Time-Drive: How to Have Time to Live and to Work by Gleb Arhangelsky
Review by El Pogorelova
Time management is an investment that is a must in order to oversee the life.
The books states the obvious facts, which each individual needs to remember:
Each person has only one life;
Time is the material, which life comprises of;
Time and actions of the person are irreversible.
The book covers various aspects of time management, including the following:
Rest;
Motivation;
Goal setting;
Work day;
Planning;
Priorities management;
Information;
Time absorbents;
Time management bacillus;
Time management manifesto.
Having read the book, I have come up with the following conclusions for each aspect:
Rest: this is one of the most important ways to be productive. The rest should be active and should be different from the working time. Basically, if you have been reading / watching videos, the rest should be drastically different, e.g. sports etc. The author recommends taking 5 min pauses every 60 mins to be productive and suggests not to blame yourself for the lazy rest;
Motivation: the author suggests decreasing the time required to manage the unpleasant tasks by motivating yourself to get them resolved asap. In order to do that, Gleb A. suggests incorporating the following approaches:
Using of “anchors” to manage various tasks and rest (for instance, having specific playlist for various activities). I personally apply this and listen to Rudimental when work out;
Eating a “frog” every day - managing an unpleasant task;
Cutting “elephants” (large/burdensome projects) into steaks - dividing the large projects into smaller tasks;
Goal setting: the author suggests setting up 5-7 main aspects of the life, which should be approached and made the top priority. One of the tools the book describes is the description of my day in the future. This allows to understand the priorities;
Work day: the author suggests using both “firm” and “flexible” approaches towards the planning.
By “firm” tasks we assume the tasks, which have been planned and cannot me moved. Such as the meetings with the customers, stand ups etc. Such tasks
“Flexible” tasks include any other tasks, which can be moved during the day. For such tasks, the changes in the calendar would not be a major issue.
Planning: Some tasks can be budgeted. For instance, the presentation for the customer or the preparation for the speech. In order to have everything prepared on time, the book suggests calculating the time required for the preparation. The author suggests using “kairoses” in order to set up the tasks for discussion with the required people;
Priorities management: the author suggests concentrating on the tasks, which have high priority rather than concentrating on the tasks, which do not bring any value. In order to do so, the following techniques could be used:
Saying “NO”;
Delegating the tasks. When delegating the tasks, active control is recommended;
Buying the time of other people or outsourcing the time. Both for professional and personal life;
Information: the author suggests incorporating data filtration, storage and migration. This includes reading, email filtration setup, folders setup;
Time absorbents: the book suggests tracking the time spent each day of a specific task, including the tasks, which took more than 5 minutes. Such tracking provides the ability to find out what are the time absorbents the person has and the ways to decrease them;
Time management bacillus: the author recommends implementing time management techniques for yourself and also sharing the approach with the team and the management. In order to share the time management ideas with the team, the author recommends using the role model approach and compulsory activities to save the time;
Time management manifesto: as the summary, the author convinces the reader to understand that the Time is irreplaceable and that the approach towards it should be serious.
As for myself, I have been using the approach for some time now. The personal approach that I incorporate includes the following:
Planning the month and the week with the help of iCal;
Using iCal / Google calendar for business-related tasks -both firm and flexible;
Splitting the tasks into parts when working on the “elephants”;
Having the weekly planner at home with duplicated tasks from iCal - includes only the tasks, which are not related to the work + include the tasks, such as gym, grocery shopping, meeting with the friends;
Using anchors when concentrating on a specific tasks. Such as, I have a specific playlist for the gym;
Being persuasive when resolving the tasks. For instance, when I called the bank today, the bank employee suggested that I need to visit the bank, as they cannot provide information over the phone. In 2 minutes, it appeared that all the details are available on the website and there is no need to visit the bank.