The essence of the "Alps" method and the stages of its implementation

A lot of reporting has accumulated at work, the eldest son asks for help with choosing a gift for his girlfriend, and the youngest daughter will not do without your participation in preparing for the exams. And you also need to do the cleaning, iron the laundry that was washed on the weekend and cook dinner, preferably two days in advance. How to do all this in a day? The "Alps" method will help to make the schedule correctly. It was developed by the German Lothar Seivert, who became famous far beyond the borders of Germany after the publication of his book "Your time is in your hands."

When creating his own method of time planning, the German seems to have carefully studied all the known and not very popular methods of time management. Which is not surprising, because he is an expert in this area. Seivert not only combined the best of the previously created time calculation programs, but also added his own developments.

As a result, he developed a certain algorithm of actions, adhering to which even the busiest person will find time in his schedule for a cup of coffee and more. Here it is important to initially separate the "wheat from the chaff", that is, prioritize the tasks set for the day... To do this, it is necessary to determine the urgency of their implementation, the degree of importance, the complexity of a particular process. So, first things first.

As mentioned above, the "Alps" method will help you to efficiently allocate your time: both work and personal. But before that happens, you need to thoroughly study the formula proposed by the German. This process, as the author himself admits, is not the easiest to study. However, the time spent on mastering it will more than pay off. Spending no more than 15 minutes in the morning, you will be able to distribute the rest of the seconds, hours and minutes with the greatest benefit to yourself.

The disadvantages with a big stretch include a certain complexity - you still have to work.

The need for time management or time management (and the Alps method is one of its tools) was first discussed at the end of the nineteenth century. The famous Russian physiologist Nikolai Vvedensky said that "We get tired and exhausted not because we work a lot, but because we work poorly, work disorganized, work stupidly"... Then many bright minds worked on this topic, not only in Russia, but also abroad. And in 2007, the first department of time management was opened in our country at the Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy".

Lothar Seivert divided his method into five steps. Moving from one to the next, you can easily analyze the degree of importance of the tasks set for the day and calculate your time.

Stage one. Take a piece of paper and write down on it all the things that you have planned for this day. Highlight the most important tasks from them. Smaller responsibilities, such as taking out the trash or checking the mailbox, write down on a separate list.

Stage two. Take a good look at your to-do list and determine which ones are both urgent and important. Make one column of them. Remember, throwing out the trash doesn't count. Then “get” out of your plan for the day the things that are important, but not particularly urgent - this is the next column.

In the third column, there should be cases that require urgency, but are not particularly important. Finally, in the fourth, those who have neither urgency nor importance will remain.

Stage three. Let's start, of course, with the first two columns. Initially, you need to determine how many minutes or hours it will take to solve a particular problem. Write this planned, estimated time in front of each case. Summarize the received data. Then determine the number of hours you want to spend today doing all the necessary and not so things.

The time that you received as a result for the implementation of the plans from the first two columns should take 60% of the total time. Another 40% should be put on unplanned tasks, that is, tasks that suddenly appeared.

Stage four. Most likely, everything planned will not fit into the above formula. In this regard, it is necessary to analyze the list again. Perhaps, something that you wanted to do yourself can be delegated to someone from colleagues or household members... If not, you will have to leave something less urgent for another day.

Stage five. The resulting list needs to be finalized. First of all, it is important to highlight the cases that are tied to a specific hour: for example, take the child to school, pick up an order from the printing house, and so on... Distribute the rest of the cases according to the remaining time. There may also be those that were in the last two columns during the initial compilation of the list. For example, these are tasks of the following plan: buy gifts for the New Year, find out how much a festive dinner at a restaurant costs, see how much a festive outfit will cost in an online store.

In order to save time when compiling the list, it is recommended to use abbreviations:

• "B" - important;
• "C" - urgent;
• "D" - house;
• "R" - work;
• "Ш" - school;
• "M" is a store and so on.

As a result of fulfilling all the requirements of the Alps method, you will certainly be able to save up to 20% of your time.And you can always spend them on yourself or just for laziness, which is sometimes also useful. Moreover, you will have a clearer plan of action not only for the current day, but also for the next day.