Time boxing is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to use your work hours more productively.

It’s a deceptively simple concept – instead of working on a task until it’s completed, commit to working on it for a specific amount of time instead. You’ll quickly see how fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks can help you boost your productivity in a big way.

Here are 11 ways to take advantage of time boxing to get more done in your workday.

1. Make Progress on Big Tasks

Setting aside time each day to work on your bigger tasks ensures that you continuously make progress on them, while also preventing them from eating up your entire day.

2. Get Minor Tasks out of the Way

Time boxes help stop you from letting all your little tasks pile up. Instead of continuing to postpone them until they become a major headache, you can create a time box to tackle all of the tasks at once.

3. Beat Procrastination

Time boxes are a great way to get you to work on tasks you’d rather put off. Procrastination-related tasks warrant the use of “open time boxes.” Here, you set a minimum period of time you must work, which you can extend for as long as you like. The purpose of these boxes is to force you to start working so that you might build enough momentum to want to continue working on the task longer when the time box ends. In these cases, feel free to keep working afterward. Read more about how you can Beat Procrastination in 5 Steps.

4. Overcome Perfectionism

If you’re a perfectionist, time boxes will keep you from losing all your time to a single task by giving you a definite cut-off time. Working in a “closed time box” (setting a maximum period of work) will make you more aware of how much time you devote to single tasks and will force you determine what is a reasonable amount of time to spend working on a project.

5. Raise Time Awareness

Time boxing is a great exercise in time awareness so that you can diagnose how well you are using your time and don’t end up wondering at the end of the day where all your time went. Being more aware of how much you can actually fit in your schedule is both satisfying and liberating and will help you say “no” to unimportant tasks and requests more often.

6. Increase Your Focus

Devoting blocks of time to a particular task helps prevent you from thinking about other unrelated tasks, and gives you the structure you need to properly prepare for them.

7. Boost Efficiency

Time boxes stimulate you to use the time you have allotted for a task more efficiently. The underlying deadline will apply just enough pressure on you to make you make the most out of your time. Read more about How to Make the Most Out of Your Workday with Effective Time Management. Putting time boxes around meaningless activities like web-surfing, games, and emails will also allow you to reclaim the time for more productive, work-related activities.

8. Improve Motivation

Successfully completing a time box works as a visible sign of progress. You can even turn them into a game or challenge by seeing how much you can get done during the allotted time period. This works especially well for tasks with measurable results, like seeing how many prospects you can call during an hour. See if you can beat your own record next time. Giving yourself a small reward for completing a time box will also help you start looking forward to tackling the tasks you set out for yourself. For more motivational tips, check out 9 Ways to Stay Motivated While Working from Home.

9. Cultivate Creativity

The best way to tackle projects that require high levels of creativity is to allow time between brainstorming and actual work start time to forget about the project for a while and let your subconscious mind work on the problem. Since there’s usually no precise outcome for brainstorming, it’s the perfect activity to time box.

10. Create a Work Rhythm

Using time boxes to properly balance periods of work and rest, or hard and easy tasks, will maximize your use of energy and allow you to accomplish much more than you could otherwise. You could alternate between blocks of 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest or switch it up. Find a balance that works for you.

11. Balance Your Life

You don’t need to confine time boxing to work-related tasks: you can block off time for anything that matters to you, including your family and hobbies. You can live a much more balanced life by pre-allocating time boxes for the things that matter most to you.

By Cathy Lau

Tags: Time Management