Do you ever feel that there is not enough time in the day? We all get 24-hours a day right, But some people accomplish so much even after having the same 24 hours a day. How do they make that happen?
The answer to that is better time management.
If you search for productivity hacks, you will find a lot of them online. The highest achievers manage their time exceptionally well. There are many time-management techniques they use, and one of them is timeboxing. There is also a timeboxing app to help you with this process. It is the most optimal quick way to improve productivity and time management skills.
This method is gaining popularity among full-time employees, freelancers, as well as entrepreneurs. Harvard Business Review tested more than 100 various productivity hacks, and they came up with a conclusion that timeboxing is the best. In this article, we will discuss everything that you need to know about timeboxing. And also tips for choosing the best timeboxing app.
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What Is Timeboxing?
Timeboxing is somewhat different from other time management techniques. For completing a task, we generally focus on the task at hand and work until we complete it. But on the contrary, timeboxing is a time management technique that narrows a task to a fixed and realistic timeline. It can be minutes, hours, days, or even weeks-long according to the task complexity.
Timeboxing is different because it encourages you to focus on time instead of tasks. To use this time-management technique, you allow a certain number of hours or days, called a timebox, to each activity. You then use this time – and only this time – to complete the task.
It is mostly used in the software development field but companies and individuals can also use this technique for better task management.
How To Practice Timeboxing Technique?
When looking at a long list of to-dos, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, which can lead to stress or procrastination. Timeboxing can help you schedule your day to maximize your productivity and knock items off your to-do list in the most efficient way possible.
#1. Determine Suitable Tasks:
Usually, you can choose any task to put in a timebox. But the better approach will be if you were to set timeboxes for two categories.
- Tasks You Have No Motivation To Do:
These kinds of tasks are usually overwhelming and take a lot of time and effort. For example- writing a novel, research paper, or writing 3000 words of the article, etc. This task can not be finished quickly, so you delay and keep procrastinating. You can divide these tasks into smaller portions and it will get easier to manage and complete.
- Tasks You Don’t Want To Spend Too Much Time On:
These kinds of tasks are unpleasant but necessary and you don’t want to spend time on them. It can be cleaning your room, organizing your wardrobe, etc. But in reality, these tasks do not require much time, you can tackle these tasks easily by limiting the time spent on them.
#2. Define Your Goals:
After picking out the tasks, you need to consider what you want to accomplish and at what time. For example, if you have to write a 10,000-word research paper in 30 days. Your goal would be to complete it within 30 days. But you also have to set goals for how many words you are going to write per day.
#3. Set The Time:
Once you have assigned time to each task, set a timer to know it is time to move on to the next task and get to work. It will motivate you to work efficiently and also ensure that you don’t neglect other prominent tasks.
You can decide the time to start working on the task and when to stop working on it – if the time frame permits, you can even mark this time in your calendar to make sure you stay on track with your errands.
#4. Make Sure To Take A Break:
Make sure to leave a room for a break between each timebox. Having a break can help you to return and look at the task with a fresh perspective. You might feel tempted to work continuously but having a break is good for long-term benefits.
#5. Work And Analyze Results:
The last step may be the simplest – you start working on your first scheduled task without hesitation, and then you work your way down your list of scheduled timeboxes. At the end of the day, or after completing a task, take a look at your progress. See for the area that might need improvement, and you can apply it to future timeboxing.
#6. Reward Yourself:
It will help you to continue this process when you have something for yourself after completing a task. After reaching a milestone, you can reward yourself. It will make this process more fun and interesting.
Timeboxing In Agile Scrum:
Timeboxing is used as a fundamental component in the agile scrum framework. In this, the large project is divided into smaller portions and the productivity is measured by completing the smaller tasks. The timeboxing technique helps to set parameters of time spent on a task.
- Sprint:
Sprint is a duration during which the team determines goals and achieves them. They use timeboxing to set the length of sprint and limit of individual tasks.
- Sprint planning:
Before starting on a sprint, sprint planning is required to identify the tasks that need to be executed and how they will be executed.
- Daily Scrum:
Every day in a sprint, the team meets for 15 minutes to discuss any obstacles or priorities.
- Sprint Review:
After a sprint, the backlog is evaluated and given feedback. This process is called the sprint review.
- Sprint retrospective:
When the sprint is completed, Scrum teammates meet to discuss the entire sprint process, reflect on areas of improvement, and make decisions on changes for the next sprint.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Timeboxing?
Using the timeboxing technique to manage your tasks gives a lot of benefits. It makes your workflow better and improves your productivity and efficiency. The timeboxing approach doesn’t have to be related to software development. Companies and individuals in other industries can use it too, but you can also use it to organize your time. Now, let’s see what the benefits of timeboxing are.
Improves Productivity:
It is a human tendency to work better and be more productive when we have a deadline. When we assign a task to a particular time, we have to complete it within that time frame. Timeboxing improves our productivity and efficiency.
Simplified Prioritization:
Timeboxing helps you to prioritize tasks. You can do the urgent tasks first, and when those tasks are completed, you can move on to the less significant tasks. It will give you a sense of urgency and manage future projects as well. It plays a significant role in workplaces to streamline employees’ workflows.
Progress Tracking:
The most simplistic approach to track progress on a project is again by visualization. Timeboxing It informs you and your employees about the progress at any given time.
Helps To Avoid Perfectionism:
There is no such thing as perfection, the sooner you realize the better.
Timeboxing helps you avoid working on something until it’s perfect. It rather allows teams to create good solutions which can be improved in another repetition.
Cons Of Timeboxing:
Not every method is appropriate for everyone. Maybe, you are already using some other technique to manage your task, so it will be hard to adopt a new technique.
Also, some jobs require gaining a high level of quality, however long they take. Timeboxing can cause you to rush, meaning that you fail in your objective.
Finally, there’s a risk that you may not set appropriate lengths of time for your timeboxes. If they are too short, you may not accomplish much; if they’re too long, you might lose focus or procrastinate until the end of the period.
So, make a note of how long different tasks take you and organize your workload according to this. Timeboxing is a powerful approach, but only use it when it’s appropriate!
How To Choose A Timeboxing App?
You could just use the Google calendar app as the timeboxing app. You can also use a sheet of paper. But a dedicated timeboxing app makes the process a lot easier because they are specifically built for it. When looking for a timeboxing app keep these things in mind:
- Shows calendar alongside your predefined tasks.
- Timeboxing app has a user-friendly interface and also has essential features.
- It makes adding tasks to the list easier.
- Integrable with your current calendar.
- Offers integrations with other tools.
EmpMonitor:
You can implement any kind of practice or timeboxing app in your organization, but the results are completely dependent on the execution by the employees.
EmpMonitor is a cloud-based employee monitoring system, and you can monitor every activity of your employees from a single dashboard. With the help of the EmpMonitor, you can monitor every activity of your employees during office hours. It will help you to measure and ensure that they meet the productivity parameters.
EmpMonitor offers many useful tools to ensure the productivity and efficiency of your employees:
- Time Tracking:
With the Help of EmpMonitor, you can track every minute of your employee’s working hours. It gives you a detailed report on how much time they have been active, idle, neutral, or offline from a single dashboard.
- Productivity Tracking:
With the help of EmpMonitor, you can identify the productivity killers and provide a clear understanding of every process from end to end. You can track and measure the productivity of your employees.
- Regular Screenshots:
EmpMonitor captures screenshots of your employee’s system. It keeps them in check that they are working on assigned tasks or not.
- Keystroke Logging:
Keystroke logging is one of the best ways to ensure data security. It lets you know about the words that employees type.
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Wrapping Words:
The purpose of timeboxing is to ensure that you use your time with higher productivity. You can use this technique for better time management and work-life balance. And the timeboxing app can help beginners and advanced time management enthusiasts. It can help to set long-term and short-term goals, stay focused and achieve anything you want.
So what is your take on it? Are you going to use this technique? If you have any thoughts or queries, please let me know in the comments section below!
