How professionals work. Anna Karakozova, Head of Kaspersky Lab’s Mobile Business Development Department

“How Professionals Work” presents yet another specialist to the readers of Megamind.

This is again a beautiful girl - Anna Karakozova, who works as the head of the mobile business development department at Kaspersky Lab.

Current location:
Moscow

Current place of work:
Kaspersky Lab, last 7 years.

One word that best describes how you work:
Passionately

How many hours a day do you work?
I am in the office about 11-12 hours. Naturally, not all this time I’m directly "screwing".
Lunch for half an hour, a break for a walk for coffee - in the summer at the office it is very comfortable to walk among the flowers, walk to the beach, look at the water. Inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale - you return with new forces and a constructive approach to any situation. Twice a week in the office I study English, if there is no rush, I go to the gym once or twice a week right there. Purely working hours averaged 9.5-10.

Current mobile device:
Main - HTC One;
iPhone 6 - as a player and a spare phone for tests;
On trips - iPad Mini.

Current computer:
Dell Latittude E7240

Without which applications, programs, utilities you can not live?
I just can’t live without water, but there is a connection to a smartphone and the Internet, of course.
Not convenient without instant messengers. I use three. Contacts on WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram were evenly distributed.
At work, I will survive the absence of everything except Excel.

What kind of life hack helps you save time?
I am not an example of the optimal distribution of time, but I try to fix it.
I remove everything superfluous from life (everything that is not useful and not happy): communication, Facebook sticking habits, alcohol, which even in modest doses knocks the brain out of working condition for a long time.

It took several years to develop the delegation skill. Mania of total control passes when your people are in a team. Everyone is mistaken, at rechecking too. The lack of total control frees up time significantly.

I combine processes. Everything that can be parallelized from cases without prejudice to the result is combined.

Which to-do manager do you use?
Asana took root in the team. I write down important tasks in a notebook - I love the moment of deleting closed questions. They advise tasks in Outlook because of easy synchronization with mail, but it still doesn’t work out for me.

What do you listen to when you work?
I use headphones to create silence when I need to focus on numbers. I listen to music as a rest - I listen to the melody, I love to sing along. And she distracts me from work.

What are you reading now?
Before the holidays, I refresh the memory of the yachting theory: Ivanichkin “School of Yachting” and Vatrunin “Yacht Captain”.

Which book of the last read was the most memorable?
Asya Kazantseva: “Who would have thought! How the brain makes us do stupid things. " Recommend!

Do you use electronic readers or prefer paper books?
At home, a large family library, so when buying paper copies - hard casting. I do not disdain electronic. I am reading from the three-year-old Pocketbook Touch. From reading from the phone and iPad eyes get tired faster.

How much time do you sleep?
I try to sleep 8 hours, when less - I remind you of the morning Wall-e with a discharged battery. In fact, it turns out 7. I do not use sleep trackers (probably in vain).

Are you an owl or an early bird?
Owl, unfortunately. I'm trying to relearn to work, to start earlier, and in the evening there was time for personal life. But the brain refuses to work normally until 11, and the peak of mental activity - in the afternoon and in the evening.

How do you have breakfast?
I rarely have breakfast - I prefer to sleep an extra 10 minutes. On weekdays, in the morning I drink water to disperse. I don’t feel like eating the first two hours, but in two - I'm on the road. On the way I gnaw some fruit or have breakfast in the office with colleagues.

How do you spend time on the way to / from work?
In the subway - I read, watch TV shows and train English. I do not drive a car at the peak time. On the road, I’m talking on the phone or listening to lectures on Youtube or in Coursera. Often I sing - tunes in a positive day or helps to disconnect in the evening.

What advice have you ever been given you can pass on to others?
All important advice to me, a reactive person, was given on the topic of controlling emotions. It is incorrect to single out individuals / books - the influence is complex in the spirit of “parents say something at age 20, and only reach 40”. Most importantly, be silent and wait. Do not rush to give out a reaction to the words and actions of people. Sometimes a situation or your attitude towards it changes in a minute. And you can catch firewood in the first seconds. Similarly, about making decisions at night. I put it off in the morning - you look at the situation easier and more soberly.