As a rule, not a single time management seminar is complete without a brief description of one of the most famous, oldest and most effective time management techniques - the Franklin pyramid (in English the form “productivity pyramid” is sometimes used). References to this methodology and the use of some of its postulates can be found in many successful business trainers - Stephen Covey, Ken Krogh, Joel Weldon, Denis Whately. It has also gained popularity among many Western directors, managers, and managers at various levels.
But Franklin's pyramid is something more universal than time management. This is a comprehensive system for setting and achieving goals that lasts a lifetime. The difference between the Franklin pyramid and other methods is that it plans not only time, but also employment, ways to achieve a global goal. This technique is “future-oriented”—to identify what needs to be done, rather than to review current activities in order to organize them more efficiently.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) - politician, diplomat, scientist, inventor, journalist, businessman, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the authors of the Constitution. The first American to become a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was a very influential politician, despite the fact that he was never president of the United States. His biographer even joked about this once: “Benjamin Franklin is the only president of the United States of America who has never been one.” Franklin's portrait has been seen by everyone who has ever held a $100 bill in their hands. He is the author of the now catchphrase: “Time is money.”
Ben Franklin was sure that control over the events of our lives brings peace of mind to a person. He studied all his life and paid a lot of attention to self-development and education. His activities required a lot of time and the answer to this need was a self-developed system that he followed throughout his life. He wrote it at the age of 20 and since then has tirelessly followed its principles, despite the circumstances that arise.
How effective is Franklin's pyramid? We can judge this by at least the example of his life. The 15th of 17 children in the family, the son of an ordinary soap maker, who graduated from several classes of a rural school and worked from the age of 10, B. Franklin, thanks to his hard work, achieved recognition in several fields simultaneously and forever inscribed his name in the history of mankind. Dale Carnegie once said, “If you want excellent advice on how to deal with people, manage yourself, and improve your personal qualities, read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin—one of life's most fascinating stories.”
Franklin's Pyramid. Fans of various statistical studies in the West have found that only 1% of people can say exactly what they want to achieve in life. B. Franklin knew this for sure - he was distinguished by his efficiency and determination. Even in his youth, he made a plan and tried to carry it out. The essence was the following: the global task was divided into smaller ones, and those, in turn, into subtasks. This is Franklin's pyramid idea.
Maslow's pyramid is outdated. What is Maslow's pyramid
Maslow's pyramid is a schematic representation of all human needs, from the simplest and most basic to the most sublime. Back in 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow described a pyramid of values with one goal: to understand what motivates people to do certain things. Maslow himself only formulated this concept, and his students came up with a visual diagram.
Pyramid of needs
American psychologist with Ukrainian roots Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was one of the first to study human behavior from a positive point of view. Before this, all psychotherapy was limited to the study of mental disorders or behavior outside the norm. Together with the founders of Gestalt therapy, Maslow formulated the basic techniques of psychoanalysis that psychotherapists use in their sessions.
What Maslow's pyramid looks like
Usually the pyramid is depicted as a triangle:
- The lowest and widest part is the physiological needs of the body. Our body is historically programmed to satisfy the need for food, quenching thirst, sleep, sex. If it wants to eat or go to the toilet, then the brain is unable to think about anything else.
- The second stage is the need for security. Like physiology, safety has been hardwired into our DNA since the time of the apes. The life tasks of our ancestors were simple and uncomplicated: 1. Eat. 2. Reproduce. 3. Avoid the danger of being eaten. They have helped humanity survive, which is why the need for safety is also called the physiological “fight or flight” response.
- The third stage - the need for love and belonging to a group was also laid down in the times of cave dwellers, when it was simply impossible to survive alone. But it was precisely for living in a group that a person needed a new skill. This is willpower. If you don’t connect it in time, you can easily get fined and be expelled from the cave or, in modern conditions, be blocked from a social network.
- The fourth and fifth are the needs for respect and knowledge. They are so interconnected that they come together. After all, scientists and inventors, for example, have a much stronger need for knowledge than for recognition. For example, Grigory Perelman spent his whole life arguing and proving Poincaré’s theory, and then refused the award and all titles.
- The sixth stage is aesthetic needs. These are museums, exhibitions, music, dancing, hobbies, everything that brings pleasure to the soul and shapes the intellect.
- The seventh stage is the need for self-actualization or the desire to reveal one’s spiritual potential. Not everything is clear here either. According to the logic of the pyramid structure, this need should be realized last. But monks achieve the realization of their spiritual potential precisely by pacifying their other needs.
Life values
Life values are the foundation on which everyone builds their life. Their belonging to the spiritual leads to the fact that in the modern world many people do not pay due attention to the identification of values. Material things prevail, everyone wants to earn a lot of money, drive expensive cars, but cannot give a complete answer to the question of exactly how much money they need. This attitude is not bad, but rather wrong. Be honest with yourself. Security and money are normal values; if it brings you satisfaction, then why not dedicate your life to it? For this, you may have to sacrifice other values, so it is important to be confident in your choice. And this applies not only to the above example, but also to other meanings of life - the desire to benefit people, to have power, to be famous, to devote oneself to family. You can choose several areas, the main thing is that it should be what you really want to do and what you are ready to devote your life to, something that will make you happy and help you realize yourself.
B. Franklin describes his life values and plan for achieving them in his autobiography. For him, values were those simple truths that he learned from Quakers in his youth. Based on their cultivation, he built his career and always tried to adhere to the proclaimed principles (according to his contemporaries, this did not always work out with order):
Abstinence.
Do not eat to the point of satiety, do not drink to the point of intoxication.
Silence.
Say only what will benefit me or other people, avoid empty talk.
Order.
Every thing has its place, and every business has its time.
Determination.
Decide to do what needs to be done; strictly carry out what is decided.
Thrift.
Spend money only on things that benefit me or others; don't waste anything.
Hard work.
Don't waste time; be always busy with something useful, avoid unnecessary actions.
Sincerity.
Do not use harmful deception; think honestly and fairly, adhere to the same rule in conversation.
Justice.
Do not harm anyone; do not act unjustly and do not avoid doing good deeds.
Moderation.
Avoid extremes; tolerate insults.
Purity.
Maintain bodily cleanliness, neatness in clothing and home.
Calm.
Don't worry about trifles or ordinary or unavoidable events.
Chastity.
Be chaste in thoughts, control your instincts.
Modesty.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
These values are more abstract than the power or fame exemplified by modern practitioners of the Franklin Pyramid technique. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is that they do not run counter to the global goal. If a person is vain and ambitious, he will not be able to work for a team result for long. Or he can, but he won’t be happy. Therefore, we repeat once again - define your values carefully and carefully.
