La gestion des priorités et du temps est un défi au quotidien pour un manager efficace. Pour nous aider, il existe des méthodes et des conseils disponibles dans des articles en ligne ou dans des livres spécialisés, et parmi les plus connues, vous rencontrerez souvent «la méthode GTD » (pour « Get Things Done ») et la technique « Pomodoro ». Découvrons ensemble ces approches, leur fonctionnement et leurs bénéfices.
“Getting Things Done“and“Pomodoro“What is it?
Understanding the GTD method ” Getting Things Done“
The “Getting Things Done” method is a solution to better manage your priorities, developed by the American David Allen. It includes 5 successive phases:
Collect >> Treat >> Organize >> Review >> Take action.
Collect: The first step will be to search all the actions you have to do, and make a list with the ones-these without prioritizing them. The most important thing in this step is not to limit yourself to certain types of actions! It is necessary to put everything that comes to your mind in order to unload mentally the weight that they occupy.
1. If it is to be carried out in order to achieve an objective
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- Yes, so you continue your treatment
- No, then you can dismiss this action.
2. If it has priority.
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- If an action is not necessary or has no priority, you can cross it out, delete it or archive it.
- On the other hand, if it is a priority you will wonder if they can be done in less than 2 minutes or not.
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- Yes? In this case you must do it right away
- No? You continue with the method.
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OrganizeIn this third step, you will organize the remaining actions after the treatment. For each remaining action on your list, you will now judge their urgency and importance, much like the Eisenhower matrix.This step consists in dividing the actions into three parts:
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- Important and urgent actions that need to be planned for the next few days,
- important, but not urgent actions that you can plan for later
- the urgent, but not important actions that you will be able to delegate.
Review: The fourth step is indispensable for the method to work effectively. In concrete terms, you must take a moment to check on the progress of the actions. Determine if they are still in progress or completed and of course, you will add the new actions. For this step, it is necessary to make a regular review, that is to say, at least minimum once a week, either at the beginning or at the end of the week.
Act: Finally, for the fifth and last step of the GTD methodyou are left with the most important : carry out the actions that you have brilliantly planned. Like any change, and especially in the context of personal development, it is necessary to strive to adapt your operation usual so that the “GTD” method has an impact on your work.
Using the Pomodoro technique
“Pomodoro” is a recognized time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo. For its method that uses a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to keep precise 25-minute work slots. It is this timer that gave its name to the method.
The goal of this method is to create areas of concentration on a single action during a predefined time and by eliminating all distractions.
The “Pomodoro” method is very simple to implement. Here are the 5 points to know to use it.
Pirst point, preparez your day so that you know what actions you want to take during your day. Plan then each task in 25-minute sessions. Have a realistic view of your capacity and do not overload yourself.
Second pointt, deletesz all possible sources of distraction in order to best prepare your space time. This is important because the slightest distraction can make you lose track of your action and therefore risk exceeding the 25 minutes allotted.
Third point, start your 25-minute timer and start your work. Above all, don’t stop until you hear your timer ring. When it does, just mark the action as completedas completed.
Fourthly, after this moment of work, givez-you a short break (about 5 minutes) to clear your mind. This break should not be a time to check your emails, go on social networks or on the Internet, because otherwise you may not see the time pass. Go to some stretch, walk a few steps, make yourself a coffee or drink a glass of water… whatever you want that won’t break your concentration. Once this break is over, start a new work session and reset the timer for 25 minutes.
Fifth point, after 4 sessions take a longer break (about 25 min) in order to this time to rest. For example, you can go out and get some fresh air, the most important thing is to get away from what you have done or what you are doing.
Advice:For all administrative actions such as emails, calls, etc., give yourself a specific work period to handle them.
How to better manage your priorities at work?
Comparative advantages and disadvantages of GTD and Pomodoro
The “Getting Things Done” method is rather simple to implement and does not necessarily require specific software to reproduce it. It is available to anyone who wishes to use it.
It is a very effective structuring method.
Its effectiveness is based on regularity. It cannot be used intermittently.
Forgetting an action in the method may completely shift the schedule you had set up.
The “Pomodoro” method is extremely simple to implement. We all have a timer on our smartphone.
It helps to improve concentration, decrease procrastination and to achieve all the actions you want to do in a day.
It is not always easy to estimate the time it will take to perform an action.
In addition, some jobs require you to be accessible all the time, so it is impossible to isolate yourself so much to work.
“Getting Things Done” or “Pomodoro”?How to choose the right method to manage your time and priorities?
The two methods presented above are quite different in the way they work and in the levers they use. One will manage the actions according to their priorities and will control their progress, while the other will focus more on the time spent on an action and mental agility through regular breaks.
There is no one method that works better than the other, your choice must be made according to your way of working. Moreover, there is no obligation to choose between these two methods. They are in fact very complementary. For example you use the “GTD” method to sort the actions you have to do, then you perform the actions with the “Pomodoro” method. This solution, if it is in adequacy with your way of working, can make you save a lot of time by managing the good actions quickly.