OVER THE LAST decade, the concept of “timeboxing” has
become widely used in corporate America to increase
productivity. It offers great benefits for personal time
management as well. Timeboxing is a time management
technique that limits the amount of time you spend on a task.
Instead of working until completion, you work on something for a
specific amount of time—say, thirty minutes—before moving on
to something else.
The primary benefit of setting time limits to your tasks is that it
boosts focus and productivity. According to Parkinson’s law, the
more time we are given to complete tasks, the more time it takes
us to do them. When we are given a limit, however, we find ways
to streamline processes and prioritize so we can finish the task on
time. We are forced to focus and ignore distractions, making us
much more productive. Further, productivity increases because
we are forced to ignore time-wasting activities, such as checking
email, surfing the Internet, or chatting on social media.Time limits also help reduce procrastination and motivate us to
take on distasteful tasks or projects. When we know we have to
dedicate only a finite amount of time to something we don’t
enjoy (for example, taxes), it doesn’t seem so terrible. This
encourages us to take the first step toward completion. Even if we
only make a dent in the undesirable project or task, we have at
least made some progress, motivating us to continue toward
completion.
Setting time limits also diminishes perfectionist tendencies.
When we have all the time in the world to complete a task, it is
easy to pore over every detail in the hope of making everything
perfect. Before we know it, we’ve spent twice as long as needed.
Time limits force us to finish, perfect or not.
When extremely large projects seem daunting or overwhelming,
time limits help us break the task into more manageable
subtasks. Not only is this a more productive approach, but we
also feel like we are making progress toward the end goal with
each smaller task we complete. Additionally, time limits
encourage creativity by putting space between smaller tasks so
we can reflect on the work done and return to the project with
fresh perspective.
Finally, creating time limits for your work also gives you an
opportunity to see how much time it takes you to complete
certain tasks and projects. This increased awareness is helpful
with scheduling and planning, better preparing you to say yes to
projects you know you can accomplish and no to those that are
unimportant or unrealistic
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