Transcripts
1. Introduction: There's a saying that you can
get a lot of things back. But you've got to get di, di. Di is priceless and you can't
really afford to waste it. Don't waste it. Make it come alive is
full of timed intervals. Take a minute to think
about speed dating, networking,
high-intensity workout, and even the deadlines
you meet at work. All I depended on
faced periods of time or something that we
refer to as timelines. While most of us are eager
to start and end on time, very few of us are
actually able to do that because of work
time management. Even been a to-do list
and a proper planning, staying on track and
is a really difficult. Fortunately, we have a lot of different time
management technique that comes to our rescue. Know, on an average, a person uses around 13 different type methods
and what time management. And among these
different methods, one that has moved its efficiency diamond
again is the timeboxing. Hi, I'm a computer engineer,
inequality x squared. But more than that, I'm a productivity nerd and
my passion is teaching. I'm a creator of more than
15 plus online courses on various topics around
quality and productivity. And I love helping my
students get the best out of the oppression Stein
timeboxing technique is simply an easy time management
technique that you bought, sold your time to work on one accurately Eigen
only duty is that you set the time
so as to complete the task and stopped
working once the plant, your time runs out. Widest timeboxing work. Assigning deadlines to your task reduces the urge
to procrastinate. Working on one task at a time allows you to focus
for longer periods of time. It gives a structure
to your day and puts you in control
of your time. Timeboxing can help
you schedule your day, you maximize your productivity. And Nakoda Huygens of
your to-do lists in the most efficient way possible in this
class-based course. I'm going to take you through all the different strategies
that you can implement using the timeboxing technique so that you have more
control on your time. Focus better on
the task at hand. Maintain your motivation,
increase your productivity, and achieve your peace of
mind and work-life balance. Along with the course, I've gone ahead and attach a ready-made
timeboxing sheet that you can download and work along with me as you go
through the course. Applying timeboxing
improves productivity and help you reach your peak performance
by eliminating distractions and preventing
time management pitfalls. And my item here will be to
help you master the skill. By the end of the course. I'm really super excited to
see you inside the course. So let's get timebox.
2. What is Time Boxing?: So let us start off
by first of all, understanding what
is timeboxing? Timeboxing means
actually literally this. You've got the time into boxes and apply them to your calendar. Timeboxing is a time management
technique that limits at dusk to a fixed but
realistic timeline. That may be minutes,
hours, days, or even weeks long, depending upon the
complexity of the task. Now, this method of management can help you focus
your attention on the task at hand without any distraction or
lapses in the focus. And a goal is to accomplish the task within the
specified time limit. That is no flexibility in
terms of increasing your task. So timeboxing is basically a time management
technique which focuses on the project
goal or project task. Or I would say a set of tasks. When you apply this strategy in your professional
or personal life, you are more equipped to stop procrastination and
increase your productivity. Planning how long a dash should take before getting
started on it allows you to be intentional about
where you're spending your time and what you
are really working on. Now, this can really help you reduce the work about the world, which currently takes up to
60% of our valuable time. Now, instead of chasing
down approvals, are searching for documents. You can ensure you have everything you need
right in front of you. Even before you
start dirt timebox. You can use timebox to
schedule individual tasks, help your team gets organized or managed meetings
more effectively. Depending upon the
particular task, timebox may have a duration
of minutes, days, or weeks. In any case, the best approach is to get
started without a deal. It have a plan and work
in an organized fashion. For time boxes of
longer duration and projects that aren't easily broken down into discrete task. A timebox may also be
used simply to define how long an individual will work on something at that time. Now basically, there are
two types of time boxes. Let's look at them one-by-one. Hard time box. Now with hard time box, once the time limit is reached, you have to stop
working on the task. You immediately move on to the next task as per your plan. When you're getting started
with the timeboxing, this is likely to leave you feel helpless in the beginning. However, it's just a process
of learning some discipline. As you will realize, if you
continue down the path, this makes you more
determined to focus on the task and finish it on time. And then there is soft timebox. Now the soft timebox gives you the freedom to adjust the limit. Once the time is over. If you set the timer to 30 minutes and let's
say the alarm goes off. You can decide to increase the time by another
ten more minutes. Now this is only
to help you finish the task and not
leave them hanging. Although this is
not a bad option, it carries the risk of
perpetually snoozing the alarm until you have no time for the next task in your pipeline. Now, before starting the timer, you can also decide
whether you will go with a hard time box or a soft one. A hard time box will work better if you're
looking for perfection and uncertain that
you will be able to complete the task
without any delays. If you're not sure about
the time limits or are afraid that it might take more
time to complete the task. You can go for soft time boxes that offer a little
bit of flexibility. A soft timebox give you
the freedom to adjust your time and keep yourself focused on the task
at the same time. Something that I would
recommend for beginners to get start off with the
timeboxing technique.
3. The Benefits: Now that we have understood
what timeboxing is, let's look at the
benefits of timeboxing. Timeboxing tactic applies to anything related to
time consumption, whether it is your house course, OT professional
responsibilities. You can see immediate benefit when you start
practicing timeboxing. Let's look at some
of the advantages of using the
timeboxing technique. Vector focus on the task. Now by setting
aside time to work, you're also telling
your brain that this is a valuable focus time. Now, this can help you improve your focus and by extension, your productivity
with specific time allotted to each task. Timeboxing can help you focus your attention on
the task underway. In such a way, you can
also train your mind to stay attentive during the
specified time period. Beat procrastination
and boost productivity. Timeboxing can be especially helpful if you're dealing
with procrastination. The method can help
you focus better and invest your time in the
task at the right time. The technique can significantly improve your
productivity levels, helping you stay on track and accomplish your task
within the time allotted. Strict time limits leading
to better time management. Now with laser-focused
and specific time limit, you can invest your attention
in one task at a time. This way, you will be able
to complete the task within the time and then move on to the next one without
any hurdles. Probably the most
obvious benefit of all this is time-saving. Timeboxing can prove
to be especially helpful in managing your time in the most efficient
manner and getting your task done in the
shortest amount of time. Conquer perfectionism. Now, many people struggle
with procrastination, but also many of us have serious problems with
perfectionism as well. If you want to do everything
in the best possible way, you often just lose your time. Not every single document
needs to be edited twice. Trust me, very often, done is better than perfect. Which means that spending
too much time on one task may cause you to be in
trouble sooner or later. If you struggle with
deciding when you can finish one thing
and switch to another, you may end up with dozens
of unfinished task. Frequently agonized over
already finished us. Timeboxing can unblock you and help you increase
your productivity. Timeboxing operates
of the principle of progress over perfectionism. Once your time boxes up, you need to move on. Even if the task you're
working on is perfect or not, increases efficiency. Now, not all items
of work that we want to perform are
of the same priority. So when presented with a
collection of work items, it is essential that
we prioritize them. Timeboxing forces us
to prioritize and perform the task in the
shortest amount of time, depending on how they
mattered the most. This basically
sharpens our focus on getting something
valuable done real quick. Timeboxing also helps us
demonstrate progress against big features that require more than one
time-boxed to complete. Completing some task towards
those features ensures that valuable and measurable progress is being made with each sprint. It also has the
stakeholders and team learn exactly what remains to be done in order to deliver
the task on time. Let's use flow. Perfectionist make work too challenging by setting
unrealistic goals. Often the standards too high. On the other hand,
when the goals are too trivial or the standards
are set too low, work becomes very easy,
resulting into Bordeaux. However, when work is neither too easy or not too difficult, it becomes effortless and even pleasurable and
highly productive. Now, this happy state is what we call as
the state of flow. The conditions that induce flow can easily be met by timeboxing. Something like
clear set of goals. Confidence to do your task are clear and immediate feedback. During flow, you focus all your emotional and
intellectual capacity on one task at hand, allowing you to achieve your best results in the
stipulated amount of time. Just make sure your timer is loud enough to bring
you back to reality. At the end of every time box, it gives you motivated big task. No matter how important
can be de-motivating, you simply need to work for too long to see the outcome
and the results. Now we may prefer
differing important task. So we plowed through
many quick and easy task just for the sake of false
perception of accomplishment. But just like the
simple act of crossing of items from your
to-do list can be motivating service successfully
completing a timebox. Completing a time box
works as a visible sign of progress and always keeps you motivated and on
track to perform. Timeboxing is a
rewarding technique. If you're tired rewards to
the completion of tasks, you may find yourself doing only quick and easy task and
avoiding the important ones. So why not get yourself
a little reward after you complete
a timebox instead, a personal example would
be timeboxing your email, checking time so
that you can avoid the addiction of checking your email multiple
times during the day. Rewards can be as tiny
as a glass of water, a bite of your favorite desert. A deep breath at the window. Timeboxing helps you
achieve peace of mind. Among many other obvious
benefits of timeboxing. I really appreciate
this feeling of knowing how much time I
will spend on each task. It is a similar
comfort to this one. When you read the
agenda for the meeting. People love to know how
will the future look like. And timeboxing technique gives this comfort every single day, or I would say every
single moment. When someone at work asked you, how much time will it take, you will have a chance to
answer very precisely. And this will help
you to coordinate with your team and your
colleagues better. And last but not the least, it will help you achieve
your work-life balance. Remember, you don't need to use timeboxing only for
work-related tasks. You can block time for
anything that matters to you. Anything like leisure, family, hobbies, anything that
comes to your mind. Reallocating time boxes for the things that matter the most is an excellent strategy to help you live a balanced life. In fact, planck time
boxes are at the heart of prioritization system of
any project management.
4. The Technique: Now let's dive into the
technique of timeboxing. Because unless you
believe that it's going to take a lot of effort
to set up timeboxing. You will be surprised
that it actually is not as difficult
as it sounds. Yet out a few quick steps
to set up timeboxing once and use it for all your
future tasks and projects. Create your to-do
list to include all the tasks that you
need to accomplish. Now create a project to-do list. You can go ahead and create an individual to-do list based upon the task that needs
to be accomplished. Now, measure how do you spend your time during the
workday and later on, know your enemy, which
are the distractions. Check out. When are you the
most productive? And when is it hard for you
to focus on one activity? See how many breaks
do you really need? And whenever you make
a project to-do list, make sure that you and
your team researched properly before
finalizing that task. Group similar tasks together. Now you need to
spot similar tasks and group them in an
adjacent timebox. Now it will help you
or your team to avoid unnecessary time
loss when switching between the tasks,
prioritize the task. Now the most important
key you need to timebox successfully
is prioritization. You must definitely prioritize your tasks depending upon
the importance of the task. This means that you have to decide which tasks
are important, which are necessary,
and which are not. This process completely
depends upon yogurt. Take for example,
an ordinary work day in the life of
an average employee. Now there are different tasks
that an employee performs. Some of these tasks
urgently needed, while others are
still important, but can wait for a while. Meanwhile, there
also will be tasks that we actually do
not even need to do. Now, we must identify each of these tasks and make a
note of their importance. Most people create to-do list
and follow them in order. You should also
create a to-do list, but you must add
durations to them. Settime box for each task. Timing is another key step
for effective timeboxing. Now, it is also the easiest. All you need to do is add specific timeframes to
your prioritize tasks. That is a slight
difference between timing year and later
stages of prioritization. During prioritization,
that timeframes you add to your list do
not need to be specific. Instead, they only
need to be in order. However, during
the timing stage, the frames you add must be specific and if possible,
minute to minute. When you have added specific
timeframes to your task, you can consider your
timeboxing hub done. However, just makes sure that the timeframes are
adequate for each task. Incorporate timebox
support breaks, setup, rational, fixed time for
breaks, technical downtimes, and other non productive tasks that will also consume
the time budget for any project or set of
tasks between each timebox, make sure to leave
room for short breaks. It may be tempting to continue working through the
allotted break times, but stepping away for
a few minutes can actually help you return to your work with a fresh outlook. Now, start the timer
and get to work. Once you've allotted
time to each task, set a timer to let
you know when it's time to move on to
the next task and get toward setting a
specific period of time will not only motivate
you to work efficiently, but will also ensure other important projects
are not neglected. Setting a timer
also frees you from thinking about the time
while you're working. Instead of constantly looking
at the clock and making sure that you're not late for your next meeting
or your next task. You have dedicated
time to dive into your work and get into the flow. Work within timebox
without any distraction. Time boxes help you and your team to concentrate
on the task. It also helps utilize that time flow best for increased
productivity. However, you will also see improvement through
timeboxing if you truly dedicate your attention to the task During the
ongoing timebox, stop distractions from work. You need to stop all
notifications that might distract you from the task
that you have at your hand. And last but not the least, Dave, you rinse and repeat. At the completion of each timebox or at
the end of the day, take a look at your progress. If you've completed
all of your task, what have you learned? And apply your learning
to your future schedules? If not, ask yourself a
very honest question. Did you allow enough
time to complete the task while you totally
focused on the task, did you get derailed or
distracted during the journey? The answering these questions
will help you analyze your progress and make better
time boxing in future. Now let's look at some of the examples of using the
timeboxing technique. Timeboxing for
managing meetings. Timeboxing meetings
and tasks help us to avoid the risk that they will consume too much time. This will keep the
attendees focused on the agenda and prevent any cross talks and time-based stage on
irrelevant topics. Now, I personally would
recommend a three-step approach. Share the meeting agenda with meeting topics and time limits. Let the attendees know about
the time limit upfront. And that will also help you any confusion
during the meeting. User timer so that the meeting starts and ends as
per this kid you. Now, let's look at
this same example using that time box technique. Now I want you to have a look at the timebox sheet that
I'm referring to. Now if you look carefully, the marketing meeting is one of my top priorities of the day. And in my brain dump section, I have clearly
mentioned the agenda for my mute so that I can get straight to the topic when my timebox starts
clicking at nine AM. You can also see that
I have gone ahead and created a one-hour time
box for the meeting. And everything that will be done in that one hour is clearly mentioned to avoid
any time slippage during that time box. This will also ensure
that the entire hour is used in the most optimal manner with maximum productivity. Let us look at another example. Something that I
personally used for scheduling the first
one hour of my morning, my personal morning routine, 20 minutes of some
stretching exercise or walked in my backyard. Then I go ahead and use another 20 minutes
for my meditation. And then I spent 20 minutes reading something
positive or motivation. In addition to being an effective personal
productivity tool, timeboxing can help
you lead and manage your daily routines so that you are at your productive
best throughout the day. Now let's look at this same
example on a timebox sheet. Now what you see
on your screen is a typical timebox sheet
for my entire day. When I have gone ahead and mentioned all the top
priorities of the day, and then segregated them in
different time slots are different time boxes so that I can start
those activities, dedicated the specific
time for those activities, and ensure that they are done and close during that timeframe. Now, I personally started
using it first of all for my morning routines so that I can start off my day
on a positive note, making the best use of
my morning to get me charged up for the activities
of the rest of the day. When I started seeing results, I started using this technique for my entire day scheduling. Starting your day on a
positive note gives you an initial boost
to be on schedule and achieved the maximum
productivity of your date. Now, along with this course, I have gone ahead and provided you with this blank
timebox sheet. Now I want you to go ahead
and pause this video and take a few printouts
of this particular sheet, and try using this
timeboxing technique for your task and
your schedules, at least for a week. And after seven days, I want you to sit and analyzed in terms of how much
progress did you meet and how much
video productivity increased during this timeframe. So make sure you pause
this video and complete the activity before you move
on to the next lecture.
5. Final Tips for Efficient Time Boxing: Now I'm hoping that
you must have paused the previous video and
taking a few printouts of this particular sheet
and started using the timeboxing technique or your own productivity purpose. If not, then I would highly recommend you to go
ahead and do that. Now before we go ahead and
end the lecture series, I want to share with
you some tips for better timeboxing so that you can boost your productivity. Furtive, always
re-plan your task. Now before you start
with the process, makes sure you have
planned out everything. For example, which task
will you complete first? How much time the
task will take? How can you utilize your time
more efficiently, etc, etc. Planning is a great
way to kick-start your progress and make the
most of your valuable time. Keep a timer in
front of you to keep yourself focused and
avoid any distractions. Keep your time in front
of you at all times. The timer will help you analyze how much time you are left
with and how much you have to make your way
around it to make sure your task gets completed
within that timeframe. Avoid any distractions. If your workspace is cluttered, there is a big
chance you are not going to be very productive from having unnecessary gadgets on your desk to having many
sticky notes all around you. It could be anything. This could be
really distracting. If you're working from home. Distractions can be a
very big challenge. From the bed located
a few steps away to a TV or a food available
in the refrigerator. Focusing might really hit hard, but you can set up
your home for work. Makes sure that a few
other things on your desk. Get rid of all the sticky notes and focus on the
timeboxing scheduled. The fewer the things you see, the higher your concentration. Sufficient breaks. Timeboxing doesn't
mean you should work till it's time for
tea or lunch break. You can have occasional breaks. Then you just walk
around the office or maybe just talked to a
colleague for a few minutes. Working from home also allows for this
particular privilege. Walk to the kitchen and come
back to your working space, do some stretches, and then
again, get back to work. You're working on a project
with multiple chunks, break after at least one hour. This will also help you avoid any health issues and fatigue. Watch out for time-based is. Now by the time you seek help
to become more productive, you definitely will load
that things need to improve. One of the culprits of
lost time is social media. If this is a challenge for you, look for browser extensions
for productivity. Another culprit is
paralysis of analysis. If you think and analyze
the situation too much until you don't act
because the time is over, then you need to deal with that. This can really hold you back if you don't work as
soon as possible. And last but not the least, use automated task
management tools. If you find it
difficult to create a list and create
timebox is manually. You can take help of an
efficient time management tool. This tool will help you create task with specific time limits. And time tracking features of such tools will help you
keep up on the task. Google Calendar is
one of my favorite. Google Calendar is a mobile
tool that is easy to use. It is exactly like a normal
calendar with deeds. However, it is more
useful for timeboxing. You can use it to create
and prioritize your tasks, scheduling meetings, and
set timers and reminders. Also, since it is a
web-based application, you can even have it on your
mobile phone and computers. And the best part is it is
absolutely free of cost. So as long as you know
what is timeboxing and follow the steps of
prioritizing and timing dust, you will become more productive
then you have ever been. Keep your tasks simple and
make your timeframes flexible. As you go along, you will get better at timeboxing
and the level of disciplined you must
have to execute every task if we keep
on improving with time, I wish you all the best
with your productivity, happy learning, and steep list.
The Guruskool, Data Analytics & Business Intelligence Leader
