yourself can perform better.

Avoiding lengthy meetings and reducing the number of participants will help improve manager productivity. By excluding “extra” employees from the discussion, its quality will increase significantly. The regularity of meetings is equally important. Monthly meetings are needed to create a team plan for the next four weeks, and daily short meetings determine the current tasks that should be focused on today. In this way, the focus of the team's attention on a specific workday is distributed and the overall productivity and efficiency of employees and managers increases.

You can't just learn each technique separately. Any of the secrets of a manager’s effectiveness is based on attitudes and habits, following which helps plan work rituals in a more structured manner.

With a complete list of useful habits of an effective leader, you can begin to implement them in our time management course.

Greetings! Everyone knows that the term “time management” literally translates as “time management.” But this is not entirely correct - after all, a person does not yet know how to manage time. But we can effectively manage our affairs (and not only work ones) taking into account time constraints!

Productivity is what separates successful people from everyone else. During his life, Nicholas Roerich painted 7,000 paintings and 30 books and traveled half the world. How do you spend your irreplaceable and most valuable resource?

In my opinion, time management is a set of tricks and techniques that make it easy to deceive your own laziness. I offer personally proven time management tools!

The name is certainly funny, but the method is quite serious. 🙂 The Pomodoro tool is needed for maximum concentration. In my opinion, this is one of the most effective ways to complete any work in a short time.

What's the point?

• Clearly formulate the task you will work on
• Set a timer (possibly in the form of a tomato) for exactly 25 minutes
• Work without distractions until the beep
• Take a short break of 4-5 minutes
• Proceed to the next 25-minute segment
• After every sixth stage, take a long break of 15-20 minutes

The tool is great for solving one task that you need to fully concentrate on: writing a report, creating a website design layout, translating text from English.

Priority scheduling

The method is based on the Eisenhower matrix, which I'm talking about. It is a quadrant of four squares with two axes. The matrix is ​​divided horizontally into “urgent” and “not urgent”, and vertically into “important” and “not important”.

Each task is assigned a priority based on two criteria (urgency and importance). There can be only four options: A, B, C, D.

How does the priority scheduling method use the Eisenhower matrix?

1. Write down current tasks in columns A, B, C, D
2. We complete tasks “A” (if there are any). Proper planning suggests that there should be as few “urgent and important” things as possible. Category “A” tasks can appear spontaneously throughout the day! Therefore, time for them must be reserved in advance.
3. Delegate tasks from the “C” square (urgent but unimportant) to someone else. A classic example: a company manager often delegates to a personal assistant tasks like “pick up dry cleaning,” “make restaurant reservations,” or “book plane tickets.”
4. Start completing tasks from the “B” square (important, but not urgent). These are the main things that require maximum time and effort.
5. Tasks from square “D” (not urgent and not important) can be completed after all the others or ignored altogether. Or, as a last resort, use it as a short rest during the day.

Alps method

One of the simplest and most visual time management tools for planning your working day.

• Making a list of tasks
• Setting priorities
• We calculate the time to complete each task and the total time requirement
• We reduce the total number to 60% of the entire day
• We delegate to others everything that can be delegated.
• At the end of the day, we monitor completion and transfer everything unfulfilled to the next day

Schwab method

Bethlehem Steel President Charles Schwab once paid consultant Ivy Lee $25,000 to create this planning method.

How to use the Schwab method?

• Write down the most important tasks
• Determine the sequence and number them
• We work on solving problems in a given sequence
• Having finished working on one task, we check whether new ones have appeared and whether priorities have shifted in favor of others
• Adding new things to the list, respecting priority
• We continue to work on tasks as their importance decreases

Having tested a bunch of planning techniques and tools on myself, I realized that everything is not so simple. Some techniques absolutely did not work for me. Others gave amazing results, but... not right away. By the way, Gleb Arkhangelsky offers a bunch of working tools in his book “Time drive. How to have time to live and work".

• Choose a planner for yourself

If your day is not too busy (or you don’t like gadgets), then the ideal option is a regular paper notebook. If you constantly work at a computer, a convenient electronic planner will do. Well, if you can’t imagine your life without gadgets, then the best helpers are applications for smartphones and tablets.

• Plan your day in advance

It is better to plan the next day the night before, rather than in the morning of the “reporting” day. The same can be said about plans for the week. It is advisable to prepare them on Sunday evening, not Monday.

• Consider force majeure

Previously, I persistently made the same mistake: I created a schedule where things went one after another without a single “window”. Within a week, I realized that constantly living in a state of deadline is a sure road to neurosis.

Firstly, some things could not be squeezed into the time I allocated to them. Secondly, during the day new tasks appeared that were not taken into account in the schedule. Thirdly, force majeure always happened a couple of times a week: a tire puncture, a terrible traffic jam on the way to a meeting, or a friend asked for help with a repair. Such unforeseen matters, as a rule, take up a lot of time and force you to radically reconsider your plans for the day.

Conclusion: leave windows for force majeure every day. If nothing “unscheduled” happened, time can be spent on:

• Rest
• Things from the “for later” category

By the way, I have long wanted to tell you about such a useful tool as “things for later.” In your planning notebook (or electronic planner), set aside a separate page.

There we write down all the “non-urgent” matters that we never get around to. We immediately divide them into three categories: “up to one hour,” “two to three hours,” and “half a day.” For example: “get your housing and communal services bills in order for the past year,” “visit the dentist for a preventive examination,” and “buy and replace a faucet in the kitchen.”

As soon as a window unexpectedly appears in your schedule: open your to-do list “for later” and choose something to suit your mood. In just six months, you can, without straining, redo EVERYTHING that has been accumulating for years!

What time management tools do you use? Subscribe to updates and share links to fresh posts with your friends on social networks!

Time management for a manager - why is it needed, how can it help in performing daily work duties? The higher a person’s position, the greater the range of responsibilities - control over subordinates, communication with customers, tax audits, writing reports. Entrepreneurs and managers often work overtime and constantly feel a lack of time.

How to find extra time and learn to do everything? This article is devoted to this issue; now a separate science has emerged - time management, based on psychology, economics, sociology, and personnel work. Principles have been developed that have become classic, and new authors are appearing, offering their own methods. Let's look at the main recommendations.

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Manager time management involves the following steps:

• Learn to motivate yourself and your employees to complete assigned tasks. This is especially true for complex tasks;
• Goal setting - the ability to correctly set long-term and short-term goals;
• Planning within a time frame - for a year, a month, a day. Drawing up an action plan for each working day;
• Prioritization in completing tasks, mobility and readiness to change tasks, approaches to solution;
• Working with information - it is important to learn how to find the information necessary to solve strategic and operational problems, store it, use it so that it can always be found;
• Combating time wasters - searching for time leaks, controlling the distribution of time resources, minimizing unreasonable actions;
• The ability to recuperate - proper rest is the key to successful activity!

Let’s take a closer look at these steps and get closer to effective activity and control over our lives, because it’s not just work, there’s also family, interests, and friends. And the availability of time for other areas of life depends on the correct organization of the work process.

Successful motivation

Motivation is necessary for a person to perform any job. Lack of meaning, interest, and fear lead to delays in completing tasks. In time management, it is recommended to start the working day with the most unpleasant action. It is important to motivate yourself to make a call, write a letter or report that is necessary, but there is no desire to do. How to stimulate yourself to action?

The most important thing in work is to start acting, to take the first step. Having a work ethic will help with this. “Anchors” serve as motivation to action. Each person has his own ritual - morning coffee at his desk, a cigarette before starting work, listening to inspiring music on the way, writing a work plan in a diary.

The creation of anchors is very individual, it can be associated with school and student years, when it was necessary to tune in to study. They cause a special emotional state, readiness for battle - activation of internal reserves, concentration of attention.

Most problems can be solved in a couple of minutes; you just need to set the problem, think through solution options, choose the most suitable one and implement it. If the task is voluminous, it is recommended to divide it into parts, points and gradually complete it - from simple to complex.

You can motivate yourself using the method of encouragement or punishment, as in childhood, promising yourself to buy something on the way home, if you cope with all the tasks quickly, or to arrange a meeting with friends at the end of the week. This is for small complex issues. Of course, the main incentive is to build a career, increase income, and improve status.

You need to clearly understand why you need to complete this task, what result you will get, do it and forget it, and calmly switch to other issues.

Motivation is also added by the deadlines for completing a task; you must always limit yourself in time to stimulate action, and clearly set tasks.

Setting goals

A manager's time management is impossible without setting goals. Goals are a look into the future, a desired result, they determine the reason for actions, why a person does a certain job. Goals help set guidelines, points of aspiration, and attraction of effort.

You need to learn how to set the right goals. Let's compare the answers of different managers according to their functional responsibilities:

• Complete your tasks correctly. / Set the right goals.
• Find solutions to issues. / Use creativity, look for alternatives.
• Save resources. / Optimize the distribution of material resources.
• Work as it should. / Achieve your goals.
• Reduce expenses. / Increase profitability.

As we see, with the same responsibilities, managers set different goals, obtaining different results. The second option involves a more productive approach to work. Goals can be strategic - the goals of the organization's work, long-term objectives and tactical - existing at a specific point in time.

Each leader and manager develops his own goals, conveys information to his subordinates, and the work of the organization as a whole depends on the correctness of defining goals. It is very important to take the time to identify the main goals that lead to prosperity and success, as well as ways to reach the “stars”. Knowing your goals and striving for them allows you to concentrate all your efforts and energy on important tasks, avoiding wasting your energy.

Goals are set according to the following scheme:Desires - opportunities - goals.

Often desires exceed possibilities, circumstances do not allow you to immediately get results, it is necessary to balance, take into account external and internal obstacles, overcome them, and look for a compromise solution.

An important point is that goals must be specific, have volume and time indicators.

Manager's time management: planning

After setting goals, we move on to planning, how to pave the way from the current situation to the desired one? A plan is a system of actions that leads us to a goal, in business - making a profit, success and fame of the organization.

Planning can be in various areas - organizational development, sales, personal achievements. If a person has a desire for personal development, a plan for professional growth and career building has been created, then there is also motivation to act.

Planning is designed to help save time and use it correctly.

There are two planning criteria:

• Maximum (rational) - find time to complete important life tasks.
• Minimal - to achieve the required results with minimal deadlines and loss of time.

Planning includes preparation for the implementation of desired achievements and the correct allocation of time frames.

Every person must plan his life, otherwise it will go with the flow without changes for the better. The manager needs to plan his personal time, ways to achieve goals, set targets and achievement criteria for employees.

You need to learn how to make a long-term plan - from 5 years, for a year and for the next month. It’s interesting that in Soviet times the term “five-year plan” was often used; why this particular period? Because 5 years is a convenient period for planning for medium terms, it shows a clear result in a comparative analysis.

Having long-term plans, you can break down tasks into smaller periods, striving for the final result. Nowadays, organizations often assign tasks to employees by quarter and month, which is called tactical planning.

Manager's time management in a minimal way - planning the working day. Naturally, the number of tasks grows in proportion to the organization and it takes a lot of time to solve all the problems.

To simplify the solution of current issues, the following recommendations are offered:

Use the Alps method for planning

It includes the following sequence of actions:

1. writing tasks;
2. determination of execution time;
3. time reserve (in a ratio of 60:40);
4. determining priorities, reassigning tasks;
5. control of implementation (accounting for what has not been done).

When writing a plan, it is recommended to use abbreviations, which will allow you to systematize the work and divide it into blocks. You can write: V - visits, D - delegation, K - control, P - in progress, PC - trips and business trips, T - telephone, H - reading, training.

Opposite each item, a task (result) is written, and the completion time is indicated to specify the task and avoid unnecessary wastage of time.

The time reserve assumes that with a 10-hour working day, work is planned for 6 hours, with an 8-hour day - for 5 hours, the rest must be distributed or rescheduled. Unforeseen meetings, communications, and interruptions always arise; no one has ever managed to use their day 100% according to plan.

The fourth point will help you adjust the plan in order to reach the desired level in terms of time spent - we set priorities, distribute the work. Completing the day - monitoring the completion of tasks by subordinates and one’s own work, drawing up a plan for the next day, rescheduling tasks that did not take place for certain reasons and did not have time to be fully completed.

How to answer the following interview questions: How do you manage your time? How do you plan your working day? What techniques and methods do you use in planning? Give examples of how you use time management skills to successfully complete a task.

You will find out all the answers to these questions by reading this article.

What is time management?

Time management- this is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities, thanks to which a person knows how to set priorities, accurately plans his time, thereby increasing his personal productivity in organizing his working time.

“Until you can manage your time, you can’t manage anything else.” Peter Drucker

1. Perfectionism
2. Procrastination
3. Lack of knowledge
4. Lack of necessary tools and resources

1. Perfectionism makes it very difficult to complete tasks on time. Many people believe that this quality is a strength, but it is the constant desire for perfection and dissatisfaction with the results obtained that is one of the reasons for the ineffective use of time. By finding opportunities to accept the “real” outcome instead of the “ideal” one, you save significant resources for other things. There is an expression: “perfectionism is evil,” of course, all this is quite relative and in each individual situation this personality characteristic can be assessed differently, however, undoubtedly within the framework of time management: perfectionism is EVIL!

2. Procrastination- constant postponing of things until later, unwillingness to perform certain duties. The word “TOMORROW” dominates the vocabulary of procrastinating employees. Steve Jobs said very well about such people: “The poor, unsuccessful, unhappy and unhealthy is the one who often uses the word “tomorrow.”

I cannot save you from perfectionism and procrastination; my goal is to give knowledge, provide the best techniques and methods, and introduce you to resources and tools for mastering time management skills. Whether you use the information received or not - it all depends solely on your desire. However, after reading this article, you will never be the same.

First, I suggest you determine your time management skills. Pass

Cognitive dissonance lies in the fact that on the one hand, we cannot control time as such. After all, it is time that we cannot control and it seems that it is time that controls us, and not we control it. We are accustomed to perceiving time as something eternal and limitless. It seems like there is always a lot of it. On the other hand, time is one of the most valuable resources we all have. It is important to understand that time has its own boundaries, every day is a vessel of a certain capacity that you fill with things to do. You can fill it with useless things, or you can fill it with things that work for your tasks and lead you to your final goal.

We can control ourselves, how we plan our day, and how we spend our working time. The intelligent, productive and economical use of this resource is an important part of an employee's evaluation.

Time efficiency can be achieved in two ways:

1. Achieve meaningful results by saving time. This means that you know how to achieve a task in a minimum amount of time.
2. Effective planning of working time will reduce the number and volume of tasks you perform.

In this article, I have compiled a digest of the six best time management techniques. With their help, you can learn to plan and control your priority tasks on a daily basis.

How to learn to manage your time?

6 best time management methods:

1. Pareto principle
2. Eisenhower Matrix
3. Mind maps
4. Franklin's Pyramid
5. ABCD method
6. Eat the frog first

1. Pareto principle

The Pareto Principle states that a small proportion of the causes, efforts, and investments are responsible for a large proportion of the results. This principle was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1897 and has since been confirmed by quantitative research in a variety of areas of life:

20% of effort produces 80% of results

The Pareto principle in the field of time management can be formulated as follows: approximately 20% of effort and time is enough to get 80% of the result.
How exactly do you determine what effort is enough to expend to get a good result? Imagine that you are looking for answers to questions that interest you in a book. According to the principle under consideration, you will find 80% of the information you need in 20% of the text. If you know exactly what interests you, you can quickly flip through the book and carefully read only individual pages. This way you will save 80% of your time.

2. Eisenhower Matrix

This is probably the most famous time management concept today, which allows you to prioritize. This technique, the creation of which is attributed to American General Dwight Eisenhower, allows you to sort things by both their urgency and their importance. Everyone understands that only a limited number of tasks can be completed in one period of time. Sometimes, without compromising the work, only one. And every time we have to decide, WHICH EXACTLY? American President Dwight Eisenhower used to organize his affairs into several important categories when planning his affairs.
In accordance with the so-called Eisenhower matrix, it is necessary to classify each case into one of the four types indicated in the diagram.

Eisenhower Matrix

The importance of a task is determined by how much the result of its implementation affects your business. And urgency is determined by two factors at the same time: firstly, how quickly this task must be completed, and secondly, whether the completion of this task is tied to a specific date and specific time. It is importance and urgency, considered together, that influences the setting of priorities.

Let's take a closer look at what cases can be classified into each of the four types.

Type I: “important and urgent.”
These are matters that, if not completed on time, will result in significant damage to your business (for example, renewing licenses, filing tax reports, etc.). A certain share of such cases will inevitably be present in the life of every person. However, with advance preparation (Type II matters - “important but not urgent”), many crises can be prevented (for example, by studying the law, developing good relationships with influential people).

These can also be projects with a deadline, or an emergency. For example, visiting a doctor because of health problems, submitting an article to a journal by a strict deadline, or completing a report on the results of a study. We have no choice here. The work of this group must be done, period. Otherwise there will be serious problems.

Type II: “important but not urgent.”
These are things that are focused on the future: training, studying promising areas of business development, improving equipment, restoring health and performance. Actions that lead to your strategic goal. For example, learn a foreign language in order to move to work in another, more promising organization. It’s also about preventing problems – keeping yourself in good physical shape. Unfortunately, we often neglect such matters and put their resolution on the back burner. As a result, the language is never learned, incomes do not grow, but decrease, health is in jeopardy. These matters have an interesting feature - if they are neglected for a long time, then they become Important - Urgent. After all, if you don’t go to the dentist at least once a year, sooner or later an urgent visit to him will become inevitable.

Type III: “not important, but urgent.”
Many of these things don't actually add much value to your life. We do them only because they happen to us (a long telephone conversation or studying an advertisement that comes in the mail), or out of habit (visiting exhibitions where there is nothing new anymore). It’s just that same everyday routine that takes up a lot of our time and energy.

Type IV: “not important and not urgent.”
These are all kinds of ways to “kill time”: alcohol abuse, “light reading”, watching movies, etc. We often resort to this when we don’t have the strength left for productive work (not to be confused with real rest and communication with loved ones and friends - very important matters). This is a “moth” eating our time.

As you strive for the success of your business, you first try to accomplish the things you have identified as “important”—first the “urgent” (Type I) and then the “non-urgent” (Type II). The remaining time can be devoted to matters that are “urgent but not important” (type III).
It must be emphasized that the bulk of an employee’s working time should be spent on matters “important, but not urgent” (type II). Then many crisis situations will be prevented, and the emergence of new business development opportunities will no longer be unexpected for you.

When you first start using this system for prioritizing, you will likely want to categorize many of these items as “important.” However, as you gain experience, you will begin to more accurately assess the importance of a particular matter. It will take some time to learn how to use the prioritization system. Where can I get it? Most likely, you will classify the work of mastering time management techniques as “important, but not urgent.”
In the figurative expression of Stephen Covey (author of the international bestseller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”), you need to find time to “sharpen the saw”, then the preparation of firewood will go faster.

Parable

A certain man saw a woodcutter in the forest, with great difficulty chopping down a tree with a completely blunt ax. The man asked him:
- Dear, why don’t you sharpen your ax?
- I don’t have time to sharpen an ax - I have to chop! - the woodcutter groaned...

Therefore, you need to “voluntarily” allocate a certain amount of time for planning your activities, refusing to do any less important things. If you can do this, you can use your new skills to free up even more time next time and use it to learn more. So, through your determination to improve your work efficiency, you will gradually free up time to develop your personal productivity.

Criteria for prioritizing
Usually, when assessing the importance of a particular task, we consider important, first of all, those things that need to be done urgently (or “yesterday”). The accumulation of unfulfilled tasks and promises creates problems for your company and also creates unpleasant feelings for you personally. It is these “urgent” matters that we strive to deal with first. But urgency should not be the only factor when writing a to-do list and determining the order in which they should be completed.
Experience has shown that while doing (or not doing) many urgent things won't impact your business much, there are many non-urgent things that can lay the foundation for future success. Therefore, in addition to urgency, it is necessary to consider how much this or that matter affects the success of the business, that is, to determine and take into account its importance.

3. Mind maps

This is the development of Tony Buzan - a famous writer, lecturer and consultant on intelligence, the psychology of learning and problems of thinking. There are also such translations of the phrase “Mind maps” as “Mental maps”, “Mental maps”, “Mind maps”.

Mind maps is a method that allows you to:

Effectively structure and process information;
think using your creative and intellectual potential.

This is a very beautiful tool for solving problems such as giving presentations, making decisions, planning your time, memorizing large amounts of information, brainstorming, self-analysis, developing complex projects, personal training, development, etc.

Areas of use:
1. Presentations:
in less time you give more information, while you are better understood and remembered;
holding business meetings and negotiations.

2. Planning:
time management: plan for the day, week, month, year...;
development of complex projects, new businesses...

3. Brainstorming:
generation of new ideas, creativity;
collective solution of complex problems.

4. Decision making:
a clear vision of all the pros and cons;
a more balanced and thoughtful decision.

4. Franklin's Pyramid

This is a ready-made planning system that helps you manage your time correctly and achieve your goals. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) - American. watered activist B. Franklin was distinguished by a fantastic capacity for work and a unique sense of purpose. At the age of twenty, he made a plan to achieve his goals for the rest of his life. Throughout his life he followed this plan, clearly planning every day. His plan for achieving his goals is called the “Franklin Pyramid” and looks something like this:

1. The foundation of the pyramid is the main life values. You could say this is the answer to the question: “What mission did you come to this world with?” What do you want to get out of life? What mark on Earth do you want to leave behind? There is an opinion that there are not even 1% of people living on the planet who would think about this seriously. In other words, this is a vector of direction towards your dream.

2. Based on life values, everyone sets a global goal for themselves. Who does he want to become in this life, what does he plan to achieve?

3. A master plan for achieving goals is the fixation of specific intermediate goals on the way to achieving a global goal.

4. A plan for one three, five years is called long-term. Here it is important to determine the exact deadlines.

5. A plan for a month and then a week is a short-term plan. The more thoughtful it is, the more often you analyze and adjust it, the more effective the work will be.

6. The last point in terms of achieving goals is a plan for every day.

5. ABCD method

The ABCD method is an effective way to prioritize tasks that you can use every day. This method is simple and so effective that it can, if used regularly and competently, elevate you to the rank of the most productive and productive people in your field of activity.
The strength of the method is its simplicity. Here's how it works. You start by making a list of everything you have to do during the coming day. Think on paper.
After that, you put the letter A, B, C, D or D in front of each item on your list.

Problem type "A" is defined as the thing that is of most importance at a given stage, something that you must do or risk serious consequences. A Type A task might be visiting an important client or writing a report for your boss. These tasks represent the real, mature “frogs” of your life.
If you have more than one “A” task in front of you, you rank them in priority by labeling them A-1, A-2, A-3, etc. Task A-1 is the biggest and ugliest “frog” of all. that you have to deal with.

Problem type "B" is defined as the one you should do. Nevertheless, the consequences, in case of its implementation or non-compliance, are quite mild. Such tasks are nothing more than “tadpoles” in your life. This means that if you don't do the appropriate work, someone will be dissatisfied or put at a disadvantage, but in any case, the level of importance of these tasks is not close to the level of tasks of type “A”. Making a call about a less urgent matter or going through a backlog of emails might constitute the essence of a Type B task.
The rule you should follow is: never start a Type B task while you still have an A task left unfinished. Never let the “tadpoles” distract you while the big “frog” awaits its fate of being eaten!

Problem type "B" is defined as something that would be wonderful to do, but from which no consequences should be expected whether you do it or not. A Type B task could be calling a friend, getting a cup of coffee, having lunch with a colleague, or doing some personal business during work hours. These kinds of “events” have absolutely no impact on your work.

Problem type "G" is valued as work that you can assign to someone else. The rule in this case is that you should delegate to others everything they can, thereby freeing up time for yourself to do the type A tasks that you and only you can complete.

Problem type "D" represents a job that can be completely removed from your to-do list. This may be a task that was previously important, but is now no longer relevant, both for you and for others. Often this is work that you do day after day, either out of habit or because you find pleasure in doing it.

After you have applied ABCD method to your daily to-do list, you have completely organized your work and set the stage for more important tasks to be completed faster.

The most important condition for the ABCD method to really work for you is to comply with the following requirement: start task A-1 without delay and then work on it until it is completely completed. Use your willpower to start and continue working on the most important task for you at the moment. Grab your biggest “frog” and “eat” it without stopping until the very last bite.
The ability to analyze your to-do list for the day and highlight task A-1 will serve as a starting point for achieving truly great success in your activities, will increase your self-esteem, fill you with self-respect and a sense of pride in your achievements.
When you get into the habit of fully concentrating on your most important task, i.e. task A-1 - in other words, on eating your main “frog” - you will learn to do twice, or even triple, as much as the people around you.

6. Eat the frog first

Transition from difficult to easy

You've probably heard this question: "How would you eat an elephant?" The answer, of course, is “piece by piece.” How would you eat your biggest and nastiest “frog”? In the same manner: you would break it down into specific step-by-step actions and start from the very first.

Start your workday with the most difficult task and complete it as quickly as you can. It will help you to realize that you still have a lot to do, and the time in your working day is limited. Doing the hardest thing first will give you a huge sense of satisfaction. Use this rule every day and you will see how much energy you get and how efficiently your work day goes. Constantly postponing a problematic task until the end of the day means that you will still be thinking about this task all day, and this will prevent you from focusing on other tasks! Eat the frog first and then proceed to eat the elephant piece by piece!

Time Planning Tools

Plan your every day in advance.
Through planning we move
the future into the present and thereby we have
opportunity to do something
regarding him already now

Alan Lakin

Main generations of “planners”
The technologies and means of organizing working time known today can be divided into several generations - the differences here are in the principles of recording information and the technology of use.

Until the 20th century, working time planning was carried out using primitive methods: memos, to-do lists, etc. At the beginning of the last century, along with the development of business, new tools became widespread that made it easier for a manager to plan time.
The idea of ​​adapting a household calendar for office work arose in the 19th century and materialized in the form of a desk calendar in 1870. For each day, one page of the calendar was allocated, on which the date, day, month and year were indicated. Having free space for notes made it possible to take the necessary notes: negotiations, meetings, expenses, meetings. For almost a century, the desk calendar has been the main time planning tool for managers.

The result of improving the desk calendar was the diary and weekly planner. A diary is a loose-leaf, continuous calendar in the form of a convenient notepad of different formats. You could take the diary with you to meetings and on business trips.
The weekly journal turned out to be even more convenient for the manager, in which it was possible to plan the working week and day, monitor the implementation of recorded tasks, analyze time spent (since an hourly breakdown of the working day appeared), more quickly search for information (after all, it was now grouped into 52 weeks, and not 365 days). In the 80s, weekly calendars practically replaced desk calendars and became so widespread that they became an element of the business style of enterprises.

The design idea of ​​combining a calendar, notepad and telephone book in one convenient tool successfully materialized back in 1921 in the form of an “organizer” (from the English organizer). Subsequent improvement of the instrument was carried out by changing the format, design, paper quality and external decoration. Here, information storage devices and technical means (calendar, notepad, address and telephone book, business card holder, pen, microcalculator) were combined in one tool. At the same time, there was no clear classification and systematization of records.

The famous “time manager” was created in Denmark in 1975. It implemented the idea of ​​targeted planning of personal results based on a standard classifier of functions (“key tasks”) and technology for implementing global events (“elephant tasks”). At the same time, the use of a “time manager” turned out to be acceptable only for people who were organized and disciplined by nature, and also required significant financial expenses for training and acquisition.
Nevertheless, the name of this type of “organizer” – “time manager” – has become a household word and today denotes a general approach to the active use of time as a management resource.

The development of scientific and technical progress in recent decades has led to the creation of fundamentally new electronic time planning tools from a technological point of view: an electronic notebook, various service programs for PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, etc.

The best modern time management technologies:

1.Trello is a free web application for managing projects in small groups. Trello allows you to be productive and more collaborative. Trello is the boards, lists, and cards that let you organize and prioritize projects in a fun, flexible, and easy-to-change way.

2. Evernote - a web service and set of software for creating and storing notes. The note can be a piece of formatted text, an entire web page, a photograph, an audio file, or a handwritten note. Notes may also contain attachments of other file types. Notes can be sorted into notebooks, labeled, edited, and exported.