I want to share with you a scheduling technique that is new to me but has been around for many years: nowadays it's referred to as "Time Boxing". I was recently made aware of the concept through a virtual assistant (VA) forum I belong to and in more detail through two business associates of mine, and now that I've implemented and utilized it for the past several weeks - I want to tell you, it's great!Those of you that are familiar with me or my previous articles know that I am a huge fan of To Do Lists and Checklists. However, I admit that it never occurred to me to merge my lists with my daily calendar - which essentially is what Time Boxing is.
The concept is simple: block (or box) time on your calendar to complete projects and tasks. This will help you reach deadlines in a more organized fashion plus it helps you set aside time for other essential tasks. The key is to block time for everything you do including menial everyday tasks to reoccurring projects to family or "me" time. Block your entire day (if at all possible) so you get an honest feel for the time you truly have available. The results may surprise you!Time Boxing eliminates procrastination (for the most part) because it tells you when to begin working on an item on your To Do List. And it will help curb your perfectionist tendencies because when you find that you are locked on a project (a problem I battle with), it will tell you when it's time to stop and move on to something else.
Another advantage of this technique is closely related to the first one I mentioned and it is called discipline. Why? Because when you have trained yourself to focus on tasks, no matter how little the time you have set aside for each task, it takes discipline to follow it and to actually focus on the tasks.
For larger projects, I may schedule an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to work on creating the new PowerPoint presentation and handouts for Client D. And then an hour and a half to work on phone calls for Client E.I schedule my lunch time, and I also schedule break times. As I go through the day, I check off my task as I complete it. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to see those checks!At the end of the day, I go into my calendar, delete the time boxes I've finished, move to the next day the time boxes for the larger projects that I am continuing to work on, and add new time boxes for tasks that have come in throughout the day.Perhaps you find yourself out of the office a lot and having to return phone calls. Block off a period of time during the day to return those calls, or two periods of time if need be. Perhaps e-mails are eating into your productivity. Again, block off periods of time throughout the day to check e-mails and catch up on tweets if you're on Twitter.
As you gain focus and discipline, another advantage of time boxing is that it gives you the skills to better manage your time. This technique allows you to see how much time you have spent on each task and gives you the chance to predict how much more tasks you can do depending on the time that you have left for the rest of the day. This also allows you to assess your own strategy and progress and gives you the opportunity take action about it. And finally, time boxing gives you a sense of achievement. No matter how small the amount of time you have set for each tasks, you finish each day with more accomplished tasks than when you do not use the technique.
The concept is simple: block (or box) time on your calendar to complete projects and tasks. This will help you reach deadlines in a more organized fashion plus it helps you set aside time for other essential tasks. The key is to block time for everything you do including menial everyday tasks to reoccurring projects to family or "me" time. Block your entire day (if at all possible) so you get an honest feel for the time you truly have available. The results may surprise you!Time Boxing eliminates procrastination (for the most part) because it tells you when to begin working on an item on your To Do List. And it will help curb your perfectionist tendencies because when you find that you are locked on a project (a problem I battle with), it will tell you when it's time to stop and move on to something else.
Another advantage of this technique is closely related to the first one I mentioned and it is called discipline. Why? Because when you have trained yourself to focus on tasks, no matter how little the time you have set aside for each task, it takes discipline to follow it and to actually focus on the tasks.
For larger projects, I may schedule an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to work on creating the new PowerPoint presentation and handouts for Client D. And then an hour and a half to work on phone calls for Client E.I schedule my lunch time, and I also schedule break times. As I go through the day, I check off my task as I complete it. It's a great feeling of accomplishment to see those checks!At the end of the day, I go into my calendar, delete the time boxes I've finished, move to the next day the time boxes for the larger projects that I am continuing to work on, and add new time boxes for tasks that have come in throughout the day.Perhaps you find yourself out of the office a lot and having to return phone calls. Block off a period of time during the day to return those calls, or two periods of time if need be. Perhaps e-mails are eating into your productivity. Again, block off periods of time throughout the day to check e-mails and catch up on tweets if you're on Twitter.
As you gain focus and discipline, another advantage of time boxing is that it gives you the skills to better manage your time. This technique allows you to see how much time you have spent on each task and gives you the chance to predict how much more tasks you can do depending on the time that you have left for the rest of the day. This also allows you to assess your own strategy and progress and gives you the opportunity take action about it. And finally, time boxing gives you a sense of achievement. No matter how small the amount of time you have set for each tasks, you finish each day with more accomplished tasks than when you do not use the technique.
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