Love and hate for time management
It seems that it was 2007. By that time, I had already left my last job and for more than a year now I was developing my first business. It was fun, hard and almost without a chance of a positive result. It was a video surveillance company. Naturally, I made all the mistakes that could be made. At some point, he quarreled with a partner and decided to spit on everything. In addition, the moment turned out to be more than successful - I saw somewhere on the net that Gleb Arkhangelsky was looking for a general director (or executive?). And I went to him for an interview.
Naturally, like everyone else, I was fascinated by his book Time Drive. How to manage to live and work. ” I read it in one breath, and it seemed to me - here it is! Well, Christmas trees are sticks, as everything turned out to be simple - eat “frogs” every day, use Outlook to plan your tasks, divide tasks into important and unimportant, urgent and non-urgent, etc. Frog is good. Metaphors are generally well remembered. But here I sit and remember what else was there in this “method of Gleb of Arkhangelsk”? To be honest, I remember with difficulty. But I remember very well what happened to me after reading his book.
I began to record. I had a PDA, and if possible, I wrote down something with a stylus on Excel tablets. I rode the subway and recorded. Dined somewhere with friends and wrote down. He returned home and recorded. They asked me: “What are you recording all the time there?”. “I plan,” I replied.
I'M PLANNING. I felt proud of myself. Finally, I realized how to live. How to develop a business. We have to do more - thanks to a magic pill called "time management" it is so easy to do now!
With the feeling that everything will now be different, I went for a month. Well maybe two. Or three. Hardly more. In the fourth month, I began to remind myself of zombies. But not just a zombie, but very busy with his zombie affairs. Well, you know what zombies can do? Here he walks, staggers around the night city, scares passers-by. And everything records, records, writes something into his laptop. He’s planning some kind of garbage. Inaccessible to human logic.
I thought I was so flawed. And then I saw the announcement of Gleb of Arkhangelsk. Thought he would finally teach me how to be the right zombie, not a zombie keen on his zombie affairs. And then there are some business problems. I was a co-owner, but I was not the CEO. It seemed to me that our partner was leading us into the abyss, but I could not influence him in any way. And it seemed to me - this is a chance to stop their torment. Looking ahead, I’ll tell you that in the end everything turned out to be good. I did not become the executive (or general?) Director of Gleb Arkhangelsky, but in the end I became the general director in my company, gained control, brought the company to a whole new level and sold the stake for money that was good for me at that time. By the way, this company is still on the market, and it feels good.
Later, I often returned to the problem of time management. I tried GTD, I tried other systems. I read something somewhere, came to my own way, but in the end I worked out a few rules, which, it seems to me, really pushed me forward - especially at Texterra , which I started working after the sale first firm.
But before moving towards these points, I want to say this. The whole “time management” is useless if you have the thesis in your head that your personal effectiveness will help to avoid problems. Will not help. The more "effective" you personally will be, the greater problems you will have to face. It's like a squirrel in a wheel. You can spin the wheel slowly, but you can quickly. Yes, the faster you spin, the more “virtual” kilometers you wind. But who said it was good? And who said that this is happiness?
The only way to get rid of addiction to frogs and exels is to recognize the fact that problems and their subsequent correction are a normal part of our lives. Someone treats problems normally, someone hates them, but problems are normal! The people who are really successful in business are mostly people who solve problems. Not thinking how to avoid them, to build, classify according to one or another rank - these are people who go into a zone of chaos and expand the boundaries of their faith constantly.
The human brain is built in a very strange way - it strives for a "comfort zone" - where we are easy and understandable. A “comfort zone” is an order. When you buy the same products in the same stores, when you refuel at the same gas stations, which along the way, when you know what you will do at work today and what you will do at home next weekend - know you find in the "comfort zone". This is not good. It's not bad. This is common to all normal people. Here is a sketch I sketched in Paint:
But if you want to achieve something in any field, the only option is to go into a zone of absolute chaos. You need to fall in love with absolute chaos. It is impossible to live in chaos, but if you go into a zone of absolute chaos, your daily life will begin to shift from a zone of absolute order to a zone of a sort of half-chaos, a chaos lying within the boundaries of your faith, which is not completely ordered by you, but in fact you know , how to do it. And the more persistently you strive into the zone of chaos, the faster the boundaries of your faith expand.
How to fall in love and start moving into a zone of chaos? (Remember that your brain will constantly call you back to the zone of order, control and routine).
The first one. Stop finally reproaching yourself for outstanding tasks. You are not zombies - you are a living person!
The second one.Concentrate more on the basic things for your life, rather than on the flow. Perform more targeted actions, and fewer non-targeted ones - no matter how useful they may seem to you at a given time. As a rule, the basic things for your life lie beyond the bounds of faith - and you need to try and find the way to them by trial and error, and not deal with trampling paths in the zone of order.
The third. Before you “plan” something, ask yourself the question - what the hell? Does this action really bring me closer to my main goal?
Fourth. There is no need to “plan” a business, if it can be completed in 5 minutes - just grab it and do it.
Fifth.Tired of doing something day by day? Hire an employee for this job. I'm serious. You should not think that no one else can do your super important things except you.
Sixth. No matter how effective you are personally, unfortunately, this does not greatly affect your business. Real business growth is achieved not due to the personal effectiveness of the leader, but due to effective business processes.
Seventh. Allow yourself to experiment. Sometimes it’s useful to take and just put all your business to hell.
The eighth. Sleep for a long time. I have a real problem with this, you need to force yourself to sleep!
The ninth.If what used to be in the chaos zone for you has become a familiar routine (and it will certainly become at some point) - do not continue to do this work out of habit. It's time to hire a good performer for this job.
Now I have a difficult task. Immovable. An increase in the traffic of our own site from 10 thousand unique to 20 thousand unique per month for three months, excluding PPC and other paid channels. I do not know how to solve this problem here and now. And that means I'm doing it right.
Well, what was in Gleb’s office? He came, saw a very tired man - maybe it was temporary, but I remembered the guru just like that: tired. It was much more interesting for him to watch what was happening outside the window than to communicate with me. There were some questions - such as what he did, what he achieved. How I spend my work day. What tasks do you have to solve? Gleb asked me reluctantly, at first glance I could understand that he would not take me to work for himself. I went out from him with relief. The first thing I did when I returned to my office was to demolish all these lists of my “frogs” from all laptops and laptops. They are still somewhere lazily jerking their legs in my past. Well, let it not be a pity.
Denis Saveliev
Naturally, like everyone else, I was fascinated by his book Time Drive. How to manage to live and work. ” I read it in one breath, and it seemed to me - here it is! Well, Christmas trees are sticks, as everything turned out to be simple - eat “frogs” every day, use Outlook to plan your tasks, divide tasks into important and unimportant, urgent and non-urgent, etc. Frog is good. Metaphors are generally well remembered. But here I sit and remember what else was there in this “method of Gleb of Arkhangelsk”? To be honest, I remember with difficulty. But I remember very well what happened to me after reading his book.
I began to record. I had a PDA, and if possible, I wrote down something with a stylus on Excel tablets. I rode the subway and recorded. Dined somewhere with friends and wrote down. He returned home and recorded. They asked me: “What are you recording all the time there?”. “I plan,” I replied.
I'M PLANNING. I felt proud of myself. Finally, I realized how to live. How to develop a business. We have to do more - thanks to a magic pill called "time management" it is so easy to do now!
With the feeling that everything will now be different, I went for a month. Well maybe two. Or three. Hardly more. In the fourth month, I began to remind myself of zombies. But not just a zombie, but very busy with his zombie affairs. Well, you know what zombies can do? Here he walks, staggers around the night city, scares passers-by. And everything records, records, writes something into his laptop. He’s planning some kind of garbage. Inaccessible to human logic.
I thought I was so flawed. And then I saw the announcement of Gleb of Arkhangelsk. Thought he would finally teach me how to be the right zombie, not a zombie keen on his zombie affairs. And then there are some business problems. I was a co-owner, but I was not the CEO. It seemed to me that our partner was leading us into the abyss, but I could not influence him in any way. And it seemed to me - this is a chance to stop their torment. Looking ahead, I’ll tell you that in the end everything turned out to be good. I did not become the executive (or general?) Director of Gleb Arkhangelsky, but in the end I became the general director in my company, gained control, brought the company to a whole new level and sold the stake for money that was good for me at that time. By the way, this company is still on the market, and it feels good.
Later, I often returned to the problem of time management. I tried GTD, I tried other systems. I read something somewhere, came to my own way, but in the end I worked out a few rules, which, it seems to me, really pushed me forward - especially at Texterra , which I started working after the sale first firm.
But before moving towards these points, I want to say this. The whole “time management” is useless if you have the thesis in your head that your personal effectiveness will help to avoid problems. Will not help. The more "effective" you personally will be, the greater problems you will have to face. It's like a squirrel in a wheel. You can spin the wheel slowly, but you can quickly. Yes, the faster you spin, the more “virtual” kilometers you wind. But who said it was good? And who said that this is happiness?
The only way to get rid of addiction to frogs and exels is to recognize the fact that problems and their subsequent correction are a normal part of our lives. Someone treats problems normally, someone hates them, but problems are normal! The people who are really successful in business are mostly people who solve problems. Not thinking how to avoid them, to build, classify according to one or another rank - these are people who go into a zone of chaos and expand the boundaries of their faith constantly.
The human brain is built in a very strange way - it strives for a "comfort zone" - where we are easy and understandable. A “comfort zone” is an order. When you buy the same products in the same stores, when you refuel at the same gas stations, which along the way, when you know what you will do at work today and what you will do at home next weekend - know you find in the "comfort zone". This is not good. It's not bad. This is common to all normal people. Here is a sketch I sketched in Paint:
But if you want to achieve something in any field, the only option is to go into a zone of absolute chaos. You need to fall in love with absolute chaos. It is impossible to live in chaos, but if you go into a zone of absolute chaos, your daily life will begin to shift from a zone of absolute order to a zone of a sort of half-chaos, a chaos lying within the boundaries of your faith, which is not completely ordered by you, but in fact you know , how to do it. And the more persistently you strive into the zone of chaos, the faster the boundaries of your faith expand.
How to fall in love and start moving into a zone of chaos? (Remember that your brain will constantly call you back to the zone of order, control and routine).
The first one. Stop finally reproaching yourself for outstanding tasks. You are not zombies - you are a living person!
The second one.Concentrate more on the basic things for your life, rather than on the flow. Perform more targeted actions, and fewer non-targeted ones - no matter how useful they may seem to you at a given time. As a rule, the basic things for your life lie beyond the bounds of faith - and you need to try and find the way to them by trial and error, and not deal with trampling paths in the zone of order.
The third. Before you “plan” something, ask yourself the question - what the hell? Does this action really bring me closer to my main goal?
Fourth. There is no need to “plan” a business, if it can be completed in 5 minutes - just grab it and do it.
Fifth.Tired of doing something day by day? Hire an employee for this job. I'm serious. You should not think that no one else can do your super important things except you.
Sixth. No matter how effective you are personally, unfortunately, this does not greatly affect your business. Real business growth is achieved not due to the personal effectiveness of the leader, but due to effective business processes.
Seventh. Allow yourself to experiment. Sometimes it’s useful to take and just put all your business to hell.
The eighth. Sleep for a long time. I have a real problem with this, you need to force yourself to sleep!
The ninth.If what used to be in the chaos zone for you has become a familiar routine (and it will certainly become at some point) - do not continue to do this work out of habit. It's time to hire a good performer for this job.
Now I have a difficult task. Immovable. An increase in the traffic of our own site from 10 thousand unique to 20 thousand unique per month for three months, excluding PPC and other paid channels. I do not know how to solve this problem here and now. And that means I'm doing it right.
Well, what was in Gleb’s office? He came, saw a very tired man - maybe it was temporary, but I remembered the guru just like that: tired. It was much more interesting for him to watch what was happening outside the window than to communicate with me. There were some questions - such as what he did, what he achieved. How I spend my work day. What tasks do you have to solve? Gleb asked me reluctantly, at first glance I could understand that he would not take me to work for himself. I went out from him with relief. The first thing I did when I returned to my office was to demolish all these lists of my “frogs” from all laptops and laptops. They are still somewhere lazily jerking their legs in my past. Well, let it not be a pity.
Denis Saveliev