Timeboxing: Give Every Task a Fixed Block of Time

What timeboxing is

Writing in Harvard Business Review in 2018, Marc Zao-Sanders described timeboxing as moving the items on a to-do list into your calendar, so that each one gets its own time slot. He reported that in a ranking of 100 productivity techniques, timeboxing came out as the most useful, and that it gives a much greater sense of control.

The difference from a to-do list is the end time. An open-ended task expands to fill the afternoon; a boxed task has a finish line you can see coming. When the box ends you stop, judge what you got done and decide whether the task needs another box.

Choosing a box length

Size the box to the task, not to habit. Fifteen minutes suits email, small fixes and admin. Thirty minutes is enough for a first draft of something short or a set of practice problems. An hour suits work with a long run-up, such as writing, design or coding.

When you are unsure, guess short. A box that ends too early is easy to follow with a second one; a box that is too long invites drifting, and it hides how long the task really takes.

1. Write the task and the result you want from the box, not just the topic.
2. Choose 15, 30 or 60 minutes based on that result.
3. Put the box on your calendar or at the top of today’s list, with its start time.

Running a box

A visual timer makes the box visible. Set the length, press Start and let the shrinking disk show how much of the box is left without you checking a clock.

Turn on a heads-up so the end never arrives as a surprise. Five minutes before is enough for a 30-minute box and ten minutes before suits an hour: either gives you time to finish the current step and note where to resume.

1. Set the timer to the length of the box.
2. Work only on the boxed task until the alarm rings.
3. At the heads-up, finish the current step instead of starting a new one.
4. When the alarm rings, stop and write one line about where you are.

Timeboxing a meeting

Agile teams run their meetings on the same idea. The 2020 Scrum Guide makes the Daily Scrum a 15-minute event and caps Sprint Planning at eight hours, the Sprint Review at four and the Sprint Retrospective at three for a one-month Sprint.

Any agenda can work this way. Give each item a box, show the timer on the shared screen and move on when the disk is gone, parking anything unfinished for a follow-up instead of letting one item eat the hour.

Name a timekeeper so the chair can concentrate on the discussion. The timekeeper starts each item’s box, mentions the heads-up when it sounds and calls the end of the item when the alarm rings.

1. Write the agenda with a length next to each item.
2. Before each item, set the timer to its box and share the screen or open the mini timer.
3. When the alarm rings, decide in one sentence: done, park it, or give it one more short box.

A sample timeboxed afternoon

Boxes work best planned together, so the day has a shape before it starts. Leave one buffer box for the unexpected: a plan with every minute filled breaks at the first surprise.

1. 13:00–13:15: email and messages.
2. 13:15–14:15: write the report draft, with a 10-minute heads-up.
3. 14:15–14:25: break.
4. 14:25–14:55: revise the draft.
5. 14:55–15:25: buffer for whatever came up.
6. 15:25–15:40: plan tomorrow’s boxes.

Timeboxing your study

Timeboxing suits revision as well as office work. Give each subject a box for the day and switch when the box ends, even if you would rather keep going with the subject you like. The subjects you avoid are exactly the ones a fixed box protects.

For exam preparation, box the practice by the real section lengths, so that the time you train with is the time you will have on the day.

Deciding what to box first

A calendar of boxes is also a statement of priorities, because whatever gets a box gets done. Put the most important work into the first box of the day, or into whatever time you usually think most clearly, before smaller requests fill it.

Give shallow work fixed, small boxes instead of letting it spread. Email, chat and admin still get done, but at times you chose, so they stop breaking up the boxes that need concentration.

A weekly review

Once a week, look back at the boxes as a whole. Count how many boxes each project actually got and compare that with how important you said it was; the gap is usually the most useful thing a timeboxed calendar shows you.

Then plan the next week’s large boxes first, before meetings and requests arrive, and fill the remaining space with small ones.

When boxes go wrong

If most of your boxes overrun, your lengths are optimistic. Add a third to every estimate for a week and see whether the overruns stop.

If you finish early and drift, the boxed tasks are too small or too vague. Combine small tasks into one box, and write down the result you want before you start, so you know when a box is really done.

If interruptions keep breaking your boxes, schedule a box for them. Two 15-minute boxes a day for messages can protect the rest of the calendar.

Reviewing your boxes

At the end of the day, compare what you planned with what happened. The useful questions are which boxes ran over, which tasks needed a second box and which kind of work you keep underestimating.

Wontimer’s focus history helps with the time side. Timer sessions are added to today’s total and the 7-day chart unless you turn off Count timer mode in history, and Export history saves the records as a file if you want to analyse them elsewhere.

Questions about timeboxing