Timeboxing: A Time Management Strategy Gorman Houston
What is timeboxing? Timeboxing is a popular time management technique that involves allocating activities a fixed amount of time in advance and then completing the activities within the set time frame. James Martin originally introduced this technique in agile software development.
Four Steps of Timeboxing This time management process occurs in four steps. These steps are the following:
Finding Appropriate Tasks
To achieve productive timeboxing, one ought to find the tasks that they lack the motivation to do. These tasks are usually overwhelming activities that require a lot of effort. By dividing such activities into smaller and manageable chunks, they become less daunting. Timeboxing can also help accomplish obnoxious tasks that one doesn’t want to spend too much time on. These types of tasks are usually necessary yet unpleasant. They include sorting emails, cleaning the room. By setting a time limit on such activities, they get accomplished without dragging on or consuming more time than necessary.
Defining the Goals After choosing the tasks intended, the next step is defining the goals achieved by tackling these tasks. If the goal is to finish the said amount of work in a week, it becomes easy to allocate a certain amount of time each day to the particular task. At the end of the week, the chore will be complete without breaking much sweat.
Set the Time Limit After deciding on the tasks and the goals to the next step is to allocate time limits. In this step, each duty gets assigned a time limit (when it starts and ends.) The time limit depends on the volume or the goal of the task. For example, if the task is a 7000-word novel and the goal is to complete it in a week, one can allocate a time frame that allows writing 700 words a day. This time allocation will ensure the completion of the work within seven days.
Work then Assess the Results This action is the last step of timeboxing. Here the activities get tackled within the time set for each task. If a chore remains incomplete within the allocated time, one moves on to the next quest. This strategy avoids wastage of time tackling one activity while other tasks remain undone. Once the day is over, and there is still some time left in the schedule, unfinished tasks get tackled again.
Boosts work motivation
It is easy to accomplish
Tasks get divided into small portions that are not overwhelming
Advantages of Timeboxing
More chores get carried out without spending too much time on one