This post is about timeboxing, which I highly recommend. In the past I used it only intermittently, but found it to be so effective I now use it routinely. I learned about timeboxing while preparing for Christmas, usually setting aside 12 hours for the task, which for me involves both the making and shopping of gifts. Because Christmas comes with a deadline that will not be moved, it didn't take me long to understand the need, and benefits, of timeboxing. By late summer I decide the type of gifts I'd love for each person. Next I order the materials needed to make the gifts, as much as possible online, or I reluctantly hit the shops. By taking advantage of my flexible schedule I avoid rush hours and waiting in line and, given my dislike of shopping malls, I'm usually in-and-out quickly. It leaves me with about 10 hours to actually make and wrap the gifts. I also use timeboxing when confronted with a project or task too big to complete at once. I might not be sure where to begin, or it seems it will be a while before I get to finish a meaningful chunk. Or maybe it’s something I resist doing for some reason, hence the temptation to procrastinate. In such cases I revert to timeboxing to simply jump and just do it ... for a while. I usually allocate 30-90 minutes tops, let go of any particular accomplishment and simply get going, regardless of where and how far exactly. An example for using this approach is when writing a new article or a next chapter in a book. Sometimes it just flows and an article completes itself in a single stretch, but most of the time it's hard labor performed in chunks over multiple sessions. Timeboxing helps to jump into the thick of it and frees me to set aside any worries about effectiveness and so forth. Then I simply repeat the process until the work is done. To start with enthusiasm, even at the risk of achieving nothing, beats procrastination every time.
Accomplish More Than You Hope For
As described in an earlier blog post, action may result in zero accomplishment, but the absence of action guarantees it. What’s more, action is also a great anti-depressant. Fill your moments with action, and there will be little time left for worry. Once begun - you have now overcome inertia and are focused on the task - action creates its own dynamic. You might well end up working (much) longer than you originally intended. Hours may pass before you even feel the desire to stop. The result often baffles expectations. You end up accomplishing more than originally hoped for.
A Good Repellent Against Procrastination & Perfectionism (These Two Often Go Hand In Hand)
Timeboxing increases the likelihood of getting things done. The box takes away the room for procrastination. It forces you to focus on the best you can do with what you have where you are. You'll soon abandon perfect for good is good enough - a good thing, since perfectionism often creates the need for timeboxing in the first place. If you're working in product development or similar where moving a deadline is seldom an option, product features might be entirely determined by the time available to implement them. If you get behind, you cut the nice-to-have product features.
Regardless of the exact nature of your work, chances are you are practicing timeboxing on and off, too, yet might be unaware of its true potential. If so, read on.
7 Steps To Transform Helpful Into Powerful
While timeboxing by itself is a helpful technique, we live in a competitive world where helpful does little more than score points. To actually win the battle for peoples' hearts and minds, and wallets, you need more than helpful - you need great personal power. Timeboxing can make the winning difference. For it to do so, it must first be transformed from helpful into powerful. This transformation happens when you integrate timeboxing with traditional time management systems and, implied, with your vision and goals. I created the graphic at the beginning of the blog post to help you with the process.
Step 1: List your Intentions - your goals and what you'll do after you reach them. As shown in the graphic, my goal is the achievement of financial and geographic freedom. Whatever you intend to do after your goal have been achieved, be sure to also somehow reflect it in your present goals, work and life. Waiting for tomorrow to be happy would only put you at risk of waiting forever.
Step 2: List the Means you have identified and decided will get you there.
Step 3: List your Resources, starting with yourself.
Step 4: List the Activities you have decided to do, specifically, to get you to your goals.
Step 5: Decide how you allocate your time among your various resources. Time happens to be the one resource not shown in the graph. The step of allocating your limited resource of time to your resources, which all consume time, is akin to gardening where you would decide which plants to water. How you allocate your time is more important than how you allocate your money, for your time is finite. In the example shown, 54% of my (waking) time is allocated to the business directly (Clients & Marketing, and Develop My Offer), and 46% to my Self. 16% of Self time is earmarked for Self Development and Professional Mastery. Since these benefit my clients and business indirectly, it makes for a 70/30 ratio overall (70% business/30% self). With this I feel comfortable given my current station in life. Depending on your family life, career and business, your allocations will differ substantially, of course.
Step 6: Translate your allocations into a graph that will guide you when you plan actual activities and desired outcomes (in the example show below, on a weekly basis). It ensures your daily activities stay in alignment with and in support of your true goals and intentions for life.
My example assumes 17-hour days. Time boxes (the amount of time allocated), once decided, are rigid to a point. By contrast, the placement of time boxes can be flexible, depending on the nature of your work. On weekends in particular, the placement and sequencing of time boxes may change depending on weather and such :-)
Step 7: KIS (keep it simple)! Apply the Pareto principle throughout (the 80/20 rule).
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