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

At work, a bunch of reports has accumulated, the eldest son asks for help with choosing a gift for your girlfriend, and the youngest daughter will not do without your participation in preparing for exams. And you also need to do the cleaning, overload 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 you make the schedule correctly. It was developed by the German Lothar Zavert, 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 time planning method, the German seemed to carefully study all the known and not very popular time management techniques. Which is not surprising, because he is an expert in this field. Severt did not only combine the best of the previously created programs for calculating time, but also added his own developments.

As a result, he developed a certain algorithm of actions, adhering to which even the most busy person will find time for a cup of coffee in his schedule and not only. Here it is important to initially separate the “grains from the chaff”, that is, prioritize the tasks set for the day. For 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 distribute your time: both working and personal. But before this happens, you need to carefully 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 its development will more than pay off. Having spent no more than 15 minutes in the morning, you can distribute the remaining seconds, hours and minutes with the greatest benefit for yourself.

The drawbacks with a big stretch include certain labor input - 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 century before last. The famous domestic physiologist Nikolai Vvedensky said that “We get tired and exhausted not because we work hard, but because we work poorly, we work unorganized, we work stupidly”. Then, many bright minds worked on this topic, not only in Russia but also abroad. And in 2007, the first time management department at the Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" was opened in our country.

Lothar Severt has divided his method into five stages. Moving from one to another, 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 on it all the cases that you have outlined for this day. Highlight the most important tasks from them. And smaller duties, for example, garbage removal or checking the mailbox, write in 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 out of them. Remember, throwing out trash doesn’t count. Then “fish out” important, but not particularly urgent things from your plan for the day — this is the next column.

In the third column should be cases that require urgency, but are not of particular importance. Finally, the fourth will remain those that have neither urgency nor importance.

Stage Three. We begin, 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. Enter this planned, estimated time in front of each case. Summarize the data. Then determine the number of hours that you want to spend today on all the necessary and not very good things.

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

Stage Four. Most likely, everything planned does not fit into the above formula. In this regard, you need to analyze the list again. Maybe, Something that you wanted to do yourself, you can delegate to one of your colleagues or household. If not, you will have to leave something less urgent the next day.

Stage Five. The list you need to make the last adjustments. Primarily, it is important to highlight cases that are tied to a particular hour: for example, take a child to school, pick up an order from a printing house, and so on. Distribute the remaining cases according to the remaining time. Those who may be in the last two columns during the initial compilation of the list may also be there. For example, these are tasks of the following plan: to get gifts for the New Year, to find out how much a gala dinner in a restaurant costs, to see how much a gala outfit in an online store will cost.

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

• “B” is important;
• “C” - urgent;
• "D" - the house;
• "P" - work;
• "Sh" - school;
• “M” is a store and so on.

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