Be a Man and Do Things Pillow Book

Chapter 57: Be good at time management when doing things (4)
Sometimes we think that everything is up to us, and we are worried about entrusting things to others, refusing to let go, refusing to find someone to replace us, not knowing how to delegate, making ourselves too busy to care about things, unable to face difficulties rationally, If you can't seize the opportunity decisively...the result can only be busy, busy, busy, and in the end, it is nothing but busy.

The following is a personal experience of Mr. Charlie, a software engineer at Microsoft Corporation:

One day, Charlie and his wife came to Bill Gates and asked him about some family management issues.The husband and wife raised seven children, and the family was busy and chaotic. The wife was too busy all day long, and became irritable, in a bad mood, and on the verge of physical and mental collapse.And what about that gentleman?He came home as if he was on the battlefield, and he didn't feel the slightest family fun.

Bill Gates then told the gentleman: "The crux of your difficulties is that your wife is too tired to do the housework. You can hire a servant to help her!"

As far as Bill Gates knows: their family's economic situation is very good, not to mention hiring a servant, even two or three are not a problem.

When he proposed this proposal to the couple, Mrs. Charlie immediately objected: "No. I don't allow others to take care of my husband and children."

Bill Gates patiently persuaded her, repeatedly explaining to her that she is now incapable of taking care of them. To put it bluntly, she is now tormenting her loved ones because she is powerless.

Later, the couple accepted Bill Gates' suggestion and hired a servant. It was much easier for the wife, the husband was comforted, and the children were happier.

From this incident, we can get the following enlightenment:
Don't do what you don't need to do,
Don't do what other people can do,
Give some of what you are doing now to others.

This is the golden rule of administrative management, and you can also follow it.Letting someone else do for you the things you struggle with frees you up to devote yourself to the things that come in handy for you.

In time management, there is a famous concept called "monkey management", which also tells this truth. It was developed by Kenneth Blanchard, William Oncken and Hall in the United States. Hal Burrows proposed in his famous book "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey" (The One Miute Manager Meets the Monkey).It has become synonymous with "taking over other people's natural responsibilities."

Now introduce it to everyone:
Why do some managers always feel that there is not enough time, but their subordinates always have no work to do?
These managers might argue, “Maybe I shouldn’t be complaining that people can’t do without me. Maybe I want to make myself indispensable for job security.”

The "1 Minute Manager" is not impressed.Indispensable managers, he explained, do harm to the organization, not the important people in the organization, especially when they impede the work of others. People who think they are irreplaceable usually do so because The damage caused, and lost the official position.Also, senior managers can't take the risk of promoting people who are indispensable in their current jobs because they don't develop successors...your problem is monkeys.

Who is holding the "monkey"?
1 minute The manager explains this definition with an extremely vivid example that fully reflects life one question."

The boss must understand the problems of his subordinates, so he stood in the corridor and listened to him describe the ins and outs of the problems in detail.Solving problems for others has always been the boss's favorite, and the boss listens to him attentively.When the boss finally raised his hand to look at his watch, he thought it would take only 5 minutes, but it turned out to be 10 minutes.The discussion in the corridor delayed the time for the boss to reach the destination.All the boss knows about the problem is for the boss to decide that he must intervene in the matter, but he does not have enough information to make any decisions.

So the boss said, "This is a very important issue. But I don't have enough time to discuss it with you right now. Let me think about it first and talk to you later."

Then, they both left separately.

As a bystander, you can clearly see what is happening in the story.If you're in it, it's harder to see the truth.Before the two of them meet in the hallway, the monkey is on the back of the boss's subordinate.While they were talking, due to mutual consideration, the monkey's two feet rested on the backs of the two of them respectively.But when the boss said "Let me think about it and come back to you later", the monkey's feet were transferred from the back of the boss's subordinates to the boss's back, and the boss's subordinates lightened the burden and walked easily. opened.Because, at this time, both feet of the monkey were on the back of the boss.

Now, let us assume that what was being considered was part of the boss's job.Let us further assume that he is capable of proposing some solution to the problem he himself has posed.If this is the case, when the boss allows the monkey to jump on his back, it is tantamount to volunteering to do two things that his subordinates should do:
Transfer responsibility for the problem from the other party.

Promise that the other party will submit a progress report to him.

Every monkey needs human care and supervision.

In the situation just described, you can see that the boss takes over the role of employee, and the boss's subordinates play the role of supervisor.The next day, the subordinate went to the boss's office several times to remind the boss:

"Boss, how are things going?"

If the boss's solution does not satisfy him, he will "force" the boss to do what he should have done.

To this end, the management of monkeys should pay attention to the following points:

The monkey is sick and needs to find a cure.

This is someone's monkey, and the monkey is fed by the executor.

Insure the monkey, give advice, act now.

The monkeys were checked regularly.

Time management requires skill.

If you are a person who loves life and loves life, be a budget-conscious person in front of time, then your time will be squeezed more and more.

Bill Gates said: Time is like water in a sponge, as long as you squeeze it with your heart, it will always be there.

There is a very imaginative watchmaker in the United States. In order to let everyone get an extra hour every day, he made a special timer, which is only 57 seconds per minute.In this way, he squeezed 6 seconds out of every minute, adding nearly 2 minutes a day.

If you are a person who is good at using time, even if you don't use his timer, you can still squeeze out an hour every day and benefit endlessly.

If you do what Bill Gates said, I believe you will agree:

(1) Work in accordance with your mental state.

According to relevant expert research, the normal body temperature of a person can vary by as much as 1 degrees Celsius in one day.The pattern of body temperature changes can affect your productivity, concentration and state of mind.

According to the habits of ordinary people, people's physical condition is usually clearest at 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning and in the middle of the evening.In the afternoon, people will feel more and more drowsy, and two or three o'clock in the afternoon is the "low point" of work efficiency.After the body temperature peaks at 6pm to 8pm, many people will lose energy.

So, spend your most productive time tackling difficult things, or engaging in creative thinking.Less productive time is spent reading newspapers, sorting out files, sweeping or sorting out letters.

(2) Arrange daily tasks into a list and sort them in order of importance.

If you are an employee of a company, make a daily to-do list and rank them numerically in order of importance.If there are many things, list the most urgent ones as "A", the second ones as "B", and then the "C", or use pens of different colors to classify.

(3) Classify "handling" according to priority

Pick out important documents and classify them: "processing" (need to be processed or entrusted to others to do), "reading" (read documents whenever you have time), and "archive" (files for future reference).Put the "processed" pile in a prominent place, and put the other two piles aside.By keeping only the main documents on your desk, you can avoid distractions that waste time.

(4) Leave the office door ajar or close the door to thank visitors.

Many people like to say that their office door is always open.However, if you accommodate every uninvited guest, you probably won't get much done.You should find some tactful ways to protect yourself and avoid sudden interruptions that waste your time.Levy, a public relations expert, has a slight variation on his open-door policy and leaves the door ajar.The meaning is clear: he doesn't really want you in.But there's another way to deal with an unexpected visitor: Tell the person you're busy, apologize, and ask him to come back at a time when you're not busy or productive.

(5) Hang up incoming calls without interference.

The telephone is the greatest time saver and the most time waster. McKenzie, author of "The New Way of Time Management," says hanging up on a long-winded call starts with setting a time limit and then hinting that the conversation should be over with something like, "That's pretty much it...."Before you make a call, figure out what you are calling for.If you're going to talk about several things, write them down first, and then talk about them one by one.Busy people will expect you to be straightforward.If you don't want to make your phone calls unwelcome, make a note of when the people you usually call are least busy, or better yet, make an appointment before making an important call.

(6) Don't just wait.

If you know the wait is unavoidable, bring some reading material with you.Put some documents, reports, publications or newspaper clippings in your briefcase or folder.

(7) TAKE A BREAK.

Making the most of your time doesn't mean you have to work hard every moment.Taking breaks from your daily routine can help you do things faster and better later on.Taking a nap at noon can restore your physical strength, and exercising can also clear your mind and relax your body. Even if you just take deep and shallow breathing alternately for 10 minutes, it will also relax your body and mind and refresh you.

Half-heartedness is a waste of time.

Consciously train your skills in using your time.Only then can you find more value in your life from time.

Bill Gates said: Whether it is to learn faster or to work faster, it is a matter of efficiency.

How to fully display efficiency in your daily work and life?Bill Gates believes that the most practical and important method is to concentrate and be highly invested.Half-hearted, half-hearted, half-hearted, can never be exchanged for high efficiency, not even a genius.On the contrary, effectively concentrating energy and time on what you are doing at present can produce an energy focusing effect.High concentration and high devotion, this is the simplest and most effective secret to improve efficiency.

Bill Gates has been very energetic since he was a child, and he loves to think very much since he was a child. He can devote himself to something as soon as he is fascinated.When I was studying in Hubin Middle School, I often arranged my studies according to my hobbies.Bill Gates worked hard and excelled at his favorite subjects, such as math and reading.Every time the parents saw the report card that Bill brought back, even though they knew that Bill would learn better in some subjects, they didn't pull down their faces and blame Bill Gates.Because they know that this kind of learning is efficient learning, so that they can always maintain that rare concentration will, which is conducive to creating great careers in life in the future.

Those successful people actually don't have any superhuman abilities. If they have any, they are just better at using and managing time than others.

Cherish our time!Don't waste this precious time in vain, don't let us call by the river, the dead are like husbands, we will never return, we don't seek the long-term, we only seek every step now, one step, two steps, step by step into tomorrow .Only in this way can our life be more fulfilling and our life will be more colorful.

Learn to prioritize your time.

Everyone has a lot of things to do every day. In order to manage time effectively, we must set priorities: In daily work, 20% of the things can determine 80% of the results; the goals must be consistent with the values ​​​​of life and career , so as not to waste energy; develop expertise and engage in high-value activities; low-value activities that are not beneficial to our body and mind will corrode our energy and spirit, so try not to do them; set priorities and arrange things according to urgent, non-urgent and Important and unimportant are divided into four categories. Most people are used to dealing with many urgent and important things every day, but then they will do some things that seem urgent but not very important. They don’t know what they are busy with all day long.In fact, the most important thing is to do important but seemingly insignificant things, such as reading, further studies, etc. If you don't give priority to doing them, it will be difficult to achieve your lofty goals in life.

To set priorities, you can divide things into five categories: things that must be done; things that should be done; things that can be done within one's means;It is best to spend most of the time doing what must and should be done.

How should time be used to be most valuable?An important concept is to do the right thing and the important thing, not just get things done!The common habit of people is to just do what they do regardless of whether it is correct or not. This is wrong.Only by working hard to do the "right" things will you have high productivity, you must have the characteristics of bravery, and it is not good to refuse unimportant things.

Forget about the past and focus on the future.Focus on what opportunities are currently available, work hard to grasp them, and have a vision of time.True success itself is an attitude, that is, to have the idea, desire, and determination to succeed, and to have enough time every day to do important things.

Organizing time and keeping tidiness boosts our self-worth, self-image and self-esteem.For example, keep the desktop tidy, file things immediately after finishing, do things only once, and it is a waste of time to finish things after five or six times, try to finish it once as much as possible, if everything can be prepared in advance, you can effectively manage time.

Throw away unused data; transfer the data to others; important things must be done immediately; only those that are valuable and important are archived. According to statistics, about 80% to 90% of the archived data will not be used again .If you can't find the file you want within 5 minutes, it is a bad file system, so you need to organize files every once in a while and throw away unnecessary files.

Persevere and patiently continue to work until it is completed; when the work is done, give yourself moderate rewards and rewards; be good at using internal and external peak moments (inner peak moments are when you use your best spirit to do important things , the external peak moment refers to the most available time when you are in contact with others); make good use of the 30.00% law: the time required for ordinary people to complete work usually exceeds 30% of your scheduled time; good planning can Take the pressure off; don't make excuses, plan well and get the job done.

(End of this chapter)