You sit, staring at the monitor, and in the head like a fog rolls ... And some 15 minutes ago you meaningfully knocked on the keys, working on the project. Now you can only mechanically view the mail or stupidly wander around your favorite sites, feeling that the brain is paralyzed. And now the next (third-fifth?) Cup of coffee is drunk, you walked along the corridor, swinging your hands, refreshed your face with water, but no - the feeling of unmotivated fatigue does not pass. Frankly, for the whole day only a few hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon you could only be called productive, and you spent the rest of the time in the office and at home languidly, acting as if through force. What's the matter? Is there something wrong with you? Hour - hour
In the 90s, scientists from the Berlin Universitat der Kunste conducted a study that resulted in striking data (published in the Psychological Review). Two groups of cellist students took part in the experiment: "elite" (more perspective) and "middle peasants" (simply able musicians). It was planned to find out why some are better than others. An answer was supposed: because "elite" is more devoted to their work than "middle peasants": the first are more diligent and more engaged while the latter enjoys the ordinary life. But the results were unexpected. Students of both groups were engaged in music about the same number of hours per week (about 50). The difference was just how. "Elite" three times more engaged in methodical, unpleasant, but useful exercises for the development of technology and usually at the same time, for two long periods of time during the day. And "middle peasants" were engaged at different times, stretching the hours allocated for rehearsal, for the whole day. Thus it turned out that the "elite" musicians had more clearly expressed peaks of their productivity. Work and leisure are divided, and this gave a lot of advantages. For example, the "elite" managed to sleep at night for an hour more and achieve more relaxation during the day than "middle peasants". So, if you work less, but completely concentrated and completed the task to the end, you will feel satisfaction from what has been done, get the result and be able to rest, as expected. Choosing the right moments of your highest productivity, you can use your time 3 times more efficiently.
Find your high point!
- Try to draw up your schedule according to a scheme developed by experts in personal development technologies. First, evaluate your experience. Write down how efficient you are at different hours of the day. Mark the time on the chart when you are active, and when the brain and body work together and without coercion. The thought of an important meeting at 9 am arouses your disgust? At noon, do you only think about taking a nap or vigorously understanding the documents and achieving success in the negotiations? After 6 pm you can not think about work or in your head begins an active phase of processing information? The main thing is to gather not one-time events in your memory, but how often you feel at certain hours of the day.
- So, your first chart will show you not only who you are - "owl" you or "lark", but also help isolate the most active hours in the day.
- The first graph shows the level of your activity at different times of the day. Now the task is to find out for what action which clock is suitable. Try for a week "rearrange" different types of activities. For example, from 9 to 10, check mail, answer important letters, negotiate (by phone or at a meeting), or develop a project, collect information for an analytical reference ... You can find out when you have a better creative or communicative the beginning if your activity is connected with people or creativity. With the help of such experienced "substitutions" you will find out what hours of activity you think best, when you sound convincing for partners and colleagues, and when you should come up with new projects.
- The maximum level of productivity can be achieved using hours of "secondary" activity. For example, you are the most vigorous and productive from 21 to 23 hours. However, in the morning from 10 to 11 and from 16 to 18 in the afternoon you do not sleep, you are ready to cope with the tasks, albeit not the highest complexity. This refinement will allow you to most efficiently distribute your workload and achieve success with a minimum of effort. Each can have its own number of "productivity peaks" - and two, and three, and four. The main thing is not only to identify them, but also to use them, concentrating as much as possible on the task posed. Instead of burning 8-11 hours a day to overcome yourself and work "against strength," you will achieve great results in two to three hours of concentration during the peaks of activity, and your fatigue level will be less.
- Employment is not productivity. Succeeds and does a lot not one who is constantly busy and working more than the norm, but one who knows how to properly organize their time. "After all, ants work all the time, it's important, not how much, but what exactly are you doing" (Henry Goro).
- Urgent or important? If the matter is urgent, this does not mean that it is paramount to you. "Your time is limited, do not waste it living someone's life" (Steve Jobs).
- Manage yourself, and then master the time management. "Time is racing at a frantic pace - bad news." Good news: you are the pilot of your time "(Michael Altshuller).
- Private bussiness. Strike out the hours that someone has already promised, and distribute the rest in their own way. "Realize that now is the moment when you create the next moment of your life" (Sarah Paddison).
- List! Every morning before you should be prepared a list of what you want to do during the day, with notes of importance levels. "Our time, like other times, is a great thing if we know what to do with it" (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
- 80/20. The essence of the rule: 80% of the important, done per day, takes 20% of daily activity. In active hours, start with the main! "Time is life, wasting time, losing life, but managing it, controlling life" (Alan Leikin).