Timeboxing has boosted my productivity 10X 🚀🔥

Human behavior is such that we use up all of the time available to finish a project. We tend to expand work so that it fills in the time available for its completion.

• If a product spec is due in 1 month, the work expands to 1 month.
• If presentation to the board is due in 1 week, the work expands to 1 week.
• If a meeting is set for 1 hour, discussions will go on for that hour.

You get the idea. 💡⌚

Cyril Parkinsons first observed and wrote about this behavior in 1955.

The good part is that we can flip this human behavior to use it to our advantage and be more productive. Instead of letting work expand to an unlimited time block, we can set constraints on time available. The goal is to plan and assign a reasonable amount of time for a project and try to finish it within this time block. Having this time constraint will nudge you to be more focussed and reduce distractions, allowing you to complete the project in a much lesser time frame.

As with all human behaviors, just having a goal of having a time block is not enough. Having processes that help you build discipline and stay focused is the key to turning this behavior around and using this to your advantage.

Timeboxing via Calendar scheduling + Pomodoro are good processes to get started with. Don't be too rigid and tweak the process to make it work for you.

A side effect of sticking to a time block is that your focus will dramatically improve. And the focus is what all of us can use to supercharge our productivity and achieve our goals. 💪

Timeboxing has boosted my productivity. What is your super tip to increase productivity ? Would love to share the best productivity tips 🎉

If you are interested in my productivity journey, feel free to follow me here or on Linkedin.