How to Knock Out Your To-Do List With Timeboxing

If you’re a small business owner like me, you probably find yourself multitasking on a regular basis. When we wear all the hats all the time, it can feel like getting everything done is an impossible task.

At the end of the day it can seem as if all you’ve really done is spin your wheels without making any progress on your to-do list. Sound familiar? 

I’ve got a tool that will turn you into a productivity ninja: timeboxing.

TIMEBOXING VS TIME BLOCKING
First things first. If you’ve heard of time blocking, it’s not the same as timeboxing. Time blocking allows several hours for a project, and some tasks genuinely need that much time. But when you’re in rapid fire, get things done mode, timeboxing is your friend, my friend. Why?

With timeboxing, you divide your day into one hour “boxes” and put one task in each box. That’s it. 
The practice is based on Parkinson’s Law, which (tongue in cheek) says, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Translation: It’s easy to screw around, lose motivation, and get increasingly stressed about a looming task when you don’t have a set amount of time in which to complete it. For card-carrying procrastinators and time stretchers, timeboxing serves up much needed structure and accountability. 

And honestly, you can do anything for an hour, can’t you? 

OK, maybe not hold your breath.

But I digress…

Last week, I had a lot of small but important projects I needed to handle for several of my clients. The to-do list hamster wheel in my head was working overtime. Instead of shifting into overwhelm, I timeboxed my day, giving each item an hour to complete. 

Here, loosely, is what that looked like:

Whew, that was a day! But you know what? I never felt like my hair was on fire. 🔥

I was completely calm and totally focused because:

TIPS TO MAKE TIMEBOXING WORK FOR YOU
Please note, this is not about rushing through your work or half-assing it. When I planned my day by filling in each box, I knew if I focused I could complete each one in under an hour, and I did. 

That “under an hour” bit is important, because you need to have a few minutes to clear your head as you transition from one task to another. Who knows? You may have so totally overestimated how long that thing you didn’t want to do would actually take (looking at you, invoicing) that you have a blissful 20 or 30 minutes all to yourself! 

If you’re in the groove, I say take advantage and keep going. Otherwise, use the time to grab another cup of coffee, power walk around the block, whatever gets you set up to tackle the next box.

There are a couple other things I appreciate about timeboxing. 
First, if you are a creative like me, you know how hard it is to actually be creative when your brain is cluttered with the noise of things that need to be done. 

Timeboxing immediately calms the chaos. I get all the things out of my head and onto paper, and suddenly I have a plan. No more worrying about missing details and no more stressing that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Hint: turn off email and any other notifications that could bust your concentration!

Second, I love that timeboxing can be applied just as easily and beautifully to non-work things. 

Timebox your workouts, your errands, your most hated household tasks. Raking all those leaves or organizing the pantry is doable and even pretty tolerable when you knuckle down and give it your best for 60 minutes.

🔑 The key to timeboxing is accessibility. If it’s not easy, you aren’t going to do it. Try one of the many free apps or use a paper version like I do. Find what you like best, then let me know how a day of timeboxing worked for you. 

And, if you have other productivity hacks, please share them with me. I’m all ears…