Your daily routine is the key to your success. Time management in Excel: work time planning system Planning a day for time management

It would be great to always have at hand a universal collection-assistant for organizing time. We have prepared a universal list of 25 time management techniques, divided into categories for prioritizing, planning and organizing the process of work and leisure.

Prioritization

1. ABC analysis

This technique is based on the percentage of the most important and least important cases. All tasks are divided into three classes depending on their importance:

A. The most important cases, which make up 15% of the total number of cases and their contribution to the achievement of the goals is 65%.

C. Important tasks - 20% of their total number, the significance for achieving the goal is 20%.

C. Less important tasks are equal to 65% of their total number, and their importance is 15%.

To use ABC analysis, you need to do the following:

• make a list of all future tasks;
• categorize them by importance and prioritize them;
• evaluate tasks according to categories A, B and C;

2. Eisenhower matrix.

Tasks are divided into groups according to urgency and importance:

A - Urgent and important matter

B - Not urgent, but more important

S - Urgent but not important

D - Not urgent and not important

Depending on the group that the task is in, the order of its execution or delegation depends.

3. Pareto Method

The Pareto method is a distribution of tasks according to the 80/20 principle: 80% of tasks can be solved in 20% of the time spent; the remaining 20% ​​of tasks take 80% of the time spent.

Planning

4. List of all cases

Recording absolutely all cases will help in planning the amount of work for the day, week, month. And also you can clearly see your workload and the ratio of important and not very important tasks. Moreover, if such a list is always at hand, the question “What to do?” will be resolved immediately.

5. Accounting for biological rhythms

When planning things, you should consider not only the "lark" you or the "owl", but also the peak of productivity. It can be determined by observing your performance during the day. It would also be nice to determine the right time for lunch. recreation and self-development.

6. Keep a diary

Organize previously recorded cases into the system: an entry in the diary, an excel spreadsheet, an application on the phone, etc. The main thing is that you have an idea of ​​the amount of work for the day and do not forget even the smallest assignment.

7. The right tools

All kinds of applications are our weapons in the fight against procrastination and time traps, so it's better to upgrade your arsenal. Read the most convenient and proven programs and applications for making lists and teamwork.

8. Technique "Timekeeping"

The "Timekeeping" technique is a fixation of time for any tasks, even for such primitive ones as morning exercises or lunch. You write down every task that you spend time on, so during the week you will be able to solve the following tasks:

• determine what your time is spent on;
• identify chronophages, that is, "time eaters";
• develop a "sense of efficiency" and a "sense of timing".

9. Formula 10-3-2-1-0

To use this technique, you need to memorize a formula that describes a healthy work schedule and personal time, and stick to it when making a daily plan.

10 hours before bed: no caffeine.

3 hours before bedtime: No food or alcohol.

2 hours before bed: no work.

1 hour before bed: no electronic gadgets.

0 times: How many times you can press the Snooze button on the alarm clock.

10. Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is reliable technology visual display of tasks and time. Tasks are indicated on one scale of the schedule, and the time to complete them is indicated on the other. Ideal for fans of graphs that can be made in MS Project, Excel.

Organization of work and leisure

11. Pomodoro Technique

The principle of execution: we start a timer for 25 minutes, work with concentration, without being distracted until the timer rings, after which we take a break for 5 minutes. After 4 repetitions, we take a long break - 20-25 minutes. Thus, you constantly alternate work and rest, change activities and avoid overwork.

12. Eat a frog

The frog is the most annoying thing. It's best to deal with them first. After its completion, the very thing will seem not so terrible and nasty, and other tasks will seem easy at all.

13. Salami Method

How to quietly eat a stick of sausage? Cutting off a small piece. The same thing should be done with all complex, multi-component tasks: divide them into small parts and do one every day.

14. Delegation

If you are a leader, delegate those tasks that take up a lot of time and are not important, and focus on more strategically important tasks yourself.

15. Follow the stages of affairs

Strive to do things sequentially, first finish one, and only then start another. We have already said that when switching from one thing to another, it takes about 10-15 minutes to fully focus on the process. Constantly jumping from task to task, you lose time, although the illusion of hard work is created.

16. At least 10 minutes

This technique does not refer to work matters, but rather to personal growth and self-development. For example, if you have long wanted to learn or remember a foreign language, try to give it at least 10 minutes a day. The same goes for sports, books, etc.

17. "Found Time"

The essence of the technique: to pre-determine a list of 15-20 small tasks for which you do not have enough time, and be ready to do them when you have any suitable “window”. Keep adding to the list.

18. Work is the best way to get started

There are days when productivity is at zero and work is heavy. In this case, for overclocking, it is better to start working with small tasks: mail, calls, tasks that will take no more than 20 minutes to complete.

19. Make important appointments in the morning

20. Divide work time into blocks

Divide workflows into blocks: calls and mail, meetings, project work, etc. This will help allocate time for focused work during the day.

21. Set Deadlines for Everything

Even the smallest task must have a deadline, otherwise the flow of things “for later” will drag on forever.

22. Immersion in work

Set aside a day or two for prioritizing tasks, eliminating distractions such as calls and meetings.

23. Say no

"No" is a powerful word. When you say "no" to a new commitment, you show respect for those you've already made and gain the ability to successfully keep them. Remember that by giving consent, you must refuse something or cancel something.

24. Fight the "tyranny of the urgent"

“The tyranny of the urgent” is small, unimportant tasks that need to be done right now. This poses a big problem because urgent action usually has very little effect. Having succumbed to the "tyranny of the urgent", it will be difficult to get rid of it, and, accordingly, to allocate time for something more important.

25. Prepare for tomorrow before leaving the office

A great way to end the day is to prepare for the next one. Summarize the day, make a plan for the next day, put your desktop in order.

Time management for executives

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The article brought to your attention will not touch upon the basics of time management, ways of dividing tasks into primary and secondary ones, principles of organizing working time, etc. Enough has already been written about this best advice rather than read specialized books on time management (first of all, presented on this site), I can’t give. The purpose of this article is to get acquainted with a very specific system of accounting and organizing time, which I myself use.

The proposed time accounting and organization system was developed during 2004. The start of keeping a diary was laid in February 2004, and this practice continues to this day. Gradually, the system underwent some changes, trimmed and adapted to current tasks. To date, she has finally gained enough slenderness and strength for me to take the risk of bringing her to the public court. I hope that the proposed system will be useful for people who want to establish a certain order in own life. At least my experience allows me to hope so.

The diary is kept in a regular Excel file. The capabilities of this program allow not only convenient planning of the day, but also sorting tasks, keeping an archive and keeping track of the time spent.

TIME RECORDING

Having graphed an Excel sheet in a certain way, you can easily and conveniently take into account the time during the day. For this, the following scheme is used:

In the figure, each hour (the top line indicates hours) is divided into 4 columns, that is, the accuracy of timekeeping is 15 minutes. Greater accuracy makes accounting inconvenient, while less accuracy allows for too large losses in accounting.

The leftmost column reflects typical time-consuming graphs (thn - reading, rbt - work, doc - document management, everyday life - solving everyday problems, lchn - personal time, rzvl - entertainment, dv - movement, nchg - nothing, loss of time).

During the day, the past time slots are filled. To simplify calculations, the number "1" is used as a placeholder. Then, using the Excel formulas entered in the appropriate columns (the formulas are written in the example file attached to the article), it will automatically calculate the time spent on a particular type of activity.

At the end of the day, the timesheet looks like this:

This scheme, if desired, allows you to restore the whole day (overslept, quickly packed up, went to work, worked, chatted with a colleague, worked, had lunch, worked, went to a meeting, waited for a late partner, held a working meeting, returned to the office, reported to the boss, went home, had dinner, read, watched a movie, got ready for bed, read before going to bed, summed up the day, fell asleep).

But in practice this is rarely required, so most days leave short summaries of the time spent. They look like this:

Such summaries allow you to soberly assess how much time is spent on a particular type of activity, and, in addition, derive an average based on the results of a week or month. Further, if you wish, you can draw conclusions about the need to devote more or less time to a particular type of activity.

PLANNING

Let's start with the usual list of tasks for the day. In my version, it looks like this (NEG tab, today):
As you can see, the sheet uses 4 working columns: St - status; Vr - time; Fri - priority; and a column for the day and task description.

About the "Status" column, a detailed discussion will follow below. The "Time" column, I think, is self-explanatory. Now we will focus on the consideration of the "Priority" column. It uses the following characters:

! - the main task for the week

!! - part of the weekly task to be completed on the current day; or secondary task for the week

30 - priority tasks for a specific day (tasks for which the time is determined or to be determined)

40 - Priority Daily Quests

50 - less important daily tasks

60 - tasks for determining the results of the day

70 - summing up the day

80 - tasks to determine the results of the week

90 - summing up the results of the week

Knowing this classification, it is quite easy to both distribute tasks for the day and plan them for the week. The weekly plan in my file looks like this:

The actual weekly plan can be seen at the bottom of the page. Immediately below the column with the designation of the first and last days weekly assignments for the week are recorded. This is followed by the designations of each individual day, under which specific tasks for that day are recorded.

The columns at the top of the page are daily and weekly tasks, which are simply copied into the appropriate sheet when drawing up a daily plan.

The monthly plan is compiled using the following scheme:

EFFICIENCY MARK

Now let's return to the analysis of the "Status" column. It is this column that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your days. The "Status" column indicates whether the scheduled task has been completed or not. 3 possible characters are used to indicate the status:

V - done

B - partially fulfilled, or not fulfilled due to objective reasons

N - not fulfilled

During the day, as tasks are completed, the sheet takes on the following form:

Using the "sorting" function (menu item - Data), you can automatically sort tasks:

With this sorting (Status => Priority => Time), all completed tasks will be at the top of the list. You can no longer pay attention to them, focusing it on the remaining tasks.
At the end of the day, when all the columns are filled, the proposed system allows you to impartially and objectively evaluate the efficiency of time use.

The list of tasks at the end of the day looks like this:

Using different colors after sorting allows you to visually show the effectiveness of the day.
In the above example, out of 13 tasks for day 9, 9 were completed, 3 were not completed, and 1 was not completed due to objective reasons. Considering that “B” points are counted as 0.5/0.5, the results of the day look like this: in total - 13; plus - 9.5; minus - 3.5. I count a day as successful if more than two-thirds of the total number of "plus" tasks; half successful - from half to two thirds of the total; unsuccessful - if there are more than half of "minus" tasks. Other proportions are possible, depending on your exactingness to yourself.

A similar system is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the week. In the archive, the past week looks like this:

A similar system is used to evaluate the effectiveness of months and years. Month:

In the same way, it is possible to sum up the results of a year, a decade, and so on, up to summing up the results of a whole life :)

You can also store your own telephone directory in one file with worksheets and timekeeping.
It is especially convenient to use the proposed system in the presence of a pocket computer. In this case, the file with sheets of tasks and time tracking will always be with you, and you can make changes to it during the day.

You can simply print sheets of tasks and time tracking on the printer. I recommend leaving a certain number of columns empty in order to enter emerging tasks into them during the day.
I hope that the above system will be as useful to you as it helped me organize my life myself. Good luck!

Alexey Fedorov, December 2004 Contact: [email protected]. Editing - Gleb Arkhangelsky,
The article was written specifically for the site. Document address on the site:
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Without a doubt, working from home has its advantages. For example, you don't have to travel to work. They don't waste precious company time by gossiping around the cooler. And you only pay for the hours they actually work. And, studies show: than office workers. However, you may need some time management software to run your business successfully.

After all, despite all the benefits of hiring remote workers, if they do not live in the same region as you, it can be difficult to help them manage their work time efficiently.

So, remote workers don't waste time on the road, but at the same time, you would like to be sure that they are doing their job efficiently and for this you need the right management tools. Here are the besttime management program 2018:

Time management program

There are several important aspects in the art of time management, and in this article we would like to cover them all. But let's start with the most obvious - time tracking.

1 Time Doctor

If you need a program to track the working hours of remote employees, then Time Doctor just what you need.

With Time Doctor, you can get detailed reports on how your remote employees are using work time and how productive they are. This program takes into account both the working time of employees in general and the time spent on a specific project, on completing tasks, on working with clients.

In addition, this personnel management system includesmonitoring of activity on the Internet, tracking of visited sites, GPS tracking and much more.

Time Doctor has everything it should includetime management program.

2 Roadmap

10. Asana

asana - an ideologically simple application for project management. One of the best features in Asana is that you can add tasks to a list or calendar. Thus, you can see on the calendar when and what you need to do. When you have finished working on a task, you can click on it and mark it as completed.

Asana also allows you to sort tasks by category into "completed", "failed", "finished by". specific date' and 'by projects'. This gives the manager the ability to see current progress, and the remote worker to quickly sort through what has already been done and what needs to be done.

The application also sends an email notification before the due date of the assignment.

11.Float

Float is a project management software best suited for small teams.

Float has a convenient "click-and-drop" scheduler that helps you visualize the current volume of the team's work, easily manage tasks, quickly make updates and find the employee you need thanks to the program's filters and search functions.

In Float, you can also distribute tasks between employees, break them down into stages, group projects, and add your own explanations to tasks.

Float helps you manage your team and allows you to create custom reports so you can be sure that you are reaching your goals.

Productivity Apps

You have probably heard the expression: "be no worse than others." And while this usually refers to social status, the same can be said about the situation with remote workers. In other words, it's great to see in a productivity app who's doing what and who's leading the race.

12.IDoneThis

IDoneThis - a rather interesting productivity app - in fact, it is a "pumped" to-do list. With IDoneThis, you can create to-do lists for remote workers and watch red Xs (failed tasks) turn into green ones (completed).

IDoneThis is a convenient way to keep track of work progress and check how employees are doing. Sometimes the best time management This is healthy friendly competition.

13.Todoist

Todoist - this is an excellent and conceptually simple application for creating a to-do list. No, really, you can add your personal affairs there. Like shopping lists, movies you want to watch, planning trips. However, the application can be completely reconfigured and used only for work tasks.

In your Todoist account, you can add tasks, mark them, set a due date, sort tasks by filters: assigned to you, other employees, priority. You will also see the tasks for today and those that need to be completed within the next seven days.

The basic features of Todoist are free, but if you want to manage a large team, upgrade to a paid premium plan and use all the features.

File Sharing

It may seem strange that we have included cloud storage in an article that highlights the besttime management software, but there is a direct connection. Just imagine how much time would be wasted if your remote workers didn't have a file sharing app? And, God forbid, all files will be sent to you by e-mail?

Many of the apps mentioned include a file sharing option, but you may need a backup or want to use more reliable services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

14. Dropbox

dropbox - great cloud storage that you can use to share files. The service is intuitive and many remote workers are already familiar with how it works.

For the most value for money, use a Dropbox Business account with secure data access, sync, and collaboration.

15. Google Drive

If you manage a small team of remote employees, then Google Drive is a great choice. With Google Drive, you can share files, edit them, collaborate, add comments to text documents, and more.

In addition, as an additional measure of security and control, you have the ability to choose who has the right to access certain documents.

The event preparation process consists of dozens of tasks, calls, trips and meetings. In order to do everything, you need to control time and distribute it correctly, be able to prioritize tasks and not be distracted by less important things. This will help not only the knowledge of the basic techniques of time management, but also special programs created for effective control and planning of time. .|

We offer a choice of 10 convenient programs with which you can better organize and control the implementation of daily tasks.

1. TIME Planner

10. Daily agenda

Daily agenda is an app for iOS devices available on the App Store for $1.99. The program is designed to collect meetings, events and activities from different calendars and other similar programs in one list. As planned by the developers, such synchronization will help not to be distracted by reviewing notes and not to worry about the possibility of accidentally missing an important event in the daily routine.

"Keep time: it is the fabric of which life is made."

S. Richardson

We are taught discipline from childhood, and one way or another, we are forced to adhere to certain restrictions all our lives. Eating and sleeping according to the daily routine, scheduled classes, work and rest in the allotted time. We easily obey someone else's rules of the game, in fact, helping someone else achieve his goal. But when it comes to self-discipline, many are not ready to give up even small weaknesses, like the habit of sleeping an extra 10 minutes in the morning.

Skill limit yourself to achieve certain goals- a valuable skill that not many people possess. But only they, in the end, succeed. Well-known politicians, businessmen, actors have gone their way to fame only thanks to daily work in the name of their goal. Ability, talent, even genius is only one percent of success, the other ninety-nine is hard work.

Time management is the main component of the personal effectiveness system for any ambitious person. It doesn’t matter what the goal is: lose weight, get a red diploma, start your own business ... none of these things is possible without self-organization skills. Time management is a practical guide to action, thanks to which you can determine your own life priorities, create your vision of success. The development of effective motivations allows you not only to save time, but to develop as a person. Self-discipline - living by strict rules that a person sets for himself, in his own interests. Such rigid frameworks, oddly enough, do not limit the personality. Against, it is the only way to true freedom.

Time - management is the best tool for self-improvement. First of all, planning teaches control over external events, environment, time and space. Self-control skills gained as a result of self-improvement allow you to manage own feelings, momentary desires, bad habits. And self-control is a sign of a strong, strong-willed nature. The development of concentration skills allows you to achieve better results at work, while spending less effort. Thus, time is freed up for the improvement of the intellectual and spiritual. Isn't that the meaning of human life?

Self-discipline skills are not acquired overnight. Moreover, you can develop them in yourself only by constant training of willpower. The same goes for the time management system. Anyone who wants to achieve success in life is simply obliged to treat time carefully.

The 7 Most Popular Time Management Techniques

“If I had 9 hours to chop down a pine tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening my axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

There are many techniques for efficient use of time. We bring to your attention the most popular techniques, without which no time management system can do.

Eisenhower Matrix

The technique got its name in honor of US President D. Eisenhower, who divided all the tasks that he faced into 4 categories, guided by their urgency and importance.

Based on this, the cases were arranged in the cells of the simplest matrix as follows:

• Category A - urgent and important, which must be resolved immediately;
• Category B - their decision can be postponed for a certain period, but it is not worth delaying with them;
• Category B - tasks, the execution of which can be delegated to third parties;
• Category D - things that are better to send to the trash right away, because they are not worth the time and effort.

According to experts, the mistake of most people is the wrong prioritization. They are more willing to take on the tasks of the last two categories, since it is much easier to do these things. Rapid results contribute to the development of an incorrect assessment of personal effectiveness. It turns out that the man expends effort on secondary activities leaving behind what really matters.

Timing technique

Recording the time of employees in order to improve labor discipline has been used for more than a dozen years. Automation and accounting programs record the timely arrival and departure, the duration of the employee's working day. But modern technologies went even further. Today you can not only find out if a person is present at the workplace, but also check what he is doing.

Hundreds of such control systems have been developed to date. Programs are able to automatically register: absence due to illness, business trips, vacations, time off, work on a flexible schedule. The system takes into account the duration of the lunch break, untimely leaving or being late, absenteeism.

For all their perfection, attendance modules provide only superficial timing, while spyware like "Maxapt QuickEye" helps track the work on the computer. With their help, the manager will immediately understand that Maria Ivanovna from the accounting department is busy not working on the report, but communicating on the Odnoklassniki website. Of course, even with the help of such programs, it will not be possible to make a minute-by-minute timing, taking into account smoke breaks, tea parties, heartfelt chatter and other “garbage time”, but most often there is no need for this.

Pareto Method

Vilfredo Pareto's Law states: “20% of your efforts provide 80% of the result, while the remaining 80% bring only 20% of the result.” You can interpret it in another way: "20% of employees bring the company 80% of the profits." Simply put, only 1/5 of the team works effectively. The efficiency of the vast majority of workers is very low. Their work is just an imitation of violent activity. If you direct this energy in the right direction, overall productivity will rise significantly.

The Pareto method is to isolate from the whole mass of 20% of the main cases and focus on them. The decision about what is considered important and what is secondary will be individual in each case. The Eisenhower matrix or the ABC analysis method, which is most often used in combination with the Pareto method, allows you to categorize cases. ABC analysis simplest way rank cases according to their current importance.

ABC - analysis

This method is considered the most productive and visual way to sort cases. It allows you to weed out all unnecessary, focus on achieving the main goals. According to this method, all cases are divided into categories:

• Group A has the highest priority, these are important and urgent matters. Such issues must be resolved as soon as possible. The contribution of these cases to the achievement of the final goal is 65%, although it will take only 15% of the time to complete them. That is, more than half of all work will be completed in the shortest possible time.
• Group B includes cases that are not urgent, but necessary for execution. The solution of such tasks can be entrusted to third parties. It is important to control the time of their execution, since group B cases tend to move into category A if the deadlines are violated.
• Group C - tasks that are commonly called "office routine". It is on them that the lion's share of the working time of the staff and the manager is spent. Although a person with low qualifications can easily cope with reporting, purchasing stationery and other routine work.

Independent organization of working time

Self-management is perhaps the most effective of all time management tactics. It is applicable both to a single subject and to the collective as a whole. To ensure that the employee worked productively, the system of material incentives and punishments allows. In layman's terms, fines or bonuses well stimulate the individual to perform the task assigned to him. It should be noted that the employee himself should also be interested in the competent organization of the work process.

The most important goal of self-management is the maximum realization of the potential of each person in work, creativity, and personal life. Using this method provides the following benefits:

• Time and effort to complete work tasks is reduced;
• Increased productivity;
• Reasons for stress, emergency work, haste are eliminated;
• Moral satisfaction with work activity increases;
• Qualifications increase, there is an incentive for personal growth.

Self-management begins with a work style analysis that includes a complete inventory of time. It allows you to identify strengths and weak sides organization of the labor process, adjust them in the right direction. A description of all activities includes:

1. Main work tasks;
2. "Interference" or forced breaks, the so-called "garbage time".

The reasons for wasting time can be personal factors, such as disorganization, neglect of work duties, lack of self-discipline, the desire to do everything quickly, in a hurry. However, excessive zeal, the desire to take on all the cases at once, also rarely gives a positive result.

Well-known American business coach Dan Kennedy believes that phone calls, unscheduled visitors, protracted meetings are the worst time wasters for a leader. If possible, they should be eliminated or minimized.

The Pomodoro Method

This tactical technique with a funny name was invented in the 80s of the last century by the Italian Francesco Cirillo. Being one of the lagging students, the young man decided to start working on himself in order to improve his academic performance. After conducting a detailed "debriefing", he realized that he could not concentrate on his studies, being distracted by many small things. Then Francesco brought a timer in the form of a tomato from the kitchen, set it in front of him and timed the class.

Practically, it was revealed that he was able to study science with concentration for 25 minutes. During this period, the student was never distracted from the book. Subsequently, it was decided break all the time allotted for classes into blocks. The half-hour interval included the time of maximum concentration - 25 minutes, as well as the rest time, which is allotted just for those very small things. The "pomodoro" method has become widespread today, due to its simplicity, accessibility and effectiveness.