One of the points in the plan is to buy a guinea pig for my son :) Will it be possible to implement it?

Hello dear readers!

In the last post, I touched upon the topic of procrastination, which, as it turns out, is relevant for many - putting things off and wrote that proper planning of the day is one of the important factors in combating this problem. Therefore, today I have prepared a post about how to plan time correctly. I will give examples of how highly effective people and I do this :)

First of all, let’s answer the question, why plan at all? Spontaneous living is more fun. Very often, while planning and concentrating on one thing, we do not notice the other. Yes, but life modern world has become so complicated that, without planning and managing it, you will most likely get lost and may end up completely different from where you wanted. But we all want to be somewhere. And preferably not next to nothing with a goldfish nearby in the ocean :) Therefore, you need to plan and set goals.

Only those who have it can reach the goal. And the one who has the map will get to it faster. And a map is a plan, with the only difference being that we draw up the plan ourselves, while maps are made by topographers. But perhaps this is what makes life interesting, that each of us is our own topographer :)

So, my dear topographers, where do we start? I start with goals and then package them properly into the structure of the day!

Moreover, our RAM not infinite. Scientists have proven that ordinary person can hold up to 7 things in his head at the same time. Then a specific brain overload begins. This could result in a heart attack for you if someone at this moment decides to inject you with a wooden syringe or give you a romantic hug. Just nervous system can't stand it anymore. Therefore, you need to constantly unload your brain from these little things.

What does David Allen offer? You need to create a system where you can record such things. Like a box where all incoming information goes. Today, excellent programs have been developed for smartphones that have all these functions (things, 2do, remember the milk, etc.). After we have loaded all the tasks into one pile, in the evening they need to be looked through and packaged into the structure of the day or placed on other days convenient for this.

For example, you need to pick up something from the post office, pay a bank account and buy boots. It will be convenient to do all this in one day when you are in the city. If you plan in advance, you really save a lot of time on this combination of things.

David Allen also suggests regularly walking around your property (even if it's just one room and kitchen) and writing down what needs to be done and when to do it.

What else should you add to your to-do list?

So, we have a plan of tasks ready: there are global tasks, there are daily tasks, but something else is missing. If you always do what you need to do, then life will be boring and sad. You definitely need to add what you want to do. You still need to rest during the day. Recharge yourself too. Therefore, it is very important to have a small list of things that you have always wanted to do (jump with a parachute, walk through an autumn park with your baby, photograph a soap bubble at the moment when it bursts) so as not to waste your rest time watching the next issue of a crime chronicle. I don't think it will ever make it onto your list of things you've always wanted to do. Well, we'll talk about rest later. Let's start planning the day.

How to plan your day correctly

Planning your day very much depends on two factors: you are alone or not alone. When you are alone, you only need to fight your own laziness, which is actually very simple :) If you are not alone, you need to fight the laziness of other people. Kidding. There is no need to fight (it is still useless), but you need to consider that others do not know anything about your plans for the day. And if this can somehow be explained to work colleagues, then small child you can't explain. Therefore, first we will look at how to plan if you are alone and do not depend much on others.

First of all, you need to determine your biorhythm phases. In which phase are you most productive and in which phase are you least efficient? Most people are most productive in the first few hours after waking up, that is, in the morning. It is during this time that you need to plan the most difficult and energy-intensive tasks. It’s best if these are tasks from your strategic cardboard.

Afternoons are the hardest time to work on site, so it's best to plan some more active work associated with movement, talking, so as not to fall asleep. If you can sleep, that's ideal. W. Churchill lived a long life only thanks to his habit of sleeping after dinner. “Whoever sleeps during the day can afford not one working day, but two,” he said. Studies have shown that a short afternoon nap restores energy by 100%. Those who don't sleep are working at 50% of their potential.

By 16:00 people’s strength is usually restored and a new ascent begins, during which one can also do a lot. Around 19.00 the decline begins again. You can only change it by doing sports around 16-18.00 or going to bed in the evening (I often fall asleep at 20.00 with the children for half an hour and then can work until 24.00 without harming my health).

If there is a lot to do and it is impossible to pay attention to the phases of the biorhythm, then it is best to use the Pomodoro system, which I wrote about. It increases the productivity of any person by 1.5-2 times.

Its main advantage is that it gives you a rest before you get tired. Due to this, fatigue does not accumulate and, if you do not overload yourself with heavy food, you can work almost all day.

The Pomodoro system is based on the principle of working for 25 minutes and resting for 5 minutes. If you use it, do small things during these 5-10 minutes of rest (I do household chores at this time). They will seem like a vacation.

Why rest if you can work during this time?

So many “highly effective” people think that they are highly effective because they deny themselves rest, that they work from dawn to dusk only on willpower. So this kind of thinking is very far from high efficiency. IN best case scenario a person will get sick and come to his senses, and in the worst case, he will die at the age of 40, without understanding that our body is not a computer or a robot. We function optimally if we sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, and do everything else that doesn’t belong to the first and second for 8 hours.

If you've read my posts on energy management and Tony Schwartz's book Life at Full Power, famous athletes achieved maximum success only when they replaced part of their training ( physical development) to the other: watched movies, met with friends (emotional activity), solved crossword puzzles, read (mental activity), helped others (spiritual activity). As a result, their internal balance was restored and more energy appeared.

If we work in only one area (in the office or at home), we gradually exhaust our strength. They need to be replenished regularly. And the more regularly and deliberately we do this, the more strength we will have, the more effective we will be.

How to plan your day correctly so that you can complete tasks and take a break from them?

To be able to complete tasks without getting tired, you need to plan your day rhythmically. Moreover, one phase - the working one (when you give energy, devote yourself completely to the task) should be replaced by another - the opposite one (when you are completely distracted and preferably replenish your energy). For example, we worked for half an hour. then we ate two apples within five minutes and went back to work.

All this fits very well into the Pomodoro system. The main, most important tasks are completed every 25 minutes. Replenishing energy (eating, airing, walking, watching humorous videos or listening to music) and taking care of small matters (laundry, cleaning, calls, etc.) - during pauses. Personally, I don't always strictly follow the 25 minute rule. If I feel that the process has started, I work while it’s going, but then I take a longer pause. The main thing is that it exists.

So, we identified the tasks, determined the time when we work best, planned the most difficult tasks for this time, the rest for less productive times, and planned breaks to recharge our energy. Well, let's do it! We haven’t forgotten about sleep and those measures that allow us to sleep less and get better sleep (I wrote about this).

This planning is suitable if you are not very dependent on others. If you have a child, or even two, then you need to plan differently. I will definitely write about this in one of the following posts, but that’s all for today.

Yes, by the way, as a result of the fact that my planning system works, I am attaching proof.

My son received a guinea pig for his birthday, as planned

And yet, do not forget about spontaneity. It can bring many wonderful moments into life. Once a week you need to take a break from planning and do what you want, at least for a couple of hours. This is what we got out of it :)

Now we have two guinea pigs :)

But what about procrastination? Proper planning of the day is the basis, but, unfortunately, not a 100% cure for procrastination. A stronger remedy is needed here. I discovered it just the other day. And in the next post I will definitely talk about it. It was only thanks to him that I completed this post today and not only him :)

Sincerely,

Buy a calendar or diary (task planner). Make sure you have space on your calendar to write down to-dos and tasks. Some calendars come with daily or monthly planners. Plus, you can just use your laptop. Choose the option that suits you best. Whatever you choose, this option should first of all be convenient for you. But you shouldn’t start a diary for school, for work, for leisure, and so on - everything should be in one place.

Sort your things. Electronic planners have a function for sorting different tasks. For example, work-related tasks can be marked in red, study-related tasks in blue, miscellaneous household chores in green, and pink for rest and exercise.

• Organizing your tasks this way, as well as color-sorting them, will help you visualize tasks and understand how much time is spent on each category of tasks. For example, you may notice that the schedule contains a whole bunch of “red” tasks (that is, work) and “green” tasks (that is, housework), but very few “pink” tasks (rest and physical exercise). If you notice that you have little time to exercise, you may be motivated to try to make more time for it in the following days.

Set yourself the following goals:
so that it would be difficult to miss.

Every change begins with a desire. To strive for something, you must first want it. People who are obsessed with achieving the greatest success strong desires, often pathological passions. What, if not passion, made it possible for the greats of this world to spend 12-14 hours at their desks, leaving only the necessary minimum for sleep and food. However, these people are rarely happy, and passion itself is not a guarantee of success.

The animal's desire is instinctive and unformed. If you want to put the full power of human intelligence at the service of your desires, you will have to act consciously and methodically. Methodical and conscious change requires a formalized and conscious desire, and formalization and awareness of desire is goal setting.

Target- an extremely powerful and effective tool in working on yourself. A well-set goal performs three functions at once:

1. She helps to direct efforts correctly. Until you have set yourself a goal more or less formally, there is always a risk of falling under the influence of the flow of circumstances, of being a leaf in the wind, of doing not what you need, but what others ask, or what to do now more convenient and pleasant, or do nothing. A goal is the first step to planning and structuring your life.
2. She allows you to evaluate the success of actions. Knowing what we are aiming for, imagining that point in space possible situations, which we need to find ourselves in, we can evaluate at every step how close we are to it.
3. Achieving the goal brings positive emotions, which serve as positive reinforcement that reinforces a constructive model of behavior. Once you set a goal and achieve it, you experience joy, which will help you repeat the cycle: set the goal again, achieve it again, and experience joy again. By spinning this wheel in your character, you can turn yourself into a machine of success that will no longer be stopped.

So in this case, the correct option would be, for example, this option: “Learn to cook ceiling seams", "Study the entire product range" or "Learn how to draw up invoices on a computer." And don’t forget about the deadlines so as not to give the lazy person in you the opportunity to gradually bring the whole enterprise to naught.

Thus:

The goal must be specific.

Achieving your goal should depend only on you.

So remember that:

The complexity of the goal should be optimal - significant, but feasible.

Learn positive lessons from negative results too.
Don't stop!

The simple way out is to structure goals, approximately according to this scheme:

1. The goal is a dream. Orientation for decades, or even for life. For example: “I want to become a person who has all the knowledge and skills useful in life.” This goal is difficult to set clearly. When this time passes, both you and the world will change. But it’s still useful to have on the horizon.
2. Long term goal.“Learn English to a conversational level - 3 years”, “Learn to drive a car - 1 year” and so on. This level is more specific, but there is also some uncertainty here, since we are forced to plan actions about which we still know too little.
3. Intermediate goal. It's not something you need directly, but it's this level of planning that allows you to measure progress toward your larger goals. For example: "Learn the rules traffic- 1 month."
4. Short term goal. What needs to be done right now. These tasks can be written down in a weekly journal. For example: "Learn 5 cards." Short-term goals help you plan your day, week, and prevent you from being too interesting activity into a game, into a competition with oneself.

So, when setting goals, follow two more rules:

Structure your goals
AND
Review long-term goals as you get closer to them.