How to Get Started with Timeboxing

Early in April’s career, her only responsibility was selling. And sell she did.

Her entire day was scheduled for doing just that one thing well.?

But as the years passed and April got better at her job, her company gave her more clients and more responsibilities.?

As a result, her old methods of just doing one thing stopped working. There began to be many more things competing for her time and attention.

If April was going to advance in her career, she’d have to upgrade her skills and start managing her schedule, instead of letting it manage her.

The problem was, looking at April’s daily schedule, one would see mostly open days with a few scattered engagements. She was leaving her time up for grabs.?

To remedy this, April got to work on timeboxing a weekly schedule. The process went something like this:

1. Schedule “You” Time.?

April started this process by opening up the schedule maker and prioritizing and planning the self-care time she needed.

She thought critically about how much time she needed for sleep, basic hygiene, exercise and anything else she found essential for her well-being.

Since these are most important, they were the first things to go into her schedule.?

2. Schedule “Relationships” Time.

Then, April filled in her day with the next highest priority: her relationships.?

Scheduling our time like this is a way to purposefully, deliberately make time for the things that matter most.

So April booked time in her weekly schedule template when she wanted to spend time with her husband and kids.?

3. Schedule “Work” and “Community” Time.?

Finally, April layered in time for work.?

Despite prioritizing the other two areas of her life first, the things she most valued, work still represented the largest amount of time in her schedule.?

So, April subdivided her workday into the most important tasks she wanted to be sure to do daily:

A. Make time for “Maker” Work.?

She carved out time for focused, creative work first.?

From her experience, she knew creating new client proposals could be done faster and better if she did nothing but that task, without interruption.

Blocking out time to focus on just one thing would ensure she would avoid distraction and accomplish the task she intended.

B. Make time for “Manager” Work.?

Then she reserved a large chunk of time for client calls and meetings, then time in the late afternoon for processing emails.?

Now April could ensure the most vital things never fell through the cracks. She now had a view on her entire week, down to the minute, that respected her values and reduced distractions. She was holding a place for everything important to her in properly allocated time slots on her calendar.?

It ultimately granted April more time to do what she really wanted, the things she valued.?

The goal of using a schedule maker isn’t committing to a perfectly strict plan. The point is to have a weekly schedule template that serves as a default to return to and make slight revisions week after week. It reminds you that anything not on the plan is a distraction.

You too can take control over your life. Stick to a practice of keeping a schedule consistent with your values. Download your free schedule maker template here to get started designing a weekly schedule of your own.?