How did I learn to keep pace
I'm sure freelancers will understand me, lack of time is a sore spot for most of us. How often do thoughts arise in your head: “Why am I not doing anything? Yes, there is a lot of work, but I spend so much time on a laptop, where does it flow? ” I was tormented by such thoughts after the birth of my third child, realizing perfectly well that something needs to be changed!
And here is the bonus - at work (I’m the author of the Sammari) , Tamara Miles’s book “The Pyramid of Efficiency”, in which the author directly praises technical innovations, services that facilitate the life of an employee and increase productivity, came across . And one of the main thoughts of the book is to analyze the available resources (in my case, time).
I did not use the services offered in the book, because I can’t read English without Google Translate. And I went to forums where experienced people gather who have gone the hard way of "nothing-no-time-freelancer." Something was found and started to “test” the methods and tools that I liked most.
To find out where the problem is - from this I decided to start before increasing my productivity. What was needed was a tool that would evaluate the current situation, indicate: “Here and here is the problem.”
Several people on the toaster spoke well about the CrocoTime program. I went to the site , read how everything is beautifully written there, and downloaded it. Just in case, I saved the link to the forum, suddenly the program will not like it.
Since my technical "advancement" leaves much to be desired, I did not understand much during the installation (some employees, something for 2 weeks, etc.), but I brought it to the end. Installed and proudly set to work.
The working time has come to an end. I, all such a hard work, am launching a program - and oh, horror! Total productive 46 minutes, total non-core - 14 minutes, total unproductive - 33 minutes (almost half of the working time!). I stared unproductively at the monitor for a few more minutes and probably blushed with shame. No, of course, I understood that there are social networks and entertainment sites in my life, but to ...
I called my colleague: “Marine, hello. Here I set myself such a shameful program on the laptop ... ". I hear in my voice, laughs: "What kind of program?" I answer: “Spyware. She monitors what you do on the laptop, on which sites you walk, what documents you open, even considers how much time you are looking for information. I tested my working day today, I became ashamed. ” Marinka laughed, asked the name, and we said goodbye. And I continued to use the program.
The laconic design of the program sets up for work - a dull design, there are no any floral and butterfly motifs. I can add third-party sites by moving them to the required sections. For example, the site Makeright.ru, for which I write sammari, I can transfer to the "Office" section and there still choose a subcategory. In general, all the sites I work with can be sorted into work and personal.
When I advertised this miracle of programmer’s thought to my husband, he sarcastically asked: “How does your program distinguish between productive and unproductive time?”, To which I replied: “It makes a good distinction”. I don’t know, however, how she does it, but the result is true.
Now I can calculate how much time it takes me to search for information, on which site I “hang out” the most, how much social networks take. It's a shame sometimes, but still useful. I haven’t studied everything yet. But what has been studied is enough for me. Interestingly, you can set the speakers: working hours, non-computer, overtime, working hours, leaving earlier. I plan to master it more densely, since with three children it is not always possible to work fully. And such an assistant will keep track of me at what time and what I do, when breaks are frequent and even put me late and absenteeism :)
The situation has cleared up, problems have been identified, it is time to solve them. Here, too, tips from the Web from experienced freelancers helped.
1. The forums often mention the technique of "Tomato". The bottom line: you work 25 minutes, 5 minutes - a break, repeat the "circle". After four “circles” you take one long break. Everything is simple, but at first I had to discipline myself so as not to be distracted. Still, 25 minutes is not enough .... But sometimes you’ll get used to it, and when the timer goes off, you start to shudder: how has it been already 25 minutes? Yes, I have the same peak productivity!
2. Personal isoTimer organizer - as it turned out, the program is extremely useful! I installed it on my smartphone and at a certain time a beep sounds like “Tom, you need to submit an article for the wedding magazine tomorrow”.
3. Calendar with the distribution of tasks for the week. I perform several different tasks: I write sammari, keep a wedding magazine, administer an online store with sports gadgets. The terms are not hard, so you need to customize yourself, set the framework and set the deadlines. I mark all plans on the calendar, for example, on Friday to look for the latest news on gadgets, and on Sunday to subtract sammari. And the vision of the whole working picture helps not to be distracted.
4. The recommendations from Svetlana Goncharova’s book “Time Management for Moms” turned out to be very useful for me. By the name it’s clear that they are ideal for a mother of many children (and not only), such as myself. It talks about compiling lists, about how to work with the child and relax with him, in general, a treasure, not a book.
A little bit about the results. My efforts were not in vain: I really began to do more. This, in fact, is confirmed by the program statistics: according to the results of yesterday 1 hour 24 minutes - the total productive time, 17 minutes - the general non-core, and cheers! 6 minutes - total unproductive! If not for this analysis of the lost time, I would have floundered for a long time in the methods of time management and still reproached myself for being unproductive.
It’s one thing when they say: “Just work without being distracted. Find extra time reserves. ” It’s completely different to put these words into practice. The tools that I described to you approached me. Perhaps you will find something of your own. The main thing is that it is really real: to do more even with total employment!