Effective planning and organization of the working day: methods, rules and why it is important

By opening an online store and working from their own apartment, many entrepreneurs think that they can now plan their own working day. It would seem beautiful: I want - I work, I want - I rest. You can even go on vacation and sell directly from your hotel room on the ocean. But in practice, everything turns into a mess: eternal procrastination, aimless walking around the house and sleeping until noon. The result is low work efficiency. about how to avoid this and structure your time correctly .

Rule one: iron discipline

The main advantage of working for yourself is the absence of an annoying boss. No one is standing over your soul, no one runs into the office every 5 minutes in order to give out invaluable instructions and give the next task. But this is also a big minus. If in the case of a manager, all discipline comes from the outside, then when you work from home, this factor is completely absent. In fact, the absence of a boss can lead to constant procrastination .

The fact is that without a motivating kick, it’s quite difficult to force yourself to work. Such is human nature. The only way out is to cultivate iron self-discipline. While she’s gone, there’s no point in going further: scheduling a daily routine for yourself, setting reminders on your phone, and downloading time management apps. You will simply ignore the signals that it’s time to work.

Disciplining yourself is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Evolution has tried and made it so that our body tries to conserve energy in any situation where possible. Working from home is one of them. Your brain doesn’t understand why bother if you can go and drink tea and then watch another TV series.

In general, the only way out is willpower . You just need to pull yourself together and make it work. But the task can be greatly simplified using several methods:

• sign up for trainings. There are plenty of professional psychologists who can help you with self-discipline. Take several of these classes, either individual or group. There, various situations are worked out in practice to improve discipline. Get ready: it will be very uncomfortable: you will have to perform uncomfortable and unusual tasks;
• work with a partner. When not only you, but also other people depend on your discipline, it is very motivating. If you have a Skype call with your partner scheduled for 9:00, there’s no getting around it. An incentive not to let a person down will work just fine;
• read motivating literature: biographies of successful entrepreneurs, books on self-control and self-development;

• Find an external motivator. The simplest thing is to ask family members to remind you about work hours and rest times. And, of course, listen and act when you receive this reminder.

Basic principles of time management

The science of time management consists of a system of principles. These provisions serve as the foundation of any tool used within the framework of time-management:

1. Action planning. Things should always be planned: for the next day, week, month. Create clear short-term and long-term plans that support efficient, responsive work. Write down your goals on paper or in an electronic diary. Break large tasks into small subtasks, think through the sequence of actions in large-scale projects in advance. Leave a reserve of time for force majeure.
2. Formulation of specific goals. An important component of time management is goal setting. Apply the rule of “goal decomposition”: set global goals, divide them into more specific, local tasks, moving from the general to the specific. Instead of a vague image, paint a clear picture. Develop a value system and take into account possible mistakes. Determine the consequences of achieving goals that motivate work (increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, increased sales volumes).
3. Fixing the plan. Use powerful tools to visualize your plans. Set the desired algorithm of action for the company, division, or individual employee. Illustrate the step-by-step execution of work, promptly make changes: this will help prevent unwanted failures and stabilize the situation in time. Experts recommend using planners - programs for planning tasks. Great options for entrepreneurs are Evernote, Trello, Basecamp.
4. Prioritization. Rank things by importance. Perform actions sequentially: start with urgent tasks, smoothly moving on to secondary ones. While focusing on current items, do not forget about the main direction. Schedule complex tasks during peak productivity hours.
5. Focusing on the main thing. Focus on global goals. The main practical skill of time management is not to be distracted by extraneous things. Do less important things during “non-resource” times. Know how to say “no” by avoiding unplanned breaks: try to refuse idle chatter with colleagues, Internet surfing on social networks, watching TV and reading the yellow press during working hours.
6. Analysis of experience. Stay aware, observe the changes in your own life from the outside. Analyze situations that led to specific losses of personal resources. Analyze mistakes and take measures to prevent failures in the future. Draw pragmatic conclusions, create an individual set of rules for time management, adjusting them to the characteristics of a specific activity.
7. Vacation planning. Adequate rest is one of the elements of effective time management. If you want to improve your personal performance, plan not only business tasks, but also quality leisure time. Don’t skimp on communicating with loved ones, get enough sleep, take days off. It is possible to fully use psychophysiological capabilities only under the condition of complete and regular restoration of strength.

Time management rules

Planning is the key to success. Most successful people plan their day minute by minute.

Rule two: develop a daily routine

The first thing that businessmen working from home face is the lack of a clear and established routine. “I’ll work whenever I want” is nothing more than a fallacy. The pitfall is that this “I want” will never happen - it’s been verified. Until the deadline starts to loom, many will not start work.

That is why structuring work and rest time comes in second place after discipline . You shouldn’t go too far and develop a multi-level daily routine with a description of breaks in work and other details of the process. It is quite enough to determine working hours during the day. For example, from 10 am to 6 pm - work with a lunch break. That's enough. The main thing is not to indulge yourself and stick to the established schedule.

The advantage of remote work is that working hours can be set at any time . If you are a morning person and work most effectively in the morning, set your working hours from 8 am to 5 pm. Owls can shift their deadlines a few hours ahead and work, say, from 11:00 to 20:00.

In the future, the daily routine can be adjusted and supplemented with details. For example, include time for playing sports, reading books and self-development, going to the movies and other entertainment in your daily routine. And remember: having a routine is not as important as its strict adherence .

Information content

All basic planning principles are based on broad information support. To develop effective plans, managers need to own a large amount of data: economic, production, social. Analysis of macro- and microeconomic circumstances, clarification of the company’s position in the market, assessment of the competitiveness and stability of the enterprise - all this is possible only with high-quality information support for planning. Therefore, the organization should build a reliable and effective information system to accompany the manager’s work.

Rule three: planning

Planning and daily routine are not the same thing. The daily routine takes into account only the fact of working time, without taking into account how it will be used. When planning, you need to develop a list of specific things to do for some time in advance. For example, tomorrow at 10 am, make an important call, work with documents, or submit a tax return. This will allow you not to put off important tasks until later.

How to technically solve this issue is up to you. If it’s convenient to write down tasks in a diary or on a piece of paper, that’s no problem. If you prefer mobile apps, that’s great, as long as it works.

Types of planning

One of the founding fathers of the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin, developed his own planning system . A portrait of this man is placed on the hundred dollar bill, as if reminding entrepreneurs: time is money. His planning system is called the Franklin Pyramid. The bottom line is that all tasks are arranged in a pyramid depending on priority:

1. Plan for the day. These are current work issues that can be resolved in one work shift.
2. Short term plan. These are tasks that require more detailed study and preparation. For an online store, this could be a change of supplier, expansion of the product range, and so on. Compiled for several months.
3. Long-term plan for a year or several years. Includes strategic business objectives.
4. Master plan for achieving the goal. These are the things that help you achieve the main thing: earn a billion dollars, become a sales leader in the region.
5. Global goal. What you strive for in your life.
6. Main life values.

The essence of the approach is that the entire pyramid must be subordinated to a higher task . And everyone has their own. Some people dream of becoming a millionaire, while others dream of living in the Bahamas.

Benefits of using time management

An employee who knows time management techniques:

• develops in different fields of activity;
• manages his own time resources correctly;
• works productively in any situation;
• clearly identifies goals in order of priority;
• avoids unnecessary mistakes;
• is not distracted by extraneous questions and problems;
• completes tasks an order of magnitude faster than colleagues;
• copes with matters in the shortest possible time;
• less susceptible to stress factors than others;
• maintains a favorable atmosphere in the team;
• pays enough attention to family, recreation, hobbies, and self-improvement.

Such a specialist is invaluable for any company. Many successful personnel have similar qualities, hone the skills of discipline and self-organization. To achieve this, management organizes regular trainings, seminars, and courses covering the theoretical basis and practical development of time management.

Real time killers

The lessons cover the following topics:

1. Prerequisites, goals, main stages of time management.
2. Goal setting, determination of priority and secondary tasks, structure of temporary resources.
3. Business planning: highlighting prospects, calculating steps, drawing up an effective action plan.
4. Temporary resource management systems.
5. Tools, tricks and techniques to increase personal effectiveness.

Companies that practice these methods manage to form an efficient team focused on the main goals. This eliminates empty, useless waste of time and helps achieve maximum results with minimal effort and time.

also helps to overcome the main barriers that make it difficult to complete tasks on time:

• procrastination – the desire to postpone important matters and events until “tomorrow”, avoidance of current responsibilities;
• perfectionism – constant dissatisfaction with results.

According to the rules of time management, productivity does not increase due to speed or more work. Productivity increases due to the elimination of hundreds of small, meaningless tasks, the distinction between personal and work, and the elimination of chronophages - distracting objects that interfere with the main activity.

Seneca's saying about time planning

When launching any business in the field of e-commerce, first of all you need to try to create an effective team, on which the further profit, popularity, success, and competitiveness of the project largely depends. Some companies have a separate position for a time manager. This specialist trains employees in self-organization and planning.

Rule four: prioritize

All work questions have different values. There are more urgent matters, and there are those that can wait. Another popular management expert, Stephen Covey, proposed his own system of prioritization . According to this system, all tasks can be divided into:

• important and urgent. Such issues need to be resolved first, and independently;
• important, but not urgent. This is the main block of tasks to which you need to devote most of your time. It is the solution of important non-urgent tasks that Covey considers the locomotive of progress;
• urgent but not important. Small work issues that need to be done here and now. For example, ordering a product: it seems to be just a current moment, but if it is not resolved in time, the consequences will be sad;
• not important, not urgent. Strictly speaking, they can be done at any time or even entrusted to someone else. For example, you have long wanted to renovate your office. This has almost no effect on the work process, unless, of course, the pipes are leaking and the tiles are not falling off.

Let's return to planning working hours. If you prioritize things from the second and third blocks, you will definitely encounter problems in the form of time troubles, missed deadlines and unfulfilled tasks. You need to focus on the first two and do them first. And the questions from the last point can be sacrificed or postponed until better times.

Basic principles

Any type of planning has unique properties determined by the specifics of the enterprise. However, there are universal postulates that are characteristic of any type of such activity. The French management theorist A. Fayol spoke about the five rules of a good program of action, the basic principles of planning. In management today you can find a wide and narrow list of basic provisions. According to a narrow list, the main principles of planning are: unity, accuracy, continuity, flexibility, participation. In a broader interpretation, the following postulates are added to them: information content, economic feasibility, as well as complexity, timeliness, focus, integration. Optional principles include optimality, stability, consistency, specificity and measurability, etc. The list goes on, since planning is an extremely complex and diverse process. Therefore, traditionally in management they talk about 5-7 universal principles.

Rule five: routine is a matter of habit

Psychological research says that if you do something for 30 days in a row, it will become a habit, even if it is difficult at first. You can also use this technique to develop a suitable working time schedule. You shouldn’t wait for the moment when everything goes back to normal by itself: it’s better to wait a month and then enjoy the result - everything will happen as a matter of course.

Here are some useful skills that will help you manage your work time effectively:

• get up and go to bed at the same time;
• do business in a work environment: at your desk, in a cafe or other place;
• develop a diet;
• allocate time for rest during the working day;
• follow the regime.

What is time management

Time-management is a set of techniques aimed at developing skills for effective organization of personal time . The tools it provides help you cope with a lot of things in a short time, get rid of chronic fatigue, the pressure of time constraints and eternal stress. With the correct application of the recommended techniques, work productivity significantly improves and there is time for rest.

Various time management systems train conscious control over the amount of time spent on tasks, allow for optimal distribution of work, and promote professional and personal growth.

Practices include a wide range of activities:

• setting goals;
• planning the working day;
• distribution of personal time;
• prioritization of tasks;
• resource management;
• developing effective strategies;
• formation of lists;
• delegation (reassignment) of tasks;
• determination, recording, analysis of time costs.

Many books, articles and publications have been written on the topic of time management. A lot of useful information can be gleaned from the works of Dan Kennedy “Hard Time Management”, Kerry Glisson’s “Work Less, Get More Done”, Richard Branson’s “To hell with everything! Get out there and do it!”, David Allen’s “Getting Things in Order.”

Law of Time Management

Rule six: reward yourself for the work you do

It turns out that you also need to be able to rest. The main principle here is that relaxation must be achieved before you get tired . The fact is that it takes much longer to relieve severe fatigue. Just like a disease that is easier to prevent than to treat later. Therefore, after completing another task, reward yourself with a minute or two of rest.

In general, Soviet-style sensitive enterprises have internal labor regulations. They provide several breaks during the working day. The same approach is applied at production facilities abroad. They even say that if a German swung a hammer before the bell for a smoke break, then after the bell he will not make a blow, but will put the tool aside and go to rest. War is war, but lunch is on schedule, as the famous saying goes.

In general, short breaks from work greatly increase work efficiency . You can use the break to drink a cup of coffee, go for a short walk, or eat something tasty. This also works at the psychological level: it’s easier to complete a task if you know that at the end, a reward, albeit symbolic, awaits you. But here again, nowhere without self-discipline. If you have planned a break for 10:00, then don’t give yourself any indulgences until then. It will be difficult at first, but then it will also become a habit.

Rule No. 4. Calculate the exact time to complete each task.

You must understand exactly how long it will take you to complete a particular task. Therefore, when planning all your affairs, for each, calculate the most accurate time that you will need to successfully complete the matter.

You should not immediately reduce or increase the time it takes to complete each job; stick to the most accurate calculations in order to adhere to a clear schedule for completing your plans. In this way, you will train yourself to complete your tasks on time.

Rule seven: sleep is king

Poorly organized sleep greatly reduces work efficiency. The trap is that, unlike an office worker, you won’t get up early tomorrow. Many entrepreneurs working from home fell into this ambush. Watching TV or surfing the Internet until 2 am - they can, they can, they practice it. And in the morning they reap the benefits in the form of low performance, distracted attention and other delights of a sleepless night. To prevent this from happening, just follow these simple rules:

• go to bed and get up at the same time;
• don’t think about business problems in bed;
• after waking up, do not rush off the bat and get to work, but give yourself time to recover, plan your day and schedule other things to do;
• go to bed even if the work is not finished. The morning is wiser than the evening, but you still can’t change everything.

Rule No. 2. Always summarize

Effective planning is impossible without constant summing up and monitoring completed tasks. You must learn to control all your plans and constantly monitor the degree of completion of planned activities and tasks.

Strict control over the execution of tasks will help you correctly calculate the time you need in order to implement any task or bring your plans to life. You can summarize the results both at the beginning of the day and at the end, so that you know exactly what you have completed and what exactly you need to improve or do.

Rule eight: give yourself weekends and vacations

It is necessary to structure not only the working day, but also the week and even the calendar year. Give yourself at least one day off a week, for example, Sunday. Turn off your phone, don't check your email, and generally think about work as little as possible. It’s even better to spend time usefully: spend time with your family, attend a cultural event, or just take a walk. This will allow you to restore your strength and begin work on Monday with renewed energy.

A separate topic for conversation is vacation. Don’t think that in a week things will slow down in the online store, employees will start slacking and you’ll miss out on a lucrative contract. There is a sufficient arsenal of tools to prevent this from happening. For example, delegate authority, correctly distribute tasks, or appoint a temporary deputy.

No one will argue that vacation is a short life. Spend it with maximum benefit: go on a tourist trip, arrange a trip, in a word, relax properly. Many business ideas come just at those moments when you are most distracted from routine affairs. This allows you to shake yourself up and look at business from the outside.

And we wish you to manage your time correctly, because time is money. Good luck in business!

Economic expediency

The basic principles and methods of planning are always aimed at ultimately achieving the economic success of the company. Therefore, the manager must understand that all his goals and plans must be economically beneficial for the organization and economically justified. Any planning decision must be made based on economic criteria. The plan should seek to maximize the profitability of the company, unless it is a social, non-profit organization. Therefore, final planning decisions must be made on the basis of detailed systems analysis, economic forecasting and justification.

Rule No. 7. Combine tasks of the same type

When planning, always try to combine tasks of the same type. In the process of performing any work, the brain constantly tries to concentrate on it and after completion, it needs a certain time to switch to another job.

Therefore, combining tasks of the same type will allow you to tune in to their implementation as efficiently as possible, while you will not need to constantly switch and re-concentrate, and tune in to practically the same work, which will help to significantly save some of your time.