Why is this happening?
Because in this era, we are no longer satisfied with food and clothing, and many of us begin to pursue respect and self-realization by others, so we strive to keep a balance in work, entertainment, study, family, health and social contribution. But we found that time was not enough. When the anxiety increases, the only thing we can do is to keep brushing the mobile phone, and then regret it after brushing, feeling that we have wasted time.
So how do you manage yourself and control your life? It's actually quite simple. The answer is to make a list. Students, professionals and housewives all need to learn to make lists. A simple behavior will change the course of your life on the basis of records.
The cover of "Smart People Are List Controllers" reads: A small list will make you an elite in an instant. What is an elite? Elite must have super thinking ability, instead of doing mechanical exercises or making the same mistakes every day. The author also tells his own story in this book. He believes that the correct use of list thinking can not only save a lot of time, but also focus on those extremely complex problems-standardize your behavior in a relatively simple and direct way and reduce uncertainty. The list can help the author not to miss any simple questions or skip any necessary steps to solve the difficulties and accidents that may occur at any time.
In this book, the author introduces three behavioral principles of list thinking: key elements, simplicity and efficiency, and self-evolution.
First, the key elements. When making a list, we should grasp the key and essential basic elements and start thinking, so as to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the action and finally get satisfactory results. For example, if there is a project to be completed in the work, it is impossible to write the project name in the action plan, but the key nodes and processes are broken down, so that the list can be effective.
Second, it is simple and efficient. When you make a list, you should write it down quickly in simple language. In fact, you use effective phrases to write. At the same time, your brain is constantly choosing words. If you write a lot of words, your brain is in a state of confusion. Just like at work, we often meet people who say a lot and finally don't know what it means. Simple and efficient means that you can understand what it means at a glance and implement it effectively.
Third, self-evolution. This is a very important principle of making lists. After the list is written, it is not enough to follow it completely. It is necessary to keep thinking and improving in the process of implementation. For example, when writing a dream list, you think immature at the beginning and your action route may be inaccurate. After practice, this list can be improved to make it closer to reality.
In fact, there are many forms of lists, which need to be made according to their own actual situation, and making lists is also a process of communicating with themselves and others. For example, when making a dream list and an emotional list, you should sort out your own ideas and communicate with yourself as a bystander; When making a work list or list management, be sure to communicate with others before making a list. Work can never be arranged for yourself. Before you make a work list, you must understand the company's strategy and the team's goals. Inventory management uses the inventory management team, so it also tells the team members what the management goal is, which also requires communication. Whether you communicate with yourself or others, you need to constantly modify the order according to your own situation in order to achieve the purpose of making a list.
I have the habit of making lists since I was at school, and I still use them for work, travel and time planning. After reading "Smart People Are List Controllers", the author gave me better suggestions on the use of the following three lists.
First, the dream list
(1) inspiration list. Using inspiration list to manage our inspiration and think about the future development can not only do a good job, but also improve our creative thinking. Our brains can have 60 thousand ideas a day, and many inspirations are fleeting. If we don't write it down right away, we may not remember it later. For example, when I am reading, what the author writes will stimulate my thoughts. In this case, I will think about what I should do. When I have my own ideas, I will immediately record them in the blank space of the book and then fold the pages. Then I will read the whole book and write my reading notes, and I must make my inspiration list (as shown in figure 1).
(2) Target list. The word dream can make people feel beautiful and far away. If you set your dream as a list of goals, you will have a sense of urgency and you will think of taking action quickly. In fact, the target list is modified every once in a while. For example, I have always wanted to have two children. After having a second child, this goal will not appear again. For the goal list, just writing down your goals is not enough. In fact, the most important thing is to have a follow-up action plan. At the beginning of each year, I will draw a list of mind maps of the target. For example, about this year's learning objectives, I want to know about financial knowledge, project management and financial knowledge. I won't just list these learning goals, but write down how to learn at the back. Just like project management, I will ask myself to read a PMP book, attend a training and spend no less than 1 day with my tutor. ?
Many people will say that it is ok not to list, but their brains always remember it. But when we dare to write the goal, we will find that this goal can really become a reality. Yale University conducted a 20-year follow-up survey. At first, the researchers of this university asked the students who participated in the survey a question: "Do you have a goal?" 90% of the students answered yes. The researcher asked again, "If you have a goal, do you want to write it down?" At this time, only 4% of the students answered "I wrote it down." Twenty years later, researchers at Yale University followed the students who took part in the survey that year. The results show that those students who have goals and write them down in black and white have far surpassed other students in their career development and living standards. The value they created exceeded the sum of the remaining 96% students. So, what are these 96% students doing today? The researchers found that these people are very busy and have been helping these 4% people realize their dreams directly or indirectly all their lives.
When we write our goals on paper, the probability of success will greatly increase, and we will write down specific actions for later implementation. I believe these goals will be achieved soon.
Second, the work list
The work list is actually another form of target list, which needs to be very clear and operable. As mentioned in the book "Smart People Are List Controllers", the essence of work list is to manage and think about work by using list method, improve our daily efficiency in the office, improve our time utilization, and get more work output with less input.
I believe that many companies will let employees have annual plans at the beginning of the year, monthly plans at the beginning of the month and weekly plans every week. This management mode of the company is actually to let everyone in the company think about their work against the company's strategy and finally realize the company's goals.
After working for ten years, I think it is necessary for people in the workplace to make a work list every day. The first thing I do when I go to the office every morning is to make a work list, which is allocated according to four quadrants (the four-quadrant list used in Figure 2), so that I know how to deal with that important and urgent thing at the best time every morning, and then deal with other things in turn. I will check the list before I get off work in the morning, and then I will see that everything is ticked.
There are several things to pay attention to when making a work list:
First, make sure to deal with only one thing at a time. Attention has gradually become a scarce thing, because we are always working at the same time, and the efficiency is very low. "People who are used to handling many tasks at the same time will spend more than 20% more time on each task on average than when they concentrate on this task."
Second, make a list and clean the office regularly every week. The office environment will subconsciously affect our thinking efficiency. The dirty environment makes people sleepy and always want to stop and do nothing. And the clean and tidy environment makes people dare not slack off.
Third, the management list should have clear objectives and be tracked effectively. The management list is a list to be shown to others, so people who watch it must know what the specific goal is. If it is a big goal, it must be broken down into operational steps, and the tracking should be checked regularly. If there is any deviation, it should be guided to the right direction in time.
Third, the timetable.
Nowadays, many people say that time is not enough, especially when mobile phones steal our time quietly. If you have mobile phone software to measure the time you spend using your mobile phone in a day, you will find that this number will scare you. In order to manage your time effectively, you need to look at where your time has gone.
Many friends asked me how to manage my time, and the first thing I suggested was to count my time. For example, Lyubyshev, the hero of Strange Life, has been recording her time from the age of 26 to 82. He managed his time quantitatively and became an expert in many fields. For ourselves, we don't have to spend a lifetime recording, but spend at least two weeks calculating our time. As written in "Smart People Are List Controllers", try to make most things feel time every day, and use a special list to record what you allocate time to in your daily work.
On the one hand, making a timetable is to make yourself time-conscious, on the other hand, you need to know how long it takes you to do everything, such as how long it takes to write a paper at work and how long it takes to have a meeting, so that you can not be blind when doing a worksheet. Only by setting a reasonable time interval, you won't feel anxious, otherwise you won't be able to finish it within the planned time every time, and your frustration will be strong and your delay will become more and more serious.
Another key to making a timetable is to set aside spare rooms, and uncertainty must also be taken into account. If the timetable or schedule is full from morning till night, it is foreseeable that the schedule will never be completed.
First of all, accidents will happen at any time, and the plan can't keep up with the changes, so once such unplanned things happen, the things originally arranged in the list will definitely not be completed. Secondly, if it is a list with a full schedule, it will produce a sense of depression. When we do things, we should consider our own moods and emotions. If we are always under a great pressure and afraid that we can't finish anything, then we will feel that we simply don't do it, and then the list will be invalid. Therefore, when making timetables and schedules, we must only design the time periods of key tasks and reserve some time. Sometimes it's good to do nothing but empty yourself. Finally, if you want to know the most efficient time of your day and list the most important things in that time, you will get twice the result with half the effort.
There are still many lists that can be used at ordinary times, so you must make a list according to your own reality. If it is too cumbersome or too stressful, we will go back to the original point of doing nothing. Make a list in a way that is easy to use and willing to write. Let's take control of our lives from making a list!