If happy people don’t watch hours, then very busy people, in principle, don’t have them. More precisely, this: there seems to be time, but there is so much to do that the next free minutes will not come soon. For this case, we and you are always ready: “Sorry, I don’t have time.” Everything would be fine, it’s just there. Don't believe me? The evidence is in this article.

Now tell me how often you say the phrase: “I don’t have time.” Let's argue that often. Every day, for example. But we have news - good and bad at the same time. All these complaints about lack of time are fairy tales. A lie, if you will. Do you have time. Believe it or not, there are as many hours in your day as there are in the day of all the Nobel laureates, all the triathletes preparing for, and all the top managers. So as long as you breathe and your heart beats, you have time. Another question is that it needs to be organized and planned in such a way that then “”.

The phrase “I don’t have time” makes us weak and lost. We have lost control and now we admit it. We sincerely believed the beautiful myth of multitasking and, with a smile on our faces, got involved in an a priori losing race. And what? The upper vessel inexorably becomes empty, all the sand is already below. Time is over. We didn't have time again. We lost again.

The truth, as always, is simple and obvious. You are the only person who can manage your life, and therefore your time. I don’t want to upset you, but most likely you waste it very often. For example, the average Russian spends four hours watching TV every day. We are generally silent about social networks - do the math yourself and be horrified.

Naturally, giving up the Internet and telethons will not teach you how to plan your time wisely, but these four steps will definitely help. They will help you gain control and make time your main ally.

Ask yourself what things are truly important to you

Cooking, yoga, date nights, part-time work, House of Cards, Skyping with family, reading, hot bubble baths, hanging out with friends, working out in the pool and long (very long) sleep on Sundays are all just as important and significant, just like your work, which means it has every right to exist on the list of important things to do. In other words, all things and phenomena that bring you joy deserve time. Let's do some arithmetic: you have 24 hours, eight of which you sleep and another eight you spend at work, right? That means you have eight hours to do something else. Okay, let’s face it, everyone’s job is different, so your free time may be limited to four or five hours, but it’s still enough to go to a workout, organize a dinner for two, or watch a new Tim Burton movie.

Do you have free time. Recognize this fact and use extra hours in such a way that the work week does not turn into one continuous “Groundhog Day”.

Find out what's stopping you

Be honest and answer the questions (don't fool yourself). Do you spend an hour or two every day scrolling through your Facebook and Instagram feeds? Does a hangover on Sunday mornings prevent you from going to training? Can you spend half your Saturday just getting out of bed and making yourself breakfast (instead of just picking up a book and reading in peace for once)? Are you willing to date people you don't like or aren't interested in just because you're afraid of offending or upsetting them? Do you think there are any meetings in your life that you can politely refuse?

It's time to analyze and identify those activities that steal precious hours from you and in return bring only emptiness and a feeling of dissatisfaction. Think about how you can minimize the things you don’t really need and replace them with those that make you happy and your life harmonious and conscious. Just imagine what could be better than sitting for two hours with an interesting book instead of a boring meeting. Bliss!

Make a plan

Before trying to chaotically fill your free hours with events (according to the principle of “well, at least something”), it is better to sit down at the table and try to plan this time. Agree, you are preparing for an important interview and thinking about what you will serve on the table when you invite friends for Sunday lunch? Everything is the same here. Your daily routine should not be limited solely to those tasks that you need to solve for work. Running, walking the dog, meeting a friend in a cafe, reading Günter Grass, a concert of your favorite band - all this determines your life and needs your attention, which means, damn it, it deserves a place in your schedule and a couple of hours in the evening or in the morning. Yes, of course, you can do without planning, but then you risk missing out on a lot of really cool things. So, if you decide to spontaneously go to the theater for the premiere performance, there will probably no longer be tickets. They will be bought up by those who plan their lives and want to fill it with bright and worthwhile events.

Each of us, at least once in our lives, has wondered why I don’t have enough time. However, the answer to it is not always on the surface. Let's figure out what is the reason for the lack of time, and h what can and should be done in order to finally begin to have time to live a full life.

No wonder they say: time is money. The ability to properly manage the given hours is a very delicate art; out of habit, you expect a day to last 28, or even 36 hours. However, alas, time is inexorable; only two turns of the clock hand fit in a day, no more and no less. Why, for some, this time turns out to be enough for family, and for a career, and for recreation, while at the same time they also have time to take care of themselves, and get enough sleep, and are always at the forefront in business. And most of us manage to sleep only 5 hours a day, come to tired work exhausted, only to receive another reprimand for an unfulfilled plan. How to learn to manage time correctly?

Let's try to figure it out together. Some reasons lie on the surface and are obvious to everyone, while others are worth thinking about because they are less obvious.

1. Late morning rise

The modern office world lives on a schedule from 9:00 to 18:00. And he gets up in the morning, usually just to have time to get ready and get to work. Have you ever thought that more waking up early will give you time for other things that you have time to do before the office. In the morning we are especially alert (unless of course the last evening was stormy), the brain perceives any information better, so this is an excellent time for any self-development, both spiritual and physical. For example, one of the effective tips for jogging is morning jogging; by the way, this will be especially useful for your figure. Waking up early gives you an advantage over other people who are still asleep .

Numerous studies have shown that those people who get up earlier than everyone else are more successful in life. Analyze the lives of successful men and women, and you will see that many of them start their day very early. Or more simply put: " Whoever gets up early, God gives him.” Take some time for yourself:

People who like to sleep in the morning are more likely to complain that they don't have enough time to achieve everything they want.

2. We don’t plan our day.

To understand where our time went, we need to plan the whole day. A daily action plan is a very important step for understanding and realizing the value of time and taking control of it. Make a record of all your actions for the day, write down the time spent on each action.

• Analyze the actual time you spend on everything you do during the day
• Afterwards, write down how much time you really need to spend on all these things

After such an analysis, you will understand that you are wasting a lot of time. But at the same time, you will get a chance to re-evaluate all your actions, you will be able to plan your day more specifically, and begin to control your time. Time for business, time for fun. The main thing is not to confuse!

It is those people who do not plan and do not track their time who wonder where it went and why there is not enough of it either at work or at home. This is equivalent to how all the money you earn slips through your fingers if you do not maintain a strict budget.

3. Spray 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 a time

4. We can’t prioritize

Most people have a problem setting priorities. Many of us fail to rank tasks in order of importance and therefore waste a lot of valuable time. Think about your main goals and things you want to do and figure out what is most important to you at the moment. Ask yourself the question: “Do I really need to do this task now, or is there something else important that does not require delay?” Tackle your priority tasks, and only then do the rest. Prioritizing ensures you make the most efficient use of your time.

In the United States, scientists came to the conclusion that only a small part of the country’s population has the ability to correctly set priorities, and attributed this ability to leadership qualities, which pretty much shocked the scientific world. Moreover, many HR managers have taken the research results into account and included priority setting tasks in standard hiring surveys.

So: First priority - first of all, second priority never

5. Distracted attention

In the modern world, there are many factors that can distract us from necessary and important matters. For example, the World Wide Web, in which there is a lot of different entertainment available to us 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. It is not surprising that so many young people are easily distracted from their main goals and objectives, and then complain that they do not have enough time.

Distracted attention comes in different forms: it can be caused by fatigue, monotonous work, or insomnia. In this case you need to give yourself a rest and get down to business with renewed vigor, while trying not to distract your attention to other activities. The best option would be to close yourself, somewhere where there are no various kinds of irritants: phones, gadgets, the Internet and people distracting you from work. , which are constantly distracting, sometimes this is very useful for your work and saving precious time.

Doctors around the world have noted an increase in the number of children with attention deficit disorder. First of all, such disappointing observations are associated with the age of information technology, when literally from childhood we are taught to dissipate attention: not to notice what is happening around us, tolerance, non-interference. And, on the contrary, concentrating attention only on that, newspapers and other authoritative sources, using psychological techniques, gradually turning a society of individuals into an easily manageable human herd.

Attention - more valuable than gold

Dissipated attention can also be due to boredom or from being busy with something, for example, professorial absent-mindedness or poetic daydreaming, i.e. difficulty distributing attention between different objects. It is clear that you will need to fight boredom and overcome it with various types of activities that could attract your interest. Sometimes absent-mindedness is associated with mental disorders; in such cases, of course, you need to consult a specialist.

6. 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 no need to rush in your affairs, you need to think everything through carefully, and then just do it so as not to waste extra time on redoing it.

In the proverb - “ Make it quick“, it is said 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.

7. 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.

8. We are consumed by bad thoughts and negative moods.

Many of us are very busy at work, so we usually don’t have enough time for everything else. Work consumes not only our time, but also our mood, unless of course it is something we love. The more you work without vacation, or after working hours, the more tired you become and accumulate negative emotions. You need to give yourself time to relax and de-stress

You need to decide for yourself what is more important to you in life, a job that won’t run away into the forest, or your health, which directly depends on a good mood. If you decide to change something and devote more time to your health and your life, to become happier, then you need to start right now and in no case delay it. Otherwise, you can easily fall into depression:

For people who always say that everything is bad for them, it will be so. If you yourself spread negativity, it will not leave you anywhere. If you constantly say that there is no time for training, traveling, etc., then there will not be enough time to do these things.

You need to be honest with yourself and speak to the point about what is preventing you from finding this time: “I waste it when I’m in a hurry, or I get up late, etc.” Find the reason for wasting time and try to solve it, then you will see how many interesting, useful and good things you can do. For example, take a flight, and then think about your life - is it what you dreamed of?

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1 comment

To understand why you don’t have enough time, and to start practicing time management, you should start collecting statistics that you can then analyze. For timing purposes, I would recommend using a time tracker. I am working with the free primaERP. Collect statistics for at least 2 weeks. You can already work with this data...

Last time I didn’t manage to submit my manuscript to the publishing house on time. My excuse was a typical American phrase: “I didn’t have time.” Let's think about what is hidden behind this excuse. Why does it seem like we don’t have enough time for anything, and least of all do we have enough time for prayer?

I feel guilty about this all the time, I think, like most of my readers. It seems to me that the only obstacle in our relationship with God (after sin, of course) is the lack of free time. If I devoted as much time to my children as I devote to God, I would be accused of neglect of parenting. If I spent as little time with my wife as I spend with God, she would have every right to file for divorce on the grounds of my failure to fulfill marital duties.

Everyone knows from personal experience how happy we are when we devote time to God. By hiding from God, we deprive ourselves. We have experienced this thousands of times and still run from God, shy away from communication with him and from prayer, as if prayer were a bitter mixture. We are so afraid of silence and solitude, which are a necessary condition for private prayer, that we assign them as punishment (and the most sophisticated torture of which our brains are capable) to seasoned criminals, sentencing them to imprisonment in solitary confinement.

Why does it seem to us that we have less time than our ancestors? In fact, in quantitative terms there have been no changes: all the same twenty-four hours a day. Technology should give us a lot of free time, and make leisure our main activity. There are so many devices today designed to save our time!

The result is completely opposite. The more such devices we have, the less time we have. (The only way to find some time is to turn the clock back instead of forward!).

What is our mistake?

It took our great-grandmothers several hours to wash their clothes on washboards; we just press a button on the washing machine. Our forefathers sowed fields and hunted so as not to die of hunger; we buy food in supermarkets, put it in microwave ovens and just press a button. And yet we are more exhausted by lack of time than they are. Why?

In ancient times, people kept slaves who did manual labor while their masters enjoyed their leisure hours. Today technology has replaced slaves, but we still don't have enough time. Why?

I am not diagnosing our sick society (if you are deeply interested in this problem, read Pascal's Pensées, especially the chapter on "Entertainment"), but our excuses for not praying, and it seems to me that the same diagnosis can be made for our excuses in many other areas of our lives.

We have to start thinking about time. We don't have enough time to pray because we think about time and prayer incorrectly.

Time and prayer are inversely related to us. We think that time determines prayer, when in fact prayer determines time. We think that lack of time is the cause of lack of prayer, but in reality, lack of prayer is the cause of lack of time.

When the boy brought Christ five barley loaves and two fish, Christ miraculously multiplied them. He does the same with our time, but only if we offer that time in our prayer. There is no exaggeration here, as I have personally experienced this many times. Every time I say I'm too busy to pray, I have less time, I don't get anything done, I'm exhausted and I feel like a slave to time.

Every time I say I'm too busy to miss prayer, and every time I bring a few barley loaves of time and fish of life to Christ, He miraculously multiplies them, and I celebrate with Him His victory over time. I don't know how He does it, I just know that He does it time after time.

And yet I refuse to sacrifice my loaves and fish to God. I'm an idiot. This is original sin: spiritual madness, preferring misfortune to happiness, crumbs of hell over crumbs of heaven.

We must restore our spiritual sanity. The right step in this direction would be to change our attitude towards time.

Time is like the backdrop for a theatrical production. The scenery is a real part of the play, an integral part of it. But we often think differently: we think that the play is an integral part of the scenery, we think that the theme, meaning and spirit of the play are contained in the scenery of the play, when in fact it is the other way around.

This is the same as thinking that the spirit is contained in the body. In fact, the body is contained in the spirit. If time measures the movements of material bodies, and prayer measures the movements of the spirit, therefore, time is contained in prayer, and not prayer in time. Prayer defines, changes and miraculously multiplies time (loaves and fishes).

However, prayer increases time only if we sacrifice our time. That's the rub. We are afraid to make sacrifices because it involves killing.

Real world religions are based on sacrifice, on desire. Only the false religion of popular psychology (which has infiltrated modern churches) avoids this concept. Pagans and polytheists are no exception in this matter. India's favorite god is Shiva, the Destroyer, and the favorite goddess is Kali, the female equivalent of Shiva. Even Hindus are aware of the importance of spiritual surgery, death and sacrifice. After Calvary, can Christians afford not to know this? The Lord repeatedly tells us that until we take up our cross and follow Him, we cannot be called His disciples.

Perhaps in some sense it means something terrible and difficult to achieve. But in the simplest sense, it means that we must sacrifice our time to God. Because time is life; life in all its manifestations.

The point is obvious: in order for us to have time for prayer, we must use the time we spend on other activities. We must “kill” something, reject it, say a decisive “no” to it.

Why? Let me make a simple, banal, but radical proposal: television. Kill the TV. Try to live without it for a month. Will you succeed? If not, then TV is a drug for you, and you are a drug addict. “A man is a slave to that which he cannot part with if it is something less than himself,” says George MacDonald.

All my friends who tried to do this (voluntarily) were very happy. Television for the most part is a cesspool. Why poison the brain and soul with the waste products of the most fanatical anti-religious elite of our society? Even if there were no prayer, television would be worth sacrificing for spiritual health and intelligence. Even more so if we sacrifice our time for prayer. Count how many hours a week you spend watching TV and devote half of that time to prayer. As a result, you will receive a triple benefit: you will wash yourself off the slops, spend time in prayer, plus you will have additional free time.

The alternative is mental dependence, which approaches us from all sides, worries and haste, and constant dissatisfaction, since what we are looking for is not in time, but in eternity. The world today is unhappy because it does not feel eternity. True happiness is a foretaste of eternity.

Eternity is not in the future, but in the present. The future is unreal, at least not yet. One of the most ridiculous but successful tricks of the devil is to instill in a person the idea that he should completely devote his life to seeking and accumulating goods, instead of enjoying what he has. This forever makes us hostage to time and an unreal future, since “tomorrow is just a day away.”

The very first and most important rule of prayer is to simply pray. Don't look for perfect prayer, but just start praying. A moving car can be directed in any direction, but it is much more difficult to move off if the engine has stalled. We must not allow prayer to die out in our world.

But we always have no time left for ourselves, which means there is no opportunity to renew our strength, to feel like a full-fledged and happy person. Make friends over time is possible only when a person puts his own “I” in first place. According to psychologists, it is important to set priorities correctly. Each person must have his own needs, beliefs and self-realization in the first place, he must love and respect himself as an individual. In second place a person should have a family, and in third place - his career. A person who respects and loves himself does not allow others to manage himself and his time.

Everyone even overworked man he can do everything in time, it’s quite possible. It is important to only slightly change your views on your own affairs and not strive to become an exemplary husband or wife. Most people don't even dare to think that they might have their own needs. And if they do something for themselves, they feel guilty that they wasted time on their own interests or pleasures. They are afraid of being a bad spouse, parent or child. To avoid this fear, a person needs the support of someone who will convince him that everything will be the other way around. And when he believes in this, he willingly begins to engage in his own development.

Many people live a calm life without stress, they realize themselves at work, everything is fine in their families, but still they lack something to be happy. They begin to look for ways to change their lives. The reason for this state is that there is no time for yourself. What can you do to find time to take care of yourself?

1. Plan your time. You need to plan your time flexibly, listening to the state of your body. Morning hours are considered the most suitable for mental stress. In the morning, the body is full of strength and receptive to receiving information associated with the work of the brain. The time before noon is especially productive. Write down the hours when you will be engaged in intellectual work, tasks that do not require much stress, and transfer them to the hours when the body should rest. Every evening, write down in a notebook a list of the main things you need to do the next day. Divide the list into two columns: in the first column, write down the things you need to do, and in the second column, write down the goals you want to achieve. Global and daily tasks must be realistic. Leave one day a week or a few hours free for self-care. If you are asked to do something during this time, refuse them and tell them that you have plans. Use this time to pursue hobbies, work on yourself, think, or just relax.

2. Find a hobby. Remember your hobbies that you don’t have enough time and energy for after starting a family. Find a hobby that distracts you and brings a lot of positive emotions into everyone's life. And set yourself a goal: “I want to do this and I will!” Let's say you dream of working out in a fitness club. Look at your notes in your notebook and write this hobby in the global tasks column. Choose days and times that are convenient for you. Free this time from all household chores and work.

3. We must remember the wise saying: the more we rush, the less time we have. Remember to enjoy the present moment. Feel every minute of your life and listen to yourself. Admire the surrounding nature, chat with friends, take time for pleasure.

4. Develop your personality. Find out who and what is stopping you from taking care of yourself. If it's just your own laziness, you'll have to look for ways to overcome it. Do not let your loved ones and work colleagues shift their responsibilities onto themselves. Know how to refuse, motivating your refusal by your lack of time. Try to create warm relationships with loved ones, as you know, spouses who live in peace and harmony, like all happy people, do not watch the clock. And in general, the passage of time depends on a person’s desire to live and understand the meaning of his life. And the stronger the desire to live, the greater the likelihood of a slower passage of time.

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Every year Erica Anderson takes 5 weeks of vacation. At her New York City firm, she works all day, blogging online, writing books, and answering calls from clients. When she goes on vacation, she asks her colleagues not to disturb her. “I can’t be like a machine,” Anderson shares. And this is a good lesson for those who cannot be distracted from work.

In the 1990s, when Erica started her own business, she had to work 80 hours a week and rarely left the office for long. But after some time, she realized that she needed proper rest and wanted to spend more time with her children. The problem was that she couldn’t just up and leave—the company simply couldn’t do without her. Anderson had to make big changes to her work process. She needed to learn to share responsibility with other employees.

No need for vacation!

Many of us have made it a rule not to use weekends for relaxation. In 2015, research found that about 67% of executive-level employees had canceled or postponed vacation plans due to work, and 57% had not even planned to take time off. Americans, for example, are now mourning their allotted days off, which “burned out” by January 1, 2017. This is a convincing argument in favor of giving yourself a break at least sometimes, because unlike our system, they do not add up unused vacation.

Many of us know that weekends help us gain strength and recharge our batteries, and this is also good for our health. A short break will reduce the risk of heart problems, for example. However, in practice, it turns out that when we do decide to take a vacation, we need to finish all current affairs in an accelerated time frame, thanks to which in the last days we strain ourselves twice as much as usual. There are many reasons for this: it is important for us not to let our colleagues down, not to look like a quitter or not to lose our job. And it's even harder to take a vacation while everyone else is working. But think about the fact that most employees who prefer not to rest simply do not know how to delegate their responsibilities and are afraid to let things take their course.

Many of us like to think that we are very important in our business, that our absence would be a real disaster for the company.

It's not the same without me

Many of us don't take vacations because we don't know how to delegate responsibilities. According to statistics, only 30% of managers are ready to entrust their affairs to subordinates, and only 33% of them are considered good delegators by employees.

But why is it so difficult for us to shift responsibility to someone else? Because we don't want to. We mistakenly believe that if someone does the work for us, they will do worse. And this happens not only with business, but also in everyday life. It is known, for example, that casino players will never allow someone else to play instead of them.

It's the illusion of control

It always seems to us that we are indispensable and no one will cope with our tasks as well as we ourselves.

In America this may be true. Their companies and firms do everything possible to prepare a specific employee to perform assigned tasks as efficiently as possible. But in Europe or Canada, management prefers to see teamwork and interaction between people as successful.

Work to live, or live to work?

Europeans have a system of values ​​that is fundamentally different from the American one. While in America people go to work because they love what they do and dream of becoming successful in their business, people in Europe do it to make a living. Individual achievements of a company employee in the USA are always noticed, valued and celebrated collectively. Such events mean a lot to them. They try to prove to everyone and themselves that they are professionals in their field and are ready to grow and develop in this all the time.

Learn to overcome the fear of shifting your tasks to colleagues

Erica Anderson has come up with a support system in her company to help them learn this collectively. When offering to carry out an assignment for one of the employees, she asks him to evaluate what and in what time frame he can handle it on his own, where he will need help, and what he is not ready to take on. In addition, he will not be faced with a lack of time from too many worries.

The company holds meetings and planning sessions to help determine who will be assigned what tasks in the project. Thus, it turns out that several employees are involved in performing one task. This slightly reduces the individual level of responsibility for each of them, which means that at some points it will be easier for them to ask their colleagues for help.

The best way out

Since the situation has recently worsened and many people have stopped resting, there may soon be many people with health problems, depression, and in the worst case, the average life expectancy will decrease. To avoid such a fate for yourself, we strongly recommend that you rest at least sometimes. Work brings money and provides the opportunity for self-realization, this is important for everyone. But will it be as important if one day you simply fall exhausted and never get up? A short vacation will not ruin your career, but on the contrary, it will give you the opportunity to sleep, refresh your thoughts and cheer up, so that you can return to work with new strength and ideas.