Do you sometimes feel like you may have spent too much time playing games, chatting, or checking your emails and text messages when you woke up?
You’re not alone. Many of us have the same problem: we pay attention to things that aren’t important and forget about the ones that are.
In the end, we don’t do what we planned to do. The same thing happens the next day, the day after, and the day after, and by the time we realize a whole month has gone by and we have not done any of the things we set out to do.
One major characteristic that makes you successful is discipline; successful people are intentional about things, especially in how they spend their time.
In this article, we’ll talk about how timeboxing can help you manage your time better.
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What Is Timeboxing
Timeboxing is a time planning method that breaks up your schedule into smaller chunks of time, or what is called “timeboxes.” Each timebox has its deliverables, deadline, and budget.
Timeboxing works best for projects with many steps or small tasks that can all be done within the same time slot. You can also use it for tasks that can be done in a certain amount of time.
Time boxing is excellent for everyone, but it is especially beneficial if:
- You have ADHD and are easily distracted from doing your work.
- You are a perfectionist and spend too much time on one task.
- You procrastinate.
- You want to stop multitasking and focus on one task at a time.
- You want to measure your productivity by seeing how many tasks you were able to finish in a certain amount of time.
Timeboxing, Time Tracking, And Time Blocking
Time Boxing, time tracking, and time blocking are closely related terms that have a lot to do with increasing productivity. They all help you to manage your time better, but they are significantly different from each other.
Timeboxing tells you to allocate a time frame for completing a task; time tracking tells you how much time you spend on different tasks, while time blocking tells you to allocate time for various tasks.
The significant difference between time boxing and time blocking is that with time boxing, the task is one-off and meant to be completed within the time frame, while in time blocking, the task is recurrent, and part of it would be done within the blocked time frame.
For example, you could block 10 am to 12 pm on Wednesdays for meeting with your stakeholders but box off 10 am — 10:10 am for the introduction. So, your introduction should not extend beyond 10 minutes, no matter what.
Elon Musk’s Time Management Technique
It is easy to see highly successful people like Elon Musk as superhuman due to their ability to achieve so much and still stay focused, but there’s an explanation for how he is able to do this: time boxing or time blocking.
Musk’s “5-minute rule” is one of the best ways to productively use your time. It makes you break up your day into 5-minute chunks that you use to do one or more tasks. This gives you a clear plan of what you will work on and when you will do it.
This technique may sound easy, but you can only utilize and benefit from it if you stay disciplined because, without discipline, you won’t be able to stay the course.
Here are simple, actionable steps to achieve it.
How to use Musk’s Time Management Technique
List Out Your Tasks
If you sleep for six hours, that leaves you with 18 hours to plan for. Since there are 12 five minutes in an hour, you will have 216 tasks to do in 18 hours. This is huge, so come up with 216 things to do in your 5 minutes time block.
Use A 5-Minute Planner
Elon Musk’s method for blocking time off requires a planner with a 5-minute schedule. You can either draw one yourself or download one from the internet. In its simplest form, the planner will have a column for time and a column for activities.
Plan And Estimate Time For Each Task
In the activity column, you put all the tasks you wrote down in the first step in order of how important they are and how much time you’ll need to do them. It’s possible to have one task that spans more than one column, but you should try not to overestimate or underestimate how much time each task will take.
Plan For The Unexpected
While blocking time, you should also be ready for the unexpected. You can prepare for the kinds of surprises that might make you change your plans and how much time you will spend on them.
For example, for unexpected phone calls, you may decide that business calls will be answered right away. In contrast, family calls during a 5-minute time block will be answered after the time block is over, or you may decide to answer all calls when you take a break after a few hours of work. It would help if you made these rules, so you don’t get sidetracked easily.
Schedule Time To Rest
Boxing time is supposed to help you get things done, but you should also know that productivity decreases with time. Plan to stop working for 10 minutes every 1 to 2 hours. You’ll get more done this way. You can also do other, less important things this time, like answering the phone or checking your emails or text messages.
Timeboxing with Focus Bear
Focus Bear is excellent to use for timeboxing and keeping track of what you need to do. It is particularly helpful for users with ADHD and was created specifically to help them get things done regardless of their attention challenges.
The Focus Bear app helps you keep track of your attention, habits, and breaks, forcing you to use your time for what you have planned.
The main thing that differentiates this app from other time-blocking or boxing apps is that it can limit your access to apps and URLs you don’t need for the task at hand.
It also reminds you to take a break after some hours of work and to make time for exercise.
Get the app from focusbear.io
Hi I'm Jeremy, and I understand the challenges of living with ASD and ADHD.
