Not enough time: reasons, time management, effective ways and ability to manage time

August 31, 2018
Psychology of Personality
Rosalia Rison

Do you have enough time for all important things? Unfortunately, we do not always plan our lives correctly. And all because we don’t know how to prioritize things. We often do the wrong thing, giving preference to unimportant activities. Let's figure out why you don't have enough time for anything, explore ways to manage it, and also look at what time management is.

Reasons for lack of time

Why is it so difficult to stick to a plan and maintain a schedule throughout the day? We invite you to look into this. There are at least six reasons why you don't get anything done:

You've been sleeping too long. Almost the entire country works from 9:00 to 18:00. You need to get up earlier so that by the evening you have a lot of things done. You yourself will notice that you will have more free time.
You take on too much. Not everyone is ready to constantly multitask without misfires. Otherwise, you risk failure in some business.
Lack of rest also affects your productivity. Don't think that if you work 24/7, you will complete more tasks and be successful in everything and everywhere. Fatigue will affect your productivity already on the third day of working non-stop.
You don't know how to say no. Perhaps you are often asked to do something that is not at all within your scope of responsibilities, but you cannot refuse. The ability to say “no” will help you not only with time management, but also with life in general. You may agree to help, but only if you do not harm your own free time.
You are wasting time on empty things. Maybe you're late for work because you've been watching TV? Or did you meet a former classmate on the way to the office and you should definitely talk to her now? Or maybe you often go out for a smoke break during the day, and after the lunch break you chat with your colleagues for another half hour? All these are things that can be neglected in order to fulfill the plan to the maximum.
Wrong priorities. First you need to deal with important, urgent matters, and only after they are completed, take on secondary ones. If you need to prepare for a difficult exam tomorrow, and your friends invite you to the cinema, then, of course, you need to give priority to studying for the exam.

Now you understand why there is so little time to live. Finding out the causes of the problem is, of course, important. But now it needs to be resolved.

We don’t regularly re-read or review our plans and goals

It is necessary not only to plan your day, but also the rest of the time in life . People who don't re-read and revise their plans and goals are wasting time and energy. After all, some of them need to be changed over time. Our life does not stand still, and we and our decisions move with it. Priorities change, and so do our goals.

Re-read and review your plans weekly, monthly, or even annually. And, as necessary, change or completely change the course so that unnecessary tasks do not eat up your time and do not clog up your day.

Time management

“There is not enough time for anything” is one of the most common complaints of every second person. At the same time, people blame everything on the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day. However, we assure you that time is not to blame. It's just about us here.

Why do some people calmly carry out their plan, even find time for their family, personal life and hobbies in the evening, while others live in constant rush and blockage at work? It's all about ignorance of the basics of time management. What is it?

Time management is a technology that allows you to properly plan time, as well as increase the efficiency of its use. The main thing you need to be able to do is to distribute things by priority, that is, importance and urgency. This determines how much time you will spend on completing the task.

How to distribute your time? Advice from psychologists

Still, the ability to properly manage your time is a good skill. Psychologists tell you how to try to develop it in yourself.

Nadezhda Akimova advises delegating your affairs and responsibilities. In the family - children, husband, relatives, nanny, cleaning lady. At work - to subordinates, colleagues. Secondly, do not plan more than three important tasks per day that depend on you, and two that involve others. If you planned three tasks for today and did not complete one, move it to tomorrow and plan two new ones so that you do not exceed three. Thirdly, create your own daily routine and follow it. Learn to refuse others, even if it is your boss or an important relative. Do everything you do with pleasure, even if it's something you don't like. Think of ways to reward yourself (but not with food). Find three useful things that you will get when you complete this least favorite task. Do everything with a smile. Give yourself an hour of rest every day.

“You need to choose your path in life. It is impossible to keep up without harming your health in all areas at the same time. You need to choose. Family or career? Public interests or personal? Study or earn money? It is better to study one stroke a thousand times than a thousand strokes once. You also need to stop focusing on the demands and claims of others,” comments Oleg Dolgitsky.

Petr Galigarov advises highlighting priorities based on your real life values; psychologist Milton Rokeach’s list can help with this: write down your values that you implement every day. Then determine the most important, second and third values (for example, health, financial independence, family), then proceed to daily planning of your actions based on the selected priorities. Keeping a diary or diary teaches you to focus on priorities very effectively. At the same time, when creating timing, it is important to leave room for pleasure and relaxation.

Photo: Shutterstock/FOTODOM

Eisenhower Matrix

Don't be alarmed, there is nothing complicated in this technique. On the contrary, it will make our life much easier, make it more comfortable, and most importantly, organized.

So what should you do? Take a piece of paper and a pen. Draw it so that you get 4 cells: two on top and two on the bottom. Each cell represents a case:

Urgent and important.
Non-urgent important.
Urgent is not important.
Not urgent and unimportant.

Organize your tasks into cells. This technique will help you understand which tasks need to be tackled right away, which ones can be postponed, and which ones can even be delegated to another person. If you're always short on time, try the Eisenhower trick.

Spraying yourself on several tasks at the same time

We all know that a person can do several things at the same time. But let's see if this is true. We need to figure out which tasks are ordinary and not difficult for our brain, which we can do several at once, and which are complex and require the connection of the higher parts of the brain.

Ordinary, simple tasks are eating, combing hair, etc., such things cannot even be called a task, they are just tasks that we can do several at once, without thinking. Everything is different with tasks in which our brain must work hard - it cannot process and solve a large number of them, a maximum of two tasks, the rest simply blocks. Therefore, you need to understand that you cannot scatter yourself on everything at once and waste your time. You need to solve problems sequentially by completing one, only then move on to the next one . With this approach to any business, you can save your time.

Our brain can work on two difficult tasks at once, but no more. This statement was proven by French scientists when examining volunteers using MRI studies.
Just climb up the tree and don’t skin your butt , but no more, at one time

Pareto's Law

Surely you have ever heard about this method of effective time planning, but did not know its name. What is it?

The Pareto principle is the distribution of tasks according to the 80/20 principle.
20% of effort produces 80% of results.
The remaining 80% of effort produces only 20% of the results.
That is, 4/5 of the effort you put in has absolutely no effect on the result of your work. Agree, the share is considerable.
Most of the results are achieved quite quickly.
Unimportant tasks are completed at the end of all work.
If you don’t have time to complete something, you should give up on secondary tasks.
A small part of the tasks will be effective.

This 80/20 principle applies not only to time management, but also to life. You will achieve more by starting small.

Why it is so difficult to establish balance: self-distrust

You have conducted an internal audit, discovered discrepancies and the most important needs that are relevant to you now. The first difficult step lies ahead: to believe that this is all true, and not a temporary weakness.

Not everyone, but many, need time to become legalized within themselves and feel the right to judge their life by their inner feelings - they are too accustomed to trusting other people’s opinions and criticism. It takes time to trust yourself.

Ideally, we all need the support of loved ones to make changes. But after revising your energy accounting, some people may lose your attention, so expecting support from them is at least naive.

Method 10-3-2-1-0

The formula seems incomprehensible at first glance. Don't know how to remember it? You just need to find out what it is.

Do not consume caffeine 10 hours before bedtime.
3 hours before bedtime we do not eat or drink alcohol.
2 hours before bedtime we stop working.
An hour before bedtime, turn off the phone and stop using social networks.
0 times – this is the number of times you are allowed to press the “Snooze” button when the alarm clock rings.

This is a formula for a healthy lifestyle and effective day planning. If you often don't have enough time before bed, use this method.

Chronograph technique

For two to three days, write down how much time you spend on any task. Starting from doing morning exercises and ending with a trip on the subway. Find out what task is taking up too much of your time. Then figure out how you could spend fewer minutes on it. For example, if you stretch out your breakfast over forty minutes and then simply don’t have enough time to get to work on time, maybe the problem lies precisely in the fact that you are watching TV while eating?

Further, by the way, you will roughly understand how much time you spend on a particular task. This will help you quickly plan your day even without using a smartphone or a piece of paper.

The history of the word time pressure

The word is of German origin. If you divide it into component units, you get two independent words: “zeit” - “time” and “not” - “need”.

In Germany, the term is used in chess when a player lacks time to carefully consider a move. To control time, chess tournaments now use clocks with two dials. In this type of activity, time pressure is replaced by the need to remind chess players that time for thinking and predicting the development of events on the chessboard is limited.

In Russia, “time pressure” in the meaning of “catastrophic lack of time” was first used by D.N. Ushakov at the beginning of the 20th century.

Later in philosophical dictionaries this term was interpreted as a lack of time.

The rules of many board games require strict time regulations. If at the beginning of the game a person thinks about his moves for a long time, then towards the end of the game he will have to act under time pressure.

Written fixation

A good memory is good. Being able to keep everything in your head is generally excellent. But sometimes in stressful situations or in the hustle and bustle, you run the risk of forgetting about something. Moreover, writing it down further cements the tasks in your head.

Buy a diary in which you will mark all your meetings, work moments, matters related to family and home. Then prioritize them and understand what needs to be done first.

Here's an example:

Make a commercial proposal.
Take a walk with the dog.
Pick up my son from kindergarten.
Wash the suit.
Call the client.
To sign documents.

Which of these should you do during working hours? Cases numbered 1, 5 and 6. The client probably needs to be taken care of first. Let's call him. Then we sign the documents, but only if they are urgent and it depends on you whether the paperwork is worth it or not. If they can be dealt with at the end of the day, then we will postpone the signing of documents until the evening. And accordingly, during the day we draw up a commercial offer.

Then there are matters numbered 2, 3 and 4. The wife can also walk the dog, we delegate this item. A washing machine can wash the suit, so it won’t take you much time. And you need to pick up your son after work. Therefore, at the end of the working day, you go to kindergarten.

Agree, very simple? You just need to understand which matter is urgent and which is not.

What is the Urgency Trap?

Research by Meng Zhu, Yang Yang, CK Hsee. The Mere Urgency Effect / Journal of Consumer Research, which was conducted at the Johns Hopkins University business school, showed that we most often abandon interesting and important tasks in favor of urgent ones. And we are literally predisposed to put off significant projects for later, first of all taking on those that we think need to be done right now.

This is called the urgency trap. It leads us to stress, emotional exhaustion and, oddly enough, loss of money. Researchers have found that we tend to jump on tasks that seem more urgent, even if they pay less than tasks with a softer deadline. This happens for several reasons.

Pomodoro technique

This method was invented by an Italian student in the late 1980s who lacked time for work.

The essence of the technique: you divide tasks into 25-minute “pomodoros”, that is, periods. You work for 25 minutes without being distracted by anyone or anything. Then the alarm or timer goes off and you rest peacefully for your well-earned five minutes.

If you are distracted by something and move away from what you are doing, reset the time and set the timer again for 25 minutes. We'll have to start all over again.

After every fourth pomodoro, you need to take a long break of 15-30 minutes.

At least a little

Everyone has cherished dreams for which they usually don’t have enough time. What to do in such a situation?

If you have long wanted to learn a foreign language, start running, read a big book, learn coding, make a guest list for a wedding, start writing a thesis, or repair an old bike, then it’s better to start small.

Start with 20 new foreign words every day.
Run in the morning or evening for at least 20 minutes.
Start by reading 50 pages of your treasured book a day.
Dedicate at least half an hour every day to coding.
Start thinking about which guests are very important to you, who you don’t need to invite, who is dear to you, and who is just an old acquaintance. First make a list of at least very significant people and family friends. And only then supplement the points in the process.
The diploma can be started six months before it is due. If you write at least 5 pages a day, you will soon achieve success.
Go to the garage after work for at least 15 minutes. And soon you will be enjoying rides on your repaired bike.

Don't forget that you can only achieve great things from small things. Take your time and take your time. Self-development is a long, painstaking path.

Excessive haste and fuss

There are many good Russian proverbs on this subject:

Don't rush to answer, hurry to listen
Hurry for a good deed, and the bad will come on its own.
They run fast and fall so often
He was in a hurry and soon died
You'll make people laugh in a hurry

Russian proverbs very clearly show and tell us that there is no need to rush in your affairs , you need to think through everything carefully, and then just do it, so as not to waste extra time on redoing.

The proverb “ Do it in haste ” means that the job was not done very well, i.e. quickly and not of high quality, and everything may have to be redone. At the same time, wasting time that could have been saved by doing the job immediately and efficiently.

Focus on doing and solving your affairs not quickly, but thoughtfully and without fuss, then you will save your time and it will be enough for your full life. Do everything with feeling, purposefully, and with planning.