How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
It is undeniable that the four-quadrant rule of time management is an effective management method, but the reality often does not follow the rhythm we envision. We deal with a lot of unplanned things at work. For example, a sudden visit from a customer, a sudden call from a superior leader, etc., will disrupt our work plan.
Typically, when using the four-quadrant rule of time management, all people choose to do work in the first quadrant (important and urgent). They think that this will definitely make better use of time and things will be more organized, but such a situation is an ideal state. Time will not increase because of reasonable planning, only in an ideal state, time can be used more rationally.
So what should be done when there are four, five, or even more things in the first quadrant? Or how to use time when important and urgent things happen at the same time?
Most people have encountered such a situation in their work. Sometimes they are very leisurely, and they can even chat, but sometimes they work one after another, and they always feel that they cannot be completed within the unit time.
For example: At 8:10 in the morning, Lao Li was hesitating. He was thinking that it was time to call Mr. Wang, an important customer? Or amend the urgent project plan? Should I ask Zhang Gong from the technical department to negotiate the technical details? Or deal with a mailbox full of emails? At this time, he thought that what he lacked most was time, but he didn't realize that what she lacked was the confidence to take the next step.
So where does the confidence come from? Let's discuss together the rules for specific actions within a certain period of time.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
Situation determines next action
Most things have to be done in a specific place or with some specific tool, which is the primary factor limiting our choice of action.
Many times, the first thing we have to consider is what can we do at this time? Where are we? What tools are there to use and so on. For example: at 2:00 in the morning, we cannot call customers to communicate details, and we cannot interview important customers far away when we are in the office. Tools that can be used around us: computers, mobile phones, etc.
Because the time and place are inappropriate, the computer is not around, or the computer is around but there is no network, some actions cannot be completed. At this time, it is easy for us to filter some actions that cannot be completed at the moment according to the situation.
Continuing the example mentioned earlier: Lao Li was planning to ask Zhang Gong of the technical department to negotiate the technical details. Considering that there are still some small secrets about the content to be discussed, he needed a suitable location. Unfortunately, he traveled all over the company and found a big Both large and small conference rooms are in use, and I cannot use them for a short time. According to this situation, I can only make arrangements for other things.
When choosing the action content according to the situation, you can easily remove an option and arrange the next specific action. In work and life, we are constantly screening our next actions according to the situation.
In order to improve the efficiency of our work, we have to list the specific work we need to do, make a list of actions, and list the contents of each quadrant in the four quadrants of time management and put them into the list of actions. The contents listed in the third and fourth quadrants also need to be put into the action list.
For example: The previous meeting is about 15 minutes away. Do we wait outside the conference room, or do we go back to the office to do something that can be done in about 10 minutes? The answer speaks for itself. Most of the work that belongs to the first and second quadrants cannot be completed in a short period of time, and can only be done in a short period of time. At this time, we need to consider the second standard factor of choosing action time.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
Action Schedule under Time Selection
The second criterion for choosing an action is choosing the length of time to have free time. After 10 minutes, you have to attend a meeting for several hours in a row, and you have to be idle for several hours in a row, these two situations will definitely make different choices. Those who have big tasks on their action lists don't know what to do when they only have a few minutes to spare.
Depending on the time, the actions taken are different, and some things that are not urgent and important and not urgent and not important are often included in the action list. We call this: fool type, quick effect type. In this way, not only can some trivial matters be handled better by using fragmented time according to different situations.
According to each person, these two classifications, there is no right or not, only whether it is suitable for you.
Dummy: Simple actions that don't require brains. For example, sending WeChat messages to customers, wishing them a happy birthday, sending WeChat messages to subordinates telling them to work overtime today, etc. These kinds of things can be done on the way from the conference room to the office when you know that the conference room is temporarily unavailable.
Quick-Fix: Things that can be fixed in less than 5 minutes. For example: arrange a meeting for a subordinate a few days later, you need to prepare the materials required for the meeting as soon as possible, and apply for a business trip next week by using a car for a business trip in a nearby city, etc. This kind of thing can be done within 5 minutes, make better use of it Fragment time, arrange some things in advance and do them well.
Therefore, when we are listing specific work lists, we should try to be as specific as possible, and include some urgent and non-important, non-urgent and non-important things into it, so that we can have more and more comprehensive information when there is no whole free time. , you can choose specific actions, so as to better arrange fragmented time, and it is also an effective way to improve work efficiency.
When we only have 15 minutes on the list of big, important things to do, we feel overwhelmed and unable to choose. And these major or important things cannot be done well in 15 minutes.
In our work, we often encounter a task that we rack our brains and work hard to complete. When we encounter technical difficulties to overcome, although we have been doing it, it seems that our ideas have come to a corner and when we need to divert our attention appropriately, maybe just 10 minutes, you can use 10 minutes to complete a small goal, you can use this time to divert attention, order a takeaway, or send WeChat to wish a friend a happy birthday, etc., which is the fool type and quick effect we mentioned. type of work content.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
Filter your next actions by energy
In order to improve work efficiency, we can think of ways to change the situation or shift the focus of work. Everything is based on the principle of improving efficiency and achieving goals, but we cannot control whether we are full of energy. Everyone's energy is limited. The working state of arriving at the company in the morning is completely different from the working state when you are about to get off work after a busy day. No one can do important work like a machine, in top form all day long.
Everyone has moments of quick thinking and moments of slow thinking. - Daniel Cohen
Even if we are in bad shape and our thinking is stagnant, there is no reason why our work should be stagnant, nor can it be a reason for our inefficiency. It is the quality that a good professional person should have.
Each of us in the workplace hopes that we will always have full spirit and energy in our work, and devote ourselves to all work, but the objective fact is that we cannot maintain full energy and full energy at all times. Spirit.
If the energy of the day is not good, when doing some major and important things, the efficiency will obviously be low, and the error rate will be greatly increased, resulting in a decrease in overall efficiency. At this time, we should do something simple and do not need to Brainstorming things, such as: tidying up the computer desktop, handling the bills that need to be reimbursed, or arranging the materials needed for the meeting the next day, these things do not require too much effort at all, but they are necessary at work. Things to do. This type of work tends to fall into the third and fourth quadrants of the time management quadrant.
We should try our best to do important and urgent things and urgent and unimportant things when we are energetic, and prepare in advance for important and urgent things the next day or a few days later when our energy is not good. , so that we can deal with the next things more calmly.
When you are not in a good state, find easy little things to relieve yourself, and when you finish a few small things easily, you may be full of motivation again. The key is that the things you do when you are not in a good state are inefficient, but you don’t want to have a lot of unfinished feelings in your heart, so even if you finish some trivial things, you will have a certain sense of self-satisfaction.
It is very likely that what is currently in the third quadrant will become the work content of the first quadrant in the next few months. At this time, when we are not very energetic, we have done the preparatory work for such things. , not only improves work efficiency, but also copes with more handy.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
priority throughout
When we determine the scope of the next step based on the first three criteria, it is to consider the priority. Generally speaking, the number of jobs faced by the workplace will exceed our tolerance, so making a choice in the task means that some Work may not be completed.
At the end of a busy day at work, in order to be able to face the things that we have not been able to deal with, we must have a clear understanding of our responsibilities and the value of our goals.
It is necessary to determine the priorities of things, which things can be appropriately slowed down, and which things can be postponed. There are basically three types of things we do in a day:
First, the pre-arranged work is being completed;
Second, sudden work;
Third, because of the rescheduled work after dealing with unexpected work.
And we often get involved in the second job, dealing with sudden emergencies, instead of completing our planned work step by step, and ignoring when unexpected work disrupts what we should be doing, rescheduling work .
For example: I am working on a relatively important planning plan, and I receive a call from the leader. In 10 minutes, I will receive the inspection work of the municipal leader. At this time, the pre-arranged work will be disrupted. And many people will ignore the disruption of planned work due to unexpected work and rearrange the order of work. After receiving the municipal leaders' inspection, it may be a few hours later, and continue to sort out the suggestions, rectifications, etc. put forward by the municipal leaders after the inspection.
If I'm constantly getting caught up in sudden things and neglect to re-schedule work, it's likely that those planned jobs will just sit there forever and end up being urgent and important, and let myself get things done every day like " "Firefighters" have been "fighting fires" and cannot achieve stress-free work at all. But when we reject emergent jobs, we reject emergent opportunities at the same time.
What we should do is to deal with unexpected work in a timely manner, and reschedule the work plan after the unexpected work affects the plan.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- When faced with unexpected work, we must weigh the importance of the work.
Unexpected work is an unavoidable thing in daily work, such as: receiving a call from the boss, taking 10 minutes, recording the work arranged by the boss one by one, and adding the work to the work list, evaluating the priority of the work, and completing the work Time node, and the importance of work content.
The ability to cope with the unexpected is an important indicator of a person's ability to work and key to maintaining a normal and sustainable lifestyle. When faced with unexpected work, calmly consider whether it is worth taking a break from your busy work.
- Clarify personal responsibilities and delineate the scope of work.
We need to be clear about our responsibilities and scope of work. For example: we are in charge of sales, and when municipal leaders come to the company to inspect things that are entirely related to the company's production, the company needs middle-level escorts, so while we accompany, we can delineate the things within our work scope and find out whether the inspectors are correct Feedback of products on the market, etc., do not need to invest too much energy in researching various problems raised in production, let alone pay attention to the technical details of production products and so on.
Clarify our responsibilities and delineate the scope of our work. Within the bounds, assess the importance of things on our action list to determine the effort and time that will be invested.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- Reschedule work after assessing importance.
Incorporate important and urgent matters into the work plan, and grasp the timing clearly. For example: after meeting the inspection of the municipal leaders, the suggestions and rectification measures proposed by the leaders can be incorporated into the work plan, instead of immediately implementing the rectification and suggestions. The next inspection and rectification may be in a few months or a week. In the future, the time node will become an important indicator in the evaluation at this time.
After evaluating the time node and importance, re-arrange the work plan, and continue to complete the pre-arranged work, and rectification measures, etc., also need to be put into the specific action list.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- Distinguish between what to do and what to do.
We have to consciously give up the pre-determined work according to the situation and turn to deal with those unexpected tasks. It is a reasonable choice based on the objective situation, but we must distinguish which things are being done and which things are being done. It is about to be done, and the sudden work is just a good opportunity for us to use our creativity and expertise.
In fact, in our work, there is no so-called complete interruption, just mismanagement of new things. By processing the input information and outputting it into a complete system, you can more confidently decide what needs to be done immediately, what can be done later, and what should be done immediately.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- Break down important and major types of work.
Usually, this kind of major and important work is composed of various small goals and small tasks. Decompose tasks, put the relevance and sequence of tasks into your specific action list, complete each small goal one by one, and finally complete major and important work goals.
Divide the work content into multiple small tasks according to the degree of importance, time node and completion order, which is convenient to complete one by one and reduce the interference of sudden work, so as to effectively achieve and complete important and major work tasks.
Just like the annual plan we make, it is finally achieved by each monthly plan, and the monthly plan is composed of the weekly plan, and the weekly plan is composed of the daily work plan, and the work content can be realized.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- Continue to complete the work that is planned to be done.
Some of the scheduled work needs to be carried out continuously, otherwise it may become an emergency after a period of delay. In order to improve work efficiency, you may wish to use the Pomodoro Technique.
The Pomodoro Technique is a simple and easy time management method. Use the Pomodoro Technique, choose a task to be completed, set the Pomodoro time to 25 minutes, focus on work, do not allow anything unrelated to the task in the middle, until the Pomodoro clock rings, then take a short break (about 10 minutes), Take a break every 4 Pomodoros.
When we continue to complete the work, we often make our thinking clearer. When we complete the plans one by one, we will find some things that seem to be very complicated. Because of the continuous completion, the distance to the goal is getting closer and closer, and the difficulty will increase with the The progress of the solution is gradually reduced.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
- Take advantage of the 5 minute fragmentation time.
Spend 5 minutes on some fool-proof, quick-fix things. Remove trivial things from your list of specific actions one by one.
When clearing this type of work, it can effectively avoid some special trivial chores, which may become sudden work, such as: long-term unprocessed bills, a sudden financial call when the settlement is at the end of the year, and inform the time node for the system before the shutdown, and the system shuts down an hour before the closing time. So some trivial chores sometimes affect the normal work progress.
Mastering the above methods can better cope with various jobs. Our working time has not increased, but sudden work will divide our work into fragmented time with different time, and make good use of each fragmented time. According to the situation, time, The energy, and the prioritization that runs through all of our jobs, allows us to be more comfortable and comfortable with the work we do.
How to use fragmented time to maximize work efficiency and grasp the four links for perfect realization
To sum up, in our daily work, we should arrange our work according to the current situation, time and energy, and the priority is the evaluation and screening throughout the specific action list. We should make good use of the fragmented time and use it to complete more work to improve our work efficiency.
There is no so-called right or wrong, only the most suitable way of working.