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18 months before work-life balance.

Evotalents
Evotalents August 30, 2019

Тайм-менеджмент

* Reading and initial 'digestion' of the material takes 10-20 minutes (tested on colleagues :)). So, either take some time to yourself now or set a reminder in your calendar for laterю

[Agenda] for today or what's my plan?

Hello, friends! If you're reading this article, it means you are somehow familiar, or perhaps have encountered the concept of 'time management'.

Марго Подлесная

Well, let's begin. Ask yourself these three questions:

  1. Do you complete all the planned tasks?

  2. Can you allocate time for yourself, work, family, friends, and self-improvement?

  3. Are you completely satisfied with yourself and your productivity?

If you answered "yes" to two out of three questions, write to me, and I will personally treat you to coffee in Kyiv, Dnipro, or Zaporizhia. If the answer is "no," then welcome to an article about the world of balance, time, health, and self-love.

Why?

"Time management is an interesting thing; I don't see any sense in it," once said a friend of mine. We argued for a long time about why this tool is essential for people and how it can expand the 24 hours in a day to 48.

In reality, time management techniques help establish priorities, set goals, and achieve them. This practice improves self-discipline and concentration, allowing you to literally see and control your personal time. As a result, you maintain peace of mind, are satisfied with yourself, your results, and achievements.

In summary, thanks to time management practices:

  • Productivity increases.
  • Energy becomes available for tasks.
  • Stress and panic are partially reduced.
  • You get things done (GTD) and complete more tasks.
  • You become more composed and amiable towards others.
  • You take care of your psychological well-being.

A bit of boredom. Terminology

Since the terminology in the field of information technology and borrowed vocabulary from the English language may not be clear to everyone, I want to explain 5 phrases and words that you will encounter in the article.

  1. [GTD] or [get things done] - a technique that literally means 'getting things done';
  2. [Time management] - managing time;
  3. [Tools] - instruments or tools;
  4. [Procrastinating] - procrastination or simply laziness;
  5. [Recruiter on remote] - a remote recruiter - a specialist who is responsible for personnel recruitment and works remotely.

Where to Start and How to Finish, or the Basic Rules of Success

1. Know where your time goes.

Calculate how much time you spend on basic needs, social media, work, self-improvement, and family. Track where your 168 hours a week go and what consumes them.

A year ago, I realized that I was spending about 50 hours a week on Instagram, Facebook, Slack, Telegram, Skype. The solution was to turn off notifications on all social networks and schedule "social network time" in my calendar (30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening).

2. Set goals.

Write down 5 SMART goals for yourself. You can find out how to do it here.

Цели смарт

3. Prioritize.

Rank your goals from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most desirable. Then, focus more on tasks related to your priorities.

4. Plan.

Weekly, create a list of tasks, allocating which day and what you will work on. Every morning (15-20 minutes), review your daily task list to mentally prepare for what you will be working on and when.

5. Create a schedule.

This relates to tools like Trello, Google Calendar, and point 4.

6. Delegate and learn to say no.

After working through points 2-5, you know which tasks are most important for you. So, before saying "yes" to a request from a friend, colleague, or loved one, measure seven times and cut once.

Your goals are your achievements, your happiness, and your moral satisfaction with life and results.

7. Eliminate multitasking.

It hinders concentration. Scientists have shown that successful task-switching is possible, but it takes about 15 minutes to do it effectively. If you think that after a coffee break with colleagues, a delicious lunch, a phone call, social media, etc., you can immediately return to filling out a report, forget about it.

. Break tasks down.

When you have a card in front of you that says "Conquer the world by May 2025," you see a dream, not a task or a goal. Break your dream into steps and cross them out as you complete them. This is about progress, small victories, and inspiration.

9. Improve.

How often do you analyze the processes that led to your success or failure? Once a week, before planning tasks for the next 7 days, dedicate 15 minutes to review your results and their reasons.

This way, you'll understand what helps you stay productive, what hinders you, what risks may arise, and how to prevent and anticipate them in the future.

To learn from the mistakes of others, start by analyzing and not repeating your own.

10. Form habits. And don't forget about your health.

Time management is a habit that you need to develop. It might take you 21 days, or it might take 18 months, as in my case. I know one thing: the result is worth the effort!

Q&A

When acquaintances talk to me about time management, they often have clarifying questions like what, how, in what way, how many times a day, what tools to use, and so on.

Here, I've provided answers to the three most common questions. Feel free to use them:

What tools should I use?

  1. Trello - a program for managing projects for small groups, teams, and companies. IT company managers are familiar with this tool. Trello is similar to a Kanban board and uses a similar paradigm for project management.

Here's how it looks:

a) My working Trello board, open to the team, consists of columns:

  • To Do (tasks for the week. I set a deadline for each card and estimate the time I plan to spend on the task in parentheses),

  • In Progress (tasks I've already started and are currently being worked on),

  • Done (completed tasks),

  • Later (things I don't want to forget and need to do in the future, I put them in this column),

  • Basic Info (essential work-related information, access, passwords, lists, administrative tasks, partnerships),

  • Goals (my goals for the next six months),

  • Ideas (ideas that come to mind and that I'm ready to discuss with the team or manager).

Планирование задач в трелло

b) My personal Trello board is named "Goals." There, I visualize my desires, dreams, and goals. The columns include Family, Travel, Friends, Career, Self-Development, Finances, Health, and Entertainment. I attach images to the cards, in addition to setting deadlines for completion. Each card contains a description of how I envision that particular dream.

Доска желаний в трелло

Google Calendar - my right hand. After tasks are placed in Trello in the "To Do" column, and I've estimated their timeframes, they get transferred to Google Calendar. Every week in Google Calendar, I plan all my activities (including social media). Here's what it looks like:

Календарь

To avoid mixing up my two jobs, personal matters, and family life, I use four different colors to categorize tasks in my calendar.

  • Green: Anything related to English, teaching, translations, and my students, along with social activities.
  • Blue: EvoTalents. I use this color for all activities related to my team.
  • Dark Purple: My personal development, including workouts at the gym, twerk and dance sessions, reading books, and self-improvement.
  • Light Purple: Personal life, concerts, meetings, and everything related to home and family.

3. Notebook or Planner - the perfect tool for those who prefer notebooks and paper alongside modern technology.

Here are a few options:

a) Planner lover SMM book, Planner guide, stickers, and clips.

b) tse_tobi An Instagram page where you can order "Your Special Things for Every Day." These wonderful items make great gifts for the holiday season!

c) Chiori Shop An Instagram page with stationery, essential gifts, home goods, and travel items. How charming!

d) Kraft Planner "Yes, I Can" a relatively inexpensive daily planner with tear-off pages in a transparent cover.

e) Sundays planner a Facebook shop offering undated planners for 60 weeks.

4Todoist this is an addition to task management programs. You can place all your tasks into projects, sort them using filters, assign labels, edit, export, and share tasks with other users. Tasks can also include notes with files of any type. There is a free version that should be sufficient for casual use.

What to read?

Evotalents Team

To begin, I suggest you take time management lessons here. In the link, you'll find the basics of time management, a lesson on goal setting, planning, time management systems, as well as descriptions of a couple of tools, recommendations, and techniques.

A couple of months ago, my recruiting colleagues shared their insights on time management. Liuda documented "A Day in the Life of a Recruiter" hour by hour, while Marina described how she plans her goals.

What to avoid? 

  • Laziness - an unpleasant feeling. Remember, you need to run very fast to stay in the same place.

  • Lack of planning - create your first daily plan, complete all the tasks in it. Then you'll see the result and productivity. Small victories inspire.

  • Lack of priorities. It's not enough to write down what you want to achieve. Prioritize what comes first and what can be left for later. This way, you'll understand which tasks are critical and which ones you can skip without burdening yourself with an endless to-do list that brings no joy. Consider time for lunch, commuting, sleep, and rest. Something can always go wrong.

  • Ineffective task planning - this is about risks and proper time allocation. My advice is to use the 60/40 principle. Keep 40% of your calendar empty. This way, you remain flexible in terms of time, schedule, and tasks.

  • Insufficient rest. Allocate time for yourself, your family, and your inner well-being. Work is important, but breaks are essential.

It's important to kickstart your ideas or desires within the first 3 days, otherwise, routine will consume your dream, and you'll lose that initial enthusiasm. As Henry Ford said, "Nothing is particularly hard if you break it down into small jobs." Following this rule, set yourself tasks, break them down into achievable steps, and get to work!

If, after reading this article, you want to chat with me personally, offer advice, or ask for recommendations, you can! Here's a link to my calendar. Feel free to book and schedule a 15-minute Skype conversation with me! See you online :)