Managing time - the enemy of students everywhere. Students will sink under
the stress of homework and extracurriculars building up if they can manage
their time. With more and more competitive college admissions, being able to
do more work in less time is a skill that every good student has mastered.
By doing more work in less time, students will clear up their schedules,
relieve stress, and be more productive.
Time management isn’t just a problem
for students, but also adults. Completing your work, projects, and
presentations, whether with a group or individually, while all at the same
time squeezing in time for family and friends is going to be a part of most
people’s lives, so managing time is a necessary skill to succeed in life.
One mistake most people commonly make when trying to plan their day is to
just shove as many things as they can fit in a day. However, very few people
can work for hours at a time, without any break, and result in good quality
work. By inserting breaks between work, at an advised amount of 1 break/40
minutes, one can work efficiently while keeping up good quality work. This
is where timeboxing comes in.
Timeboxing is a simple time management technique first introduced by James Martin as a part of agile software development. When timeboxing you allocate a fixed time period to complete a planned activity. During that period, you work on the task until the time is up, when you take a break. During that time, you assess whether you've reached your planned goals. This approach is very helpful when handling project management tasks, personal errands, or other projects. It is important to note its difference with time blocking, where you allocate time periods in order to find time for everything on your agenda.
When timeboxing, start by finding a suitable task, like something you don’t want to do or don’t want to spend too much time on. Next, set a goal. For example, when writing a 25-page research paper in a month, your goal could be to write one page per day. You would finish in 25 days, with five extra days to edit and revise. Now that you have a goal, figure out how much time you want to work for each day. For example, you could timebox so that you complete one page in three hours. This would mean working for an hour and then taking a break for twenty minutes after, repeating this three times. When your time is up, stop working immediately and reflect on your efficiency. In the end, when your entire task is completed, you can reward yourself. This will help to motivate you, therefore improving your efficiency.
One crucial thing to remember in this method is to not overextend your break. While breaks are necessary to help you work more effectively, by overextending your break, you will deprive this method of all efficiency. While you might not want to, as work is not very pleasing, by knowing when to stop your break, you will save a lot of time for yourself.
When trying to complete tasks, using timeboxing is a very effective strategy, and you will soon find your work efficiency improve.
