Time management is at all: grasp – the main line – plot
Editor’s note: This article from the WeChat public number “Kaizhi School” ( ID: openmindclub), author of the University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Chen Lingwei; authorized to reprint.
We can’t pay attention to all aspects, we have to choose, and important things give higher priority.
Time management is increasingly becoming a part of modern urban white-collar workers and the lives of college personnel. It can spawn many specific operations. To figure out which operations are effective, how to implement them is important, but the more critical is the question: Why do you want to do these operations?
I think, at all these six words – grab the main line – the plot. Last month, because of the sharing of friends, I read an article that was a loose excerpt from a personal biography. (https://www.douban.com/note/226926167/ )
The biography is the former Soviet Union’s entomologist Ryubichev, who insisted on doing something from the age of 26 to 82, recording his working hours and doing a summary analysis, and then planning his work. Therefore, he also became the spokesperson of the Timekeeping Law of the Recording Department.
His operations do reflect a lot of interesting things, but I prefer to do some associations. For example, what exactly do these operations mean? Do you have to take such an action?
“Catch”: How accurate is my estimate of progress?
A person who often fails to achieve goals will have a sense of frustration, and a reasonable goal is easier to prevent. If the goal is to be reasonable, it needs to be “achievable”. To grasp the goal is to pay attention to how it should be completed. Accurate estimation of progress is the key. In order to do this, Ryubische has reached the limit.
First, he has a conceptual and differentiated view of the regular progress of different tasks.
For example, how many books he travels to a foreign country are never based on his own mood, but on his own, how many pages he can read per hour. He also knows that he has different progress in reading different types of books. “I can read twenty to thirty pages an hour. I will plan according to this old experience. As for mathematics, I plan to watch four to five pages per hour, sometimes Less.”
Secondly, his estimation is not based on the memory of the mind, but based on a large number of systematic records.
In theory, past data can make progress estimates more accurate. In fact, Ljubeev is doing a good job. He self-reported, “If you do things seriously, the actual working hours will generally be 10% wrong for the scheduled working hours.”
But think about it, is it necessary to try to reduce the error to 10%? This is actually quite worthwhile. If I don’t use the system record to estimate the progress error is 20%, but doing this makes me feel particularly cumbersome and unhappy, then maybe it is not worth it.
Or the work content has changed a lot, full of uncertainty, the previous experience can not provide too much reference for the subsequent estimates, it is not so worthwhile.
Or I am particularly self-accepting, and I won’t be unhappy with myself if I can’t finish my work. It’s basically not needed.
In short, think clearly: Does it make sense to improve the accuracy of the estimate? If so, how much error can I actually accept? Then choose specific operations and arrangements.
Image source Pexels
“Mainline”: What do I feel most important in my heart?
Liu Bryche’s daily summary is focused, and I like it very much. He divided the work into two categories:
The first category is a relatively core research activity that is closely related to outcomes; the second is academic peripheral activities, including lectures, seminars, and academic reports. However, he only adds the first type of work every day, and the rest is a monthly summary.
This difference is very interesting in itself. We can’t pay attention to all aspects, we have to choose, and important things give higher priority. At the end of the day, only the core work is counted, and it will affect the time schedule afterwards.
If there is a line there, this line will give yourself a clearer guide in a vague situation, let yourself go to the top. However, this line is not so easy to draw.
Someone will think that Liu Bishoufu is pushing himself too tightly. This feeling is actually something deeper behind: Although I have to grab the main line, is this really the main line I want to catch? Do I really think it is important?
It’s hard to make sure that your heart is firmly determined to be something that is especially important to you. The reason why many people are passively absent, the ability problem is second, and more because they are hesitant, stubborn and even annoying to the “main line” they are trying to grasp.
If you want to supervise yourself by recording a piece of your own heart, then it is inseparable from the foreman to monitor slaves. It may be a bit short-term in the short term and still painful in the long run. If you are calm and watery, it doesn’t matter if you don’t record it, unless you need to be particularly precise about the progress of the future work.Estimate.
In fact, the emphasis on core work does not have to be achieved through records and statistics. It is a icing on the cake, more like a ritual. There are many scholars and even large scientists who do not deliberately record and count time, but attention is always in their hearts.
Of course, modern research is indeed easy to give people a sense of meaninglessness, and there is no good solution at this point. Compared to the record, it may be more important to face yourself honestly.
Image source Pexels
“The plot”: What kind of connection did I form with others at work?
The article also lists the reasons for the waste of time in the analysis of Ljubscher. Two of them I find it particularly interesting: A did the work that should not be done by himself, and B did the work of wasting others’ time. If people care too much about efficiency, they will easily fall into the infinite loop of self-crime and self-blame. These two can be said to be a cracking method.
When people put themselves in a network of relationships and try to see the time of themselves and others, it is easier to break through the limitations of self-concern. Although a lot of work needs to be done on its own, it is still part of the overall story. The plot means someone, interaction, and stories.
There is a connection through the workforce, and part of the value of the work lies in the meaning to others. Neglecting people will actually miss a lot of important things. What’s more, I often think about whether I am really tired when I waste my time.
Sometimes broadening your horizons and incorporating others into your own thinking can easily lead to new insights and feelings about your work. Compared to formal records and analysis, it seems more important to think about this series of questions before and after the task.
For example, is this the most appropriate thing to do by yourself? What if someone else did it? How does this happening or not doing differently on the time of others? What kind of connection did I form with others in this work?
In general, Ryubshof’s method is interesting and worthy of reference, but thinking about the three fundamental problems must be done independently. May you have a satisfactory answer to them. ■