‘Ascend Where your work meets your life. eae Managing Yourself What's the #1 Productivity Tool? For Me, It’s Timeboxing. by Neha Kirpalani September 29, 2021, ety images/everything bagel Summary. Do you often find yourself carrying forward tasks that should be done today to tomorrow, and then the next day, and then the day after that? To-do listsgave the author, Neha Kirpalani, a sense of real satisfaction, until she was promoted at work and the array of... more Confession: I’m a productivity nerd. I take time management very seriously. I read voraciously on the subject, seek out skilled friends for advice, and have taken online courses to master the latest tactics. To-do lists give me a sense of real satisfaction. On days when all my tasks are complete, I feel like a champion. I adore my planner so much, I have considered taking our relationship to the next level by investing in a bullet journal. (Sadly, I haven’t done that yet.) This year, however, my productivity was put to the test. I got promoted, and as a rising leader within my organization, I took on managing a function in our marketing department. The array of new responsibilities threw my (highly) organized schedule off Kilter. Combining these with my various side projects and participation in other work inititatives required me to be much more efficient with my time. Truth be told, it wasn’t easy. Often, I found myself carrying forward tasks that should “be done today” to tomorrow, and then the next day, and the day after that. When unfinished personal projects and assignments begin to fall by the wayside, I think we can all agree — it’s not a great feeling. cend Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here. y Naturally, I went in search of a newer, better productivity hack to get back on track. I took the online course, Becoming Indistractible, taught by former Stanford lecturer Nir Eyal, and finally, [have found a solution.It's called ... timeboxing, Have you heard of it? I know timeboxing is not exactly novel. (People have been writing about it for a while now.) Still, it has been the most useful tool in my kit this year and I would encourage anyone struggling to juggle their work with the hours in their day to give into the advice and try it. Here’s How It Works Timeboxing is a term taken from agile project management and has been recognized as the most useful productivity hack. It involves translating a to-do list into blocks of time on your calendar, scheduling them, and sticking to that schedule. Simply put, it gives you a plan for what to do, and when. Ibegan experimenting with timeboxing on a small scale. I gave myself a fortnight to get used to the process. Every week, I would take a few new tasks from my to-do list, estimate how long each would take, and then block that time on my calendar. At the end of the workday, I would reflect on how much progress I had made and iterate my schedule as needed. If an urgent meeting or task came up unexpectedly, I rescheduled my priorities accordingly. Here’s a sneak peek into what my calendar looks like these days.19 Mon * 20 wwe 21 wea 2 swe *Watav a 2B [Mediation SB [Mediation 28 °*" T aworkout Cardio |e Workout Yoge/Stretch | e*Workout Cardio (maa cme ee [es [ees [arcreate Engagement Rank’ == === za [ titven anaes Cine om Tesinbox S [Siinbox © [review changes: MBA gui [intox = m (ae =a {ee om (ieee papi =a ‘jm Women's Networ ° Esinkox © [inbox © [einbox B Jecreshp coaton & “Toe personat break &_[YePersonalibresk —[¥ePersonak break Ata quick glance, my schedule seems overwhelming — even to me. But organizing my time in this way has actually helped me optimize my performance, every single week. Here’s how. It removed the paradox of choice. We all have to make so many choices every day. One benefit of timeboxing (one that I wasn’t expecting) is paring down those decisions, which creates more brain space for focused work. For me, it’s removed the paralysis that’s induced by having to choose between a multitude of tasks ona seemingly never-ending to-do list. Now, I know exactly what I need to work on, and when, because I've planned ahead of time. I've found a place for all kinds of activities on my calendar, whether it’s repetitive and time- consuming tasks like batch processing emails (around noon andagain at 3 PM every day), or urgent requests and emergencies (which are given buffer slots, at least a few times in a week). This allows me to use the rest of my day more efficiently. It enabled me to strategically prioritize. On a long to-do list, it’s natural to pick tasks that are either easier or more urgent over what’s important. (Not to mention the dopamine high that comes from checking those tasks off.) With timeboxing, however, I’m now able to prioritize what’s important (as opposed to simply what's urgent). For instance, I know that I need to schedule time towards learning and development, so I religiously find a place for it in my weekly schedule. In the absence of timeboxing, this task would have been relegated to the bottom of my list, in the face of other urgent, ongoing projects. Itencouraged me to be thoughtful about accepting new projects. These days, I'm much more conscious when accepting or rejecting new opportunities that come my way, based on a holistic and realistic view of my weekly and monthly time commitments. For example, my colleague recently asked me to mentor her in lead gen strategy, and I was in a better position to know whether to I could realistically say yes. I knew exactly when I'd be able to meet with her (in the last week of the month) because I had visibility on all other important projects and tasks. Without timeboxing, I might have been tempted to agree straightaway, thus bumping this new project up at the expense of other important but unaccounted tasks, simply because my calendar would have looked wide open. It vanquished the “planning fallacy.” The “planning fallacy” is basically a human phenomenon that says we tend to underestimate how long tasks will take while overestimating how quickly we can get things done. Studies have shown that, onaverage, it takes three times longer to finish a task than we think it will. By reflecting at the end of every day on the progress I’ve made towards my projects, I’ve inadvertently gotten better at predicting how long related tasks will take in the next time box. Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter Management Tip of the Day Quick, practical management advice to help you do your job better. It provided a clear track record for future reference: When planning for a recurring performance review meeting with my manager, I no longer need to rely on memory or hutried/scattered notes. Instead, I have a concrete record of all my projects and accomplishments from every week, in the form of my timeboxed calendar. This allows me to a) better reflect upon and b) better articulate how I spent my time throughout the week or month. :4 Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter Ascend Career and life advice for young professionals. Adopting a timeboxed calendar has been a game changer for me, freeing up mental space and making me more efficient. But I’ll be honest: I haven’t completely abandoned my planner just yet. I use it in tandem with my calendar. Rather than just checking tasks off my to-do list (or feeling overwhelmed as said list grows to an unmanageable size), I slot tasks into my calendar as soon as I add them to my list. This gives me the structure of timeboxing, with the satisfaction of checking off what’s been done.It’s a win-win! If you want to level up, I'd encourage you to be mindful about how you spend your time too. I realize not everyone gets as excited about productivity as me, but anyone can turn their to-dos into accomplishments with a little strategy (and discipline). Neha Kirpalani is a Senior Marketing Manager working at a large EdTech company. She specialises in marketing strategy and campaigns for lead acquisition and nurturing. Prior to this, she’s worked at Goldman Sachs and consulted as a content manager, social media manager, and brand strategist with several companies. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Recommended For You 10 Common Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them ¥ How to Be More Productive: Our Favorite Reads The Most Important Job Interview Question How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive