Читать книгу Time Management - Martin Manser - Страница 9

Each one of us has a period of time during the day when we work best. It could be early morning, mid-morning after coffee, after lunch or in the evening. You should be doing the most important or difficult work when you are most alert.

When working out which time of day you work best, remember that eating a heavy meal can make your work rate slower, and so you are more likely to make mistakes. You should guard your most productive time and not use it doing non-productive tasks. The saying goes, “time spent sharpening a pencil is never wasted”, but you shouldn’t use your high-energy time to sharpen pencils!

case study Stan works in an office and knows that he works best in the morning. Every day as far as possible he completes the parts of his work that need more concentrated thought between 9am and 1pm. In the afternoon, he makes himself available for meetings or routine admin tasks. He has to be flexible to some extent, but he gets more work done by grouping tasks into those that need concentration and those that are purely administrative than by shifting from one to the other.

one minute wonder Take your diary and highlight across a week the one hour every day when you know you are most productive.

 Morning people. For many people, the best time of day is the morning, when they are most alert, have the highest energy levels and so do their best work. There are two well-known proverbs for morning people: “An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.” “Lose an hour in the morning and you’ll be all day hunting for it.”

 Energy through the week. The same principle also applies to days of the week. If you work best on Mondays and Tuesdays, schedule routine meetings for later in the week.

For example, standing around in a queue at 8am waiting to hand in your car at a garage is frustrating for you if your highest energy level is at that time. If you can hand it in later in the day, once your hardest work has been done, then that will be better for you. Keeping as far as possible to this time will help you avoid becoming distracted by all the constant interruptions that can turn you away from fulfilling the task you have to complete.

You shouldn’t be using your most productive time on routine tasks.