TIME BOXING : A perfect time management tool for entrepreneurs
How was the morning today? The first thought that came into the mind? Well, that’s conditional, as in what your profession is. For a home-maker: what should I cook today or when to buy groceries or vegetables? for an employee: documents / research that should be submitted by today itself, priority wise, for a teacher: chapters/tests that should be covered, for an entrepreneur: morning exercise, meetings, checklists, documents, visits, having food at time and what not! Everyone has to do so much everyday, with a balance of time. Today we’ll be talking about time and its management! The most boring topic of childhood over which we have spent many pages of diary or notebooks making time-tables, and only you know whether you’ve followed it or not. Some people pulled it off nicely, while some thought of it as it can never be followed or it's wasting the time itself. But what’s the need to discuss over this time-table at present? You can be a student, a teacher, an employee, a manager, a business owner, an entrepreneur or literally anyone who needs time-management to increase their work productivity. Now, does it make sense? Going back to the memory lane, those time-tables for time management have become an important task today, to follow. Maybe not important but most needed to make every second more productive, than it is.
As professionals in this digital era, we’re loaded with emails, messages, calls, documents, updates, self-work, all together that many times we feel jumbled on what to do first, when the last task would be done and then there is the remaining in-between work. By the time we start segregating, it's already noon. Though you’re not alone in this as almost every business owner wastes almost 22 hrs every week, even though 57% of them work minimum 6 days a week.
To manage these problems, enter our productivity tool - TIME BOXING, that’ll optimise your workflow everyday. The principle is to box out a particular and limited amount of time slot to complete a task and move onto the next one. This technique is a part of Scrum & Agile project management methodologies. For example, you boxed (allotted) 2 hours to research a topic and the next 2 hours to document it. And if the research did not end in 2 hours, you moved to the next work, that’s documenting it (whatever information you’ve gathered so far).
Time boxing uses a psychological approach that’s - implementing your intentions. It starts with you writing down the 5W 1H (when, where, why, who, what and how) you are going to complete a task and in what time slots, for everyday. And you’ve to delve deep into it psychologically. With time and practice you’ll learn when and where to box or place a work according to its importance or need to be done first. It's a powerful tool to pull up the socks and start getting more organised in these fast paced days, full of work.
BENEFITS OF TIME BOXING:
It makes you more efficient towards your workload & makes sure that you’re on the right track with your work-time balance.
Segregation of the work according to its importance, per day! It’ll help you understand your priorities better
No space for distraction, when you’re focused to complete one task, in a limited period of time.
Fast decision making in a short period of time. You’ll not spend hours thinking over something, even if the decision is not done with precision, you’ll learn with time.
Focusing on one work at a time rather than multitasking, for better results. Only 2.5% of people can multitask effectively. Then why not work efficiently rather than working in bulk.
HOW TO DO TIME BOXING:
PLANNING: Make a plan for the first two weeks in advance. If you have some empty time slots, leave them for calls & other errands or for completing time taking tasks. If you’ve a submission deadline on wednesday, schedule the important tasks related to it on monday & tuesday. The first week should be packed with most important tasks & the second with the less important ones.
SMART Goals: the 5 elements that’ll make your work easier,
Specific: define and understand what you want to accomplish and how
Measurable: set a measurable goal for progress
Attainable: time box a task which u can do, in a given period of time.
Relevant: these goals should be relevant to your final mission.
Time-based: all of your goals should be time-bounded.
SHARE WITH OTHERS: we work with a team (even as an entrepreneur) and at times we should share our schedules with other colleagues or stakeholders to work more efficiently. You can do it through google calendars and microsoft.
ANALYSE THE RESULTS: access your work productivity daily & every week.
GO EASY ON YOURSELF: this process will help you learn more about your work structure and productivity but it's fine if you can’t finish your work in the given time. You’ll learn with practice. It's not an exam but a tool.
REWARD YOUR EFFORTS: give yourself a reward everyday for completing the goals on time.
So, start the way to time boxing your work and schedules with our product to work more efficiently everyday!