What is time-boxing

Time-boxing is a technique for working with a list of tasks, when a certain period of time, called a time-box, is used to perform certain actions. It is often used to manage projects, organize collective sessions of ideas generation, in personal planning. In fact, this is a more general variant of the known tomato method.

To start using this technique, first of all, you need to assign a certain number of time-boxes (say 30 or 50 minutes) for your tasks. For example, you write an article and decided to allocate at least 40 minutes to it in your schedule. Ideally, you need to finish it, but if there is only 40 minutes of time - do not worry, go to the next task.

Best of all, the essence of time-boxing can be understood on this example. The final meeting is taking place in the company. The head of each department presents a report with the results of the work for the year. Everything about everything he has 10 minutes. Upon their expiration, a colleague from another department immediately starts his report. Theoretically it sounds simple, but in practice it can be difficult. Let's see what typical difficulties usually arise and how to cope with them.