We continue to review interesting, useful and, if possible, free online helpers. Today we will focus on those services and applications that help us manage time (ours and our employees) and be more efficient. Consider the simplest "to-do" sheets, and complex systems that allow you to store documents and coordinate work with employees. After all, there is a user for each service, isn't that so?

So, 15+ resources for planning and time management.

http://nowdothis.com - A minimalistic service for one to-do list. Enter your list in the window, and the service prompts you to click the "Done" button after completing each case. Suitable for those who have a clear and understandable plan, and who at the same time like to tick off the completed items. Not suitable for those with flexible schedules and a floating to-do list.

http://www.plan-your-time.com/to-do/- here you can also make your to-do list by ticking the completed ones. In addition, the service calculates how much time was spent on completing each case. But if between things you need to pause or switch tasks, the list will have to be compiled again.

http://todolist.ru Is also the simplest online service for compiling several to-do lists. You can make lists for several days in advance. The functionality is also quite limited - just lists, like in a paper diary, and nothing more. But it's free.

http://todoist.com- a convenient task planner with an online version and for different gadgets. You can set goals and plan specific steps for their implementation. You can create joint tasks, delegate and control their execution. An interesting feature - the service considers the so-called "karma" - the user's productivity. The minimum set of functions is free, the advanced ones have to be paid for, but essentially Google does the same thing for free (read on).

https://www.google.com/calendar/render Is a calendar that is with you all the time, on any device - mobile or stationary, yours or someone else's. The calendar can remind you of a planned event, and not only to you, but to all participants - by e-mail and SMS. Like other Google services, the calendar is free.

https://calendar.yandex.ru- well, you get the idea :)

http://miniplan.ru from the creators of Megaplan. Combines to-do lists, an electronic calendar with reminders, and a cute interactive clock to add your to-do items. The miniplane is free and only suitable for personal planning - that's why it's mini.

http://yaware.ru- online system for tracking working hours and productivity. Suitable for those who work on the Internet. You add sites to the system that you visit for work (or not for work :)), define them as useful, useless and neutral. The system tracks how much time per day you spend on each resource and provides a report at the end of the day. In this case, only the time at which you actually work with the resource is taken into account, the system simply ignores open and unused tabs. The site has free access to tracking your own productivity and paid packages with advanced options for tracking employees' time. There are applications for smartphones.

http://motivateclock.ru- a similar program. It is downloaded and installed on a computer, there is a version only for Windows. The program is free, only for personal use, there is no corporate version.

http://www.leadertask.ru Is another similar service, an electronic diary that works online, on smartphones, from a computer and even from a flash drive. It also makes it possible to coordinate plans with the team, synchronize tasks on different devices, and so on. There is a free version for personal use, several paid packages, a boxed version for corporate clients.

https://www.wunderlist.com/ru- cloud service for data storage and distribution of tasks. It is a system of to-do lists and a set of tools for working with them. You can set tasks, divide them into subtasks, set deadlines, link tasks with each other, set reminders, share your tasks with other people, and so on. The service is suitable for both personal planning (free of charge) and for business purposes (already for money), it is synchronized between different devices.

http://evernote.com/intl/ru/ Is a service that has gained enormous popularity now. It is a program and web service for storing large volumes of notes, and notes can be of any format - text, images, audio, video, with attached files. In addition, the service works as a project management system, helping not only to store a bunch of information, but to organize it and, if necessary, share it. Opens everywhere - online, from computers and phones, and synchronizes your information. There is a minimum free package and paid versions with advanced functions (for example, in a paid account, you can collect an entire electronic library or video library). Evernote comes with nice support services - for example, Skitch, which we are talking about. And if you want, you can connect google-mail and google-calendar.

https://getpocket.com- an extension for the browser, similar in functions to Evernote, only not for notes and files, but for web pages. You save all the pages that you can't see right now - you get a plan for reading in the future. Inside the service there is a convenient function for cleaning pages from garbage - ads, unnecessary links, etc. This helps to save time and read only useful content. For money, there is a search, a tagging system and the function of forming an electronic library (if the authors of the articles you marked decide to delete them, the articles will still remain in your pocket).

http://worksection.com- a system that combines file storage with time scheduling. You can save files of any format for free. For an additional fee, a calendar with reminders and advanced functions appear: timer, time tracking, finances, etc. You can also work on projects with the help of assistants. The service allows you to set tasks and monitor their implementation, take into account the efficiency of employees' working time, calculate costs, arrange group chats, etc.

This article will not touch upon the basics of time management, methods of dividing tasks into primary and secondary ones, principles of organizing working time, etc. Quite enough has already been written about this, and I cannot give better advice than reading specialized books on time management (primarily, those presented on this site). The purpose of this article is to familiarize yourself with a very specific system of recording and organizing time, which I myself use.

The proposed system for recording and organizing time was developed during 2004. The beginning of keeping a diary was laid in February 2004, and this practice continues to this day. Gradually, the system underwent some changes, was trimmed and adapted to current tasks. To date, she has finally gained sufficient harmony and strength for me to risk bringing her up to the public. I hope that the proposed system will be useful for people who want to put some order in their own lives. At least, my experience allows us to hope so.

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

TIME ACCOUNTING

By drawing an Excel sheet in a certain way, you can easily and conveniently keep track of the time during the day. For this, a scheme of the following form is used:

In the figure, every hour (the top line denotes hours) is divided into 4 columns, that is, the accuracy of time recording is 15 minutes. Greater accuracy makes it inconvenient to keep records, less - allows too large losses in accounting.

The leftmost column reflects typical graphs of time expenditures (reading - reading, rbt - work, docking - keeping documents, everyday life - solving everyday problems, lchn - personal time, rvl - entertainment, dv - movement, nchg - nothing, waste of time).

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

By the end of the day, the time sheet looks like this:

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

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

Such resumes allow you to soberly assess how much time is spent on a particular type of activity, and, in addition, to deduce the average for the week or month. Further, if you wish, you can draw conclusions about the need to devote more or less time to this or that type of activity.

PLANNING

Let's start with a simple to-do list 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; Вр - time; Fri - priority; and a column for the day and task description.

The column "Status" will be discussed in detail below. The column "Time" seems to be self-explanatory. We will now focus on looking at 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 a side assignment 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 to determine the results of the day

70 - summing up the day

80 - tasks for determining 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 schedule 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 of the week, tasks for the week are recorded. This is followed by the designation 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 that are simply copied into the appropriate sheet when drawing up the daily plan.

The monthly plan is drawn up using the following scheme:

EFFICIENCY MARK

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

V - done

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

N - not fulfilled

During the day, as the 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 appear 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 an impartial and objective assessment of the effectiveness of the use of time.

The task sheet by the end of the day looks like this:

Using different colors after sorting allows you to visualize the efficiency of the day.
In the given example, out of 13 tasks on day 9 were completed, 3 were not completed, and 1 was not completed due to objective reasons. Taking into account that points "B" are counted as 0.5 / 0.5, the results of the day look like this: total - 13; plus - 9.5; minus - 3.5. I count the day as successful if there are more than two-thirds of the total number of "positive" tasks; half successful - from half to two-thirds of the total; unsuccessful - if there are more than half of the "minus" tasks. Other proportions are possible, depending on your exactingness towards yourself.

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

A similar system is used to assess the performance 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 the task and time tracking sheets.
It is especially convenient to use the proposed system in the presence of a pocket computer. In this case, the file with the sheets of tasks and time tracking will always be with you, and you can make changes to it in the course of the day.

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

Alexey Fedorov, December 2004 Contact: [email protected]... Editing - Gleb Arkhangelsky,
The article was written specifically for the site. Document address on the website:
It is allowed without additional agreement with the author to publish in free Internet publications, while maintaining the integrity of the text, including this notice, and working hyperlinks. Publication in paid online editions and paper media requires agreement with the author.

• How and why in time management it is advised to divide cases into "hard" and "flexible".
• Why you need to set specific long-term goals.
• How to force yourself to perform laborious (large and long) tasks.
• Working time planning: how to keep your working capacity at the same level.
• What time management program is the general director of MC-Bauchemie Russia.

Time management can be compared to physical exercise: you need to increase the load gradually, and train constantly. The more regular the exercise, the better the physical shape. Therefore, the ideal option for introducing a time management program into your life is step by step, day by day, mastering techniques.

You can often hear from business owners that they are so busy that they simply do not have time to plan. Thus, a kind of vicious circle is formed: there is no time to manage time. To solve this problem, you need to understand: spending 25 minutes today planning tomorrow is not a waste, but an investment. When planning your tomorrow, you will be able to allocate time for solving your main tasks, so there is no need to postpone the study of time management and wait for a more favorable moment: it is unlikely to come soon.

Time management: weekly program

Working time planning

Planning becomes the basis for effective work. It is time management (working time planning) that becomes the basis for organizing your affairs. Most people expect many different tasks on a daily basis, some of which need to be completed in a very short time frame, while others can wait. The organization of these cases in a convenient and effective system becomes the basic principle of planning your time.

I recommend on the eve of the working week, on Sunday, to divide the planned activities for Monday into the categories of "hard" and "flexible". The rigid ones have a certain time binding (for example, a meeting at 14:00), while the flexible ones have a deadline ("preparation of the report by Friday"). To organize this scheme, it is better to use the following principle. In your planner or diary, you should divide the page vertically in half - along the line on the left we list our “hard” tasks, on the right side - “flexible” ones, without tying the latter to a specific time. Thanks to the distribution of your day in this way, you will be able to see that there is an interval of time between the "tough" tasks that you can devote to the "flexible" tasks.

Such time management will allow you to get the whole picture of the upcoming day - a person gains confidence that he is adhering to a planned, effective scheme. You don't need to worry if there are violations in your plan - after all, life always makes adjustments. You just need to adapt to the circumstances by making the necessary changes to your plan. It is also important to take into account that it is unrealistic to "rigidly" plan more than 40-60% of the working time. The more flexible the day, the better.

I recommend planning your next day the night before - the evening of the previous day. You will feel much more comfortable in the morning. It is imperative to indicate in the list of your "flexible" cases - "draw up a plan of action for the next day."

How to organize a job to keep up with everything: life hacks of Metro and Tele2 top managers

The article of the electronic magazine "General Director" contains a selection of techniques for increasing personal effectiveness from market leaders. Top managers of Tele2, Mitsubishi Electric, 220 Volt and Metro told which methods help them to do more. Techniques can be applied immediately, they do not require special training.

Time management principles and prioritization

After training on Monday in drawing up the technique of your planning of "hard" and "flexible" cases, you should move on to a new stage of time management - taking into account the priority of your plans. Quite often, compiling a list of "flexible" cases is quite chaotic - urgent tasks are listed at the end, and secondary plans are placed at the top. This approach is bound to lead to confusion in the implementation of their plans for the next day.

To avoid this problem, you need to list cases based on their importance. Priorities are set based on certain criteria. For example, if the task is set by the owner of the business, it will be necessary to solve it immediately. If the case does not belong to its professional duties, then it can wait. The list of such criteria for each person will be individual - you need to think over them in advance.

On Tuesday morning, we prioritize our flexible tasks. Various techniques can be used for this. For example, we arrange things on our list in accordance with the priority of tasks, or we color the columns in different colors that correspond to a certain degree of importance. The most important tasks can be displayed in red, less important ones - in yellow, and tasks that can wait - in green.

This approach allows you to achieve detailed planning of your day. But it is worth understanding, in detail - does not mean minute by minute. It's just that you will know what you have to do tomorrow, where you will need to start, how to end - the whole day has already been planned.

Goal setting and "memoir"

Goal setting is an important time management technique in terms of organizing working time and philosophically. After all, life is given once, so it must be devoted to the most important. This requires the ability to plan, set goals. However, you need to be careful not to get too carried away with fashion trends. For example, at our seminars, many participants noted that in the near future (5-10 years) they set themselves approximately the same goals - a delightful, snow-white office, many subordinates and a better car. Of course, such dreams cannot be called bad, but often a person cannot answer the question - what exactly does he do that will allow him to achieve such wealth, office and car?

Therefore, it is recommended to keep a "memoir" (for example, a separate file on a computer or a notebook, it all depends on personal preferences). Indicate in it every evening the key event of the past day, and at the end of the week we define the key word of the week, then the month. Only one specific event should be selected - positive or negative, relating to work or other areas. The main condition is that it must be really key. You should start your "memoir" from Wednesday. But before that, you need to write down your goals for a certain period - for example, for 1, 2 or 10 years. Then we conduct a periodic analysis of our "memoir". Thanks to this, it will be possible to understand the key interests of your own life - what really belongs to the category of importance. Accordingly, it will be possible to assess the correctness of your movement towards the goal. Either it may be revealed that you are only moving away from your goal, or it turned out to be completely unnecessary. In my practice, every day I look at the records that were made on the same day, but in the past years - I manage to compare and analyze my own values ​​and the changes that have occurred to them.

You will be taught how to effectively manage time and energy.

Time management and long-term goals

When you understand your priorities and your vision for the future, you can talk about your readiness to take the next step - a map of long-term goals. The map shows the person's long-term goals as follows. 2 axes are placed horizontally - years (starting from the current one) and the person's age. Key areas are indicated vertically (family relationships, career, personal development, etc.). Indicate approximate targets at the intersection of your years and key areas. An important advantage of making a map like this is to combine professional and personal goals in a common plan.

Of course, certain changes to your map are possible from time to time. However, thanks to her, an approximate sketch of the future is possible, depicting his own approximate route of the further path. Therefore, this Thursday we are drawing our first card of long-term goals.

How to master time management in a week (instruction)

"Elephants" and "frogs"

We have already drawn up a to-do plan and a list of goals, so on Friday we begin to think over the necessary motivation to achieve the set tasks. To draw up such a plan, you can recommend a fairly simple technique based on the conditional division of your tasks into "frogs" and "elephants."

"Elephants" - any difficult, voluminous tasks that still need to be done (conditionally "eat"). Initially, it may seem that it is simply impossible to “eat such an elephant”. But ... an elephant can be cut into pieces to prepare many small "steaks" for your daily menu. The task is similar with complex, voluminous tasks - which are completely divided into components, separately with which you can cope. For example, at the end of the year, it becomes necessary to draw up an annual report. We have a truly large-scale work ahead - with the search for complex materials, organization of activities, etc. We need to divide the overall complex task into separate parts - for example, write 3 paragraphs every day or describe a separate topic. Thanks to this, it will be possible to cope with the preparation of the report on time without constant worries and stress. Experience confirms that thanks to this approach, it is possible to quickly solve their complex problems, spending less effort.

The situation is similar with “eating frogs”. The term "frog" implies a small but unpleasant business. Although there is no choice - it must be fulfilled. Such a "frog" over time may well become an "elephant", if not "eat" it in time. For example, you might want to express dissatisfaction with expense reports or take apart the bottom drawers of your desk. When properly organized, the "frogs" also become delicious "steaks", into which we divided the "elephants". To use this technique in practice, we take an "elephant", which we divide into parts. Then we indicate the list of "frogs" and draw up all this information in the following table.

On the left side all "steaks" and "frogs" for each day are indicated. On the right side, the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of these goals is indicated. If a certain job was not supposed to be done on that day, leave an empty space. If it was supposed, however, it was not possible to complete it, you need to put a dash. When fulfilling a specific goal, you need to put a plus or a tick. There is no need to get upset because of your dashes, but still - if there are a lot of them in a certain column, then you should think about it and get down to business. We place this table in a conspicuous place or in our diary. It's important to see your chart several times a day - keeping in mind your goals and for additional motivation.

Rhythm in rest and resource activities

The working week ends with the onset of the weekend. You can relax and familiarize yourself with more pleasant, suitable time management techniques for the competent and complete organization of your vacation. There are 2 time management techniques to recommend on Saturday this week.

Rhythm in rest. A person cannot concentrate his attention on one subject for more than 40 (rarely 80) minutes. Therefore, you should give yourself a rest for 5 minutes approximately once an hour. For example, while reading a book or viewing business magazines that have accumulated over this working week, you need to get rest every hour - after being in silence, taking a walk, etc. This experience from next week can be adopted for the workplace.

Resource studies. They are able to revive or calm down (switching as much as possible, contributing to more effective and early rest). For example, some people prefer to walk up the stairs from the 1st floor to the last and back, others embroider crosses, others take a break, enjoying coffee and rum. Here, it is important for a person to decide on an occupation suitable for oneself, contributing to the most effective restoration of internal energy. The efficiency of restoring your working capacity also depends on the quality of rest. You can devote the whole Saturday to walking and relaxing in the park or a trip to the entertainment center with the whole family. Consider what resource activities you can include in your work schedule for the next week.

Pamper yourself and the time management system is ready

Sunday is a great day to congratulate yourself on a successful weekly course that has set up your time management system. It will not hurt to pamper yourself a little. To do this, you can follow the technique of intermediate joys. Choose something that is especially pleasant for yourself - something that you love but cannot afford on a daily basis. For example, to supplement your diet with something expensive and tasty by visiting your favorite places, chatting with people you love, sunbathing, spending time in nature, simply giving an hour of idleness, etc. Such joys are established for oneself for a certain amount of work. Use this scheme to plan your working day, week, or even year. To do this, you can draw up a table - indicating the remuneration for your achievements. There is additional motivation, it becomes much more interesting to work. At the end of Sunday, you need to plan your working hours for Monday, based on the time management techniques we've covered.

• Labor productivity: how to improve it ​

Time management myths

1. "Time management was not invented for the Russians." Time management was invented for business and success - if it is important for Russians, then time planning is necessary.
2. Time is beyond our control. Yes, a person cannot manage time, but planning for its use is available to us. Therefore, many managers were able to appreciate the benefits of time management for planning their lives.
3. When working with time management, you will have to spend your whole life on schedule, without the right to choose. No, time management is not for this - you can always change your plans. Time management and created for freedom, with the ability to choose what to do.
4. Time management is absolutely not suitable for creative people. Experience confirms the effectiveness of time management for creative people as well. For example, while you are not writing music while waiting for the muse. Instead of planning that the muse will knock on the door tomorrow from 7.30 am to 9.30 am, it is better to plan - to compose a few verses over the next 2 weeks, or to complete the picture before the end of the year.
5. "Time management is very difficult." Yes, there are certain subtleties - but our material and fairly simple techniques will allow you to master valuable science - by making an investment in your success.
6. For success in life, you need not plan, but work, without breaks and weekends. To work effectively and enjoyably, you need good rest. Time management techniques help to free up time for rest and freedom.

CEO says

Alexander Mondrus, General Director of MC-BauchemieRussia, St. Petersburg

I managed to master time management quite easily. When he started working in these areas, he corresponded to my ideas and plans to find additional time resources. I really needed better time management. In addition, by nature I am a rather systemic person - therefore, I quite normally accepted the idea of ​​timing, cost analysis and compilation of various tables.

It took me about 2 months to master the basic time management techniques - setting priorities and timing. Thanks to them, I was able to understand what time is. I began to feel it much better. At that time, he began to work as a manager in a new company - therefore, he had every opportunity to practice his skills in a working team. I began to actively involve almost all top managers in the development of this technique, and they have already involved their employees. All these factors allowed me to comprehensively and harmoniously familiarize myself with various methods of time management.

In my business I actively work with various electronic means of communication. In particular, I plan my affairs using the Microsoft Outlook program - its functionality supports a lot, including prioritization, dividing goals into "hard" and "flexible" ones, allows you to paint cases in different colors, etc. My position also involves working with paper media, therefore, to control these tasks, he formed his own system, making a number of improvements for the solutions of Gleb Arkhangelsky.

I started a thick notebook for each leader. During the meeting, I write down theses, notes, tasks, etc. in this notebook. After the meeting, I transfer the notebook to the secretary, who enters the data in the form of tasks or upcoming meetings in Outlook. And already on Outlook I follow the further progress of work. Convenience of working with a notebook - during a meeting, you can view the entire history of a specific issue (in this regard, electronic media are inconvenient). But Outlook is much more convenient for management.

Placed in my waiting room drawers with pull-out trays - they contain documents for signature. They are grouped into transparent flexible folders, each with the name of a specific department. The company also has a procedure for preparing for signature - with improvement and addition every six months. The duties of the secretary include control over the submission of all documents according to the approved regulations. And there are incentives for observing the rules, although it was not without symbolic punishments. For example, a document not prepared for signing will cost 3 kg. green apples. At the reception, we placed a large vase with apples - indicating the inscription "Today you are treated to such and such." If the established rule is violated, a person will need to hand over money to buy apples.

When planning my day, I try to reserve time for uncertain circumstances. Because something always happens anyway. Although 80-90% of the working time is planned. This rigid routine provides me with important advantages, although it is not without its disadvantages. Personally, I like this system, although I have to remain its hostage. If something is set for a certain time (plans are associated with a large number of people), making changes to your schedule will be quite problematic. A practical situation - we are looking for suppliers, but it turned out that two hours of presentation are not enough for us, we need at least two more. But the next "window" is outlined only a month later.

Although I manage to solve a large number of different tasks as time is freed up, and not in a rigidly established time frame. For example, while driving around the city, you can solve other issues by phone - thanks to the driver, I can solve additional problems.

Thanks to time management, there was also time for personal life. When planning my year, I always start with personal plans and family - I set the date of the vacation, which I discuss with my wife, I set aside time for my favorite activities, communication with my son. When drawing up a schedule, I try to take into account work activities, the dates of which I know in advance. Therefore, I do not plan my personal affairs for this period. Although the work activities that appeared in the future will not take away the planned time for my personal goals and family.

7 rules of time management

1. Imagine that today is your last day. An unusual but rather pertinent rule. Just ask yourself the question - "what would I do if I knew - today is the last day of my life." This question should be thought about before going to bed and in the morning after waking up.
2. Filter information. To avoid oversaturation of the brain with a lot of unnecessary information, without wasting unnecessary time, learn to choose the most useful, necessary, and try to filter out the unnecessary. For example, learn to skim through the information on the site, focusing only on the most important.
3. Eliminate time eaters from your life. Probably the very first problem that gets in the way of full control and efficiency in the use of time. Minimize time spent on social media, Skype or email. For the duration of a useful task, it will be useful to turn off anything that distracts your attention. You should also keep a separate diary with an indication of all useless activities that take up your time, but do not bring you closer to your goal.
4. Concentrate from start to finish on one task. After all, the distraction of a few things worsens the efficiency of your task. There is no need to dissipate attention and effort by switching to a new task before completing the previous one.
5. Keep your desk tidy. Rich people always work at a clean desk - both comfortable and time-saving looking for everything they need.
6. Say NO more often. You need to learn to refuse certain people, tasks, etc., if they require your time, but are not useful.
7. Work at a specific time. By carefully observing yourself, you can determine your suitable biorhythms during the day when you are working most efficiently.

Useful books on time management

1. Lucy Joe Palladino. Maximum concentration. How to maintain efficiency in the era of clip thinking. M .: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2015 .-- 336 p. SPb, 2015 .-- 288 p.
2. Nikolay Mrochkovsky, Alexey Tolkachev. Extreme time management. 3rd edition. Alpina Publisher, 2015 .-- 2014 p.

Mistakes of people who seek to manage time

1. Take on too much. You can and should improve your abilities, but you need to know when to stop. At some point, the number of tasks may be too large, provoking stress and conflicts. To prevent this problem, you can:

• ask for help. You need to be able to overpower yourself and ask for help when needed.
• use the 80/20 rule. Define a list of the main tasks, it is on them that most of the time and effort should fall.

2. Complicate the time management system. Sometimes the time management system is too complex. If it brings results, great. Otherwise, when ineffective waste of time arises, it is worth considering change. Consider simplifying and streamlining your time management system so you don't waste half of your time running it.

3. Busy but ineffective. Wasting a lot of time on useless, low-priority tasks is a serious problem. Among the ways to solve this error is to ask the question "Will what I do benefit?" If the answer is negative, you should think about solving more useful problems. This question is perfect as a screensaver on a computer, or you can print it on paper and place it in a prominent place.

4. Do not rest. The human body has a limit, non-stop work will not work. You can, of course, work for a very long time without interruption, but this makes no sense - the efficiency is gradually decreasing. If you are tired, do not forget to take breaks - reward yourself for your work with a walk, a moment of relaxation, or a delicious meal. Experimenting is a good idea to determine when you need rest. Finding a personal balance of work and rest is important. And don't be afraid to give yourself a break when you really need it.

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There is no doubt that working from home has its advantages. For example, you don't have to commute to work. They do not waste valuable company time by gossiping near the cooler. And you only pay for the hours that they actually worked. And, as studies show: than office workers. However, to run your business successfully, you may need some time management programs.

After all, for all the benefits of hiring remote workers, if they don't live in the same region as you, it can be difficult to help them manage their time efficiently.

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

Time management programs

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

1. Time Doctor

If you need a program for tracking the working time of remote employees, then Time Doctor just what you need.

With Time Doctor, you can get detailed reports on how your telecommuters are using their 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 Internet activity, tracking of visited sites, GPS tracking and much more.

Time Doctor has everything you need to includetime management programs.

2. Roadmap

10. Asana

Asana is a conceptually simple project management application. 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: Completed, Failed, Due By Date, and By Projects. This gives the manager the opportunity to see the current progress, and the remote worker can quickly sort through what has already been done and what else needs to be done.

This application also sends an email notification prior to the due date of the assignment.

11. Float

Float is a project management software that is better suited for small teams.

Float has a convenient "click-and-drop" planner that helps you visually display the current workload of the team, easily manage tasks, quickly make updates and find the employee you need, thanks to the filters and search functions of the program.

In Float, you can also distribute tasks among employees, break down into stages of execution, 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 of achieving your goals.

Productivity apps

You have probably heard the expression: "to 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 who's doing what and who's leading the race in a productivity app.

12. IDoneThis

IDoneThis - quite an interesting application for increasing productivity - in fact, it is a "pumped-over" list of to-do's. With IDoneThis, you can create to-do lists for remote workers and watch the red Xs (outstanding tasks) turn green (completed).

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

13. Todoist

Todoist is an excellent and conceptually simple application for creating a to-do list. No, really, you can add your personal files 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 ones. You will also see the tasks for today and those that need to be completed within the next seven days.

Basic Todoist features are free, but if you want to manage a large team, it's worth upgrading to a paid premium plan and taking full advantage of the features.

File sharing

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

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

For the greatest economic value, use a Dropbox Business account with secure data access, sync and collaboration.

15. Google Drive

If you manage a small team of remote workers, then Google Drive is just 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 security and control measure, you have the ability to choose who has the right to access certain documents.

The key to your success is a well-written schedule and house rules. And this applies not only to the workspace, but also to your private life. Taking the article for the truth in the first instance is not worth it, however, it will not be superfluous to heed our recommendations: everything has been tested for yourself.

We make a daily routine: immutable rules

So where does order begin in your day? Of course, from the structure and understanding of all future affairs. Spend a few minutes planning - an integral part of creating a to-do list. In this difficult endeavor, rely on a few of the following rules:

1. Consider the Frogs Rule when making your to-do list. A frog is a task that you do not want to do, but you really need to. So put this task at the very beginning of your day - start with it. Then during the next working hours you will be able to devote more time to creative tasks, and nothing will hang over your soul.
2. You should spend 5 minutes each morning and evening on your to-do list. We woke up, drank coffee and opened the diary - this is how the morning of a productive person looks like. Write down all your tasks for the day ahead by the hour, and then calmly begin to follow the plan. The same thing before going to bed - plan the whole tomorrow night, and in the morning make changes depending on the state of affairs.
3. No more than 4 important things to do a day! And this is not the last limitation for your results.
4. Set aside no more than an hour for each important task. If the duration of a task is predicted to be more than 1 hour, then it should be broken down into subtasks - smaller tasks that lead to the achievement of the main goal. And again: no more than 1 hour for each task!
5. Leave an extra 15 minutes on each task in case you run out of schedule. Somewhere these 15 minutes will be used, but somewhere they will not be useful. The result will be a time balance, which each of us strives for.

With these rules, our manual begins on how to correctly draw up a daily routine. But what else besides planning is useful to us?

The basics of time management for your day

Afraid of this word? Calmly! Time management- this is not a wolf, but there is still a similarity with an animal: it is merciless, because it is control over our main resource in life - time.

Large companies have recently begun to create time manager positions that optimize the working time of employees. Now do you understand why we need this? With the help of time management, you will not only learn how to properly plan, but also use your free time.

Rule 1... Concentrate on one specific task. Do not let anyone or anything distract you from the work you are working on at the moment.

Rule 2... You already know how to properly set up a daily routine. Now it's time to work! Strictly follow your plan.

Rule 3... Time to draw up some rules of the internal order of your life. This can apply to both work and personal life - it doesn't matter, the main thing is to follow them impeccably.

Rule 4... Choose a time management technique for yourself. The experts have formulated some very interesting and working hypotheses that will help you solve the problems. Now I will briefly talk about some of them, and as soon as you find the one that suits you (focus on productivity), add it to your rules.

Time management methods: looking for the right one

To list and tell even briefly about each of the existing techniques is an empty exercise. I will designate the most popular and, in my opinion, the most effective of them, but it's up to you to decide. So, which method should you choose in order to draw up your house rules?