Time management

Russia

At the end of the 19th century, the large Russian physiologist Nikolai Evgenievich Vvedensky once said, “We get tired and weary, not because we work a lot, but because we work poorly, we don’t work in an organized manner, we work stupidly.”

The 20s of the 20th century - the period of development of the scientific organization of labor (NOT). AK Gastev - Director of the Central Labor Institute (CIT) develops the idea that the effectiveness of an organization begins with personal effectiveness, in particular the effective use of time. The social movement of struggle for the time led to the creation of the League "Time", headed by P. M. Kerzhentsev . The newspapers began to appear permanent column "The struggle for time." The league was closed with the end of the NEP .

In the early 1970s, after the publication of D. Granin ’s book “This Strange Life”, the method of the biologist A. A. Lyubishchev became famous - timekeeping as the basis of the personal time management system and time budgeting. The basic idea is effective thinking as the basis of personal effectiveness, timekeeping is a tool for developing this thinking.

In 2007, the first time-management department in the country was opened at the Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" (until 2010 - MFPA) ^[1] .

The following processes can be distinguished in time management :

• Analysis.
• Modeling strategies based on the analysis.
• Goal setting : setting a goal or defining a key direction for development. Definition and formulation of the goal (s).
• Planning and prioritization. Development of a plan to achieve the goals and the allocation of priority (primary) objectives for implementation.
• Implementation - concrete steps and actions in accordance with the planned plan and the order of achieving the goal.
• Monitoring the achievement of goals, the implementation of plans, summarizing the results. Also, if a person or a group of people who practice time management plan to continue to carry out projects, it is advisable to keep timekeeping and record the results of timekeeping analysis in the form of “project cards” (recording parameters of different types of time spending on individual tasks) for their further application in the process of any projects or programs.

Working time - the time spent on the work, or the time of active stay at work, dedicated to the performance of direct official duties. Actually, the working time is the time noted in the report card, that is, in the document accounting for time spent at work ^[2] .

Analysis of working time use

^[3]

• The coefficient of extensive use of working time

K _e = (F - P) / F = 1 - R / F,

where f is the fund of working time, min;

R - regulated and unregulated interruptions in work, min.

• The coefficient of loss of working time, which depend on the workers.

K _p = P _s / F,

where P _s - loss of working time, depending on the employee, min.

• The coefficient of loss of working time, which are due to organizational and technical reasons and do not depend on the employee

K _p = P _about / F,

where P _o - losses for organizational and technical reasons, not dependent on employees, min.

• The ratio of the cost of working time for rest and personal needs of employees

K _ol = OL / F,

where OL is the employee's time spent on personal needs (lunch break, production gymnastics, hygiene, etc.), min.

Similarly, you can analyze the time _{spent by an} employee to perform his characteristic functions ( _Kw ), functions not characteristic of him (K _nsv ), to perform creative works (K _t ), organizational and administrative work (K _oa ), etc.

Lack of working time - lack of time resources caused by improper organization by the employee of his activities, or illiterate organization of activities by management, which leads to haste, delays in the performance of work, tasks, poor-quality work, production losses, marriage, etc., which ultimately significantly affects the efficiency and performance of the entire enterprise.

One of the methods of improving management in an enterprise is the analysis of the working time costs of the head of the enterprise and the heads of functional departments. To identify the reasons for the shortage of time, it is necessary to periodically take an inventory of time for several working days. The manager’s concern for lack of time can be identified by the following signs :

• There is no clear timetable for the current day;
• The secretary or assistant does not know the daily routine of his supervisor, does not know where he will be at a certain moment of the working day;
• Due to excessive employment, the manager does not respond in time to business letters;
• Due to lack of time during the working day, the manager is forced to shut down at home;
• Frequent phone calls and visits of visitors do not allow to focus on the main work;
• The manager constantly performs work for his subordinates, since it seems to him that he will make it better;
• A large flow of routine affairs prevents the manager from the opportunity to do basic work;
• Working in conditions of constant rush leads to overwork.

The most characteristic reasons for the lack of time :

• Unplanned work as a result of the work of not only the manager himself, but also the work style of the whole organization;
• The discrepancy between the employee and his position;
• Inadequate assessment of their abilities, work speed, performance;
• Lack of personal mission of an employee (what can I do for an organization, what can I get, what assets do I have);
• Inability to control their needs (in thoughts, nutrition, communication, expression of emotions);
• Weak labor motivation, leading to low productivity (wages have not increased for a long time, there has been no promotion for a long time), which causes a chronic lack of time.

Planning means preparing for the realization of goals and streamlining working time. From practice it is known that at a cost of 10 minutes for planning work time, you can save up to two hours per day.

For the rational use of his time, the manager needs, first of all, to clearly understand his main functions, goals, tasks and budget of time. When planning, you should consider the following basic rules:

1. When planning for the day, leave 40% of the time free, that is, 60% of the time should be spent on planned work, 20 on unforeseen, 20% on spontaneously arising;
2. It is necessary to constantly record the elapsed time. At the same time, it should be indicated how and for what needs it was spent. As a result, the manager, having a complete understanding of the costs of his time, can make a plan for the future;
3. To draw up a good plan with a clear indication of the time used, it is necessary to distribute your tasks to long, medium and short-term ones;
4. The basic principles of drawing up a plan: regularity, consistency, consistency;
5. To ensure the reality of planning, you should plan such a volume of tasks that a manager can really cope with.

The basis of a specialist’s time use plan is his long-term plan. Given this multi-year plan, they make up an annual plan that covers quarterly plans. Quarterly plans can be coordinated with the annual plan and subdivided into monthly plans. Based on this, the weekly daily plan will be the most accurate plan for the use of specialist time. The plan for the working day is an important step in the planning of working time, it is constantly monitored and adjusted for the situation.

Organize your day plans using the Alp method . This method covers five stages:

• Ordering tasks;
• Assessment of the duration of action;
• Reservation time (in the ratio 60:40);
• Making decisions on priorities and reassignments;
• Control accounting done.

The order of doing things can be established using the Pareto principle (in the ratio 80:20). This principle means that in the middle of a given group or set, individual small parts are more significant than generally in this group. In accordance with this theory, we can conclude with respect to the use of the specialist’s working time: for the first 20% of the time spent, 80% of the result is achieved. The remaining 80% of the time spent gives only 20% of the total result.

Prioritization using ABC analysis . This technique is based on the fact that the percentage of the most important and least important cases in the total remain unchanged. All tasks are divided into three classes according to their importance. ABC analysis is based on three regularities:

• The most important matters account for 15% of the total number of them, which are engaged in a specialist. The contribution of these tasks to achieve the goal is about 65%;
• Important tasks make up 20% of their total number, their significance for achieving the goal is approximately equal to 20%;
• Less important (insignificant) tasks make up 65% of their total number, and their significance is 15%.

To use ABC analysis, you must follow these rules:

• make a list of all future tasks;
• systematize them in order of importance and establish an order;
• number these tasks;
• evaluate tasks according to categories A, B and C, respectively;
• Category A tasks (15% of their total number) are solved by the first manager;
• Category B tasks (20%) are to be reassigned;
• Category C tasks, due to their low significance, are subject to mandatory reassignment.

Accelerated analysis based on the Eisenhower principle . This principle is auxiliary in cases where it is urgent to decide on the priority of tasks. Priorities are set according to criteria such as urgency and importance of the task. They are divided into four groups:

1. urgent (important) tasks. They are performed by the manager;
2. urgent (less important) tasks. The manager can reassign their decision to others;
3. less urgent (important) tasks. The manager does not need to solve them right away, but he can solve them later himself;
4. less urgent (less important) tasks. The manager must delegate their decision to others.

It is known from practice that operational daily scheduling of work of executors allows increasing productivity of their work by 25–30%, saving the manager’s time to regulate processes due to unforeseen irregularities arising in the course of work: due to failures of raw materials supply, power outages, transport problems and other unforeseen factors.

The daily operational planning of the work of the executives is carried out by the manager by giving them assignments the next day. Moreover, it is necessary to simultaneously issue basic and reserve tasks (you can issue 2-3 backup tasks). The tasks issued by the manager to the Executive are recorded in his workbook. This allows the performer in the event of the impossibility of performing the main task immediately without losing time to proceed to the execution of the spare. At the same time, his time is saved to switch to another job, and the manager is engaged in solving his tasks without losing time to prepare and issue a new task. If it is impossible to perform the main task, the performer is obliged to immediately report this to the manager. If this is not possible, the contractor must inform the manager at the end of the working day about the completion of his spare task. He can transfer this information personally to the manager, through the secretary-assistant or make an entry in the log of work.

• The Eisenhower Matrix technique is implemented by setting up a system of priorities and categories.
• Technique " Timing ".
• Pareto method (law 80/20): 80% of problems can be solved in 20% of the time spent; the remaining 20% ​​of the tasks spent 80% of the time spent.
• Self-management is an independent organization by an employee of his own time ^[4] .
• ABC analysis .
• Method "Tomato" .

Time management helps to more efficiently use not only working time, but also rest time. In particular, it is recommended not to take work home, organize life in such a way that it takes a minimum of time, carefully plan free time in advance and follow these plans, in particular, regularly practice emotional (theaters, concerts, exhibitions, etc.) and physical (sports , fitness) switch. In American companies, if an ordinary employee stays at work longer than it is established in his employment contract, this fact may serve as a reason for dismissal, as this indicates that the employee does not have time to complete his tasks during his working time. Use for active recreation not only weekends, but also at least one evening of the working day a week, as well as use long weekends and holidays as a mini-vacation. On business trips, plan your free time (from several hours to two days) to explore local attractions. For the holidays, establish the rules for using the telephone, e-mail, the Internet, etc., and stick to them ^[5] .

Currently there are many time management schools. Classical training is conducted on the following topics:

• Audit of personal and managerial performance.
• Determine the starting point for creating your own plan.
• Personal mission as an emotionally motivating factor.
• Basics of strategic planning.
• Basics of tactical planning (quarter - month - week - day).
• Art to prioritize.
• Analysis of progress. Methods to improve the process of achieving goals.
• Using the MindMapping tool.
• Basics of using software products (MS Outlook, MS Project, MyLifeOrganized, etc.) for planning.

• Procrastination
• Chronophagi
• Time trouble
• Scientific organization of labor
• Urgent addiction

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