How people like Elon Musk maximize their productivity
People work better when they know what the goal is and why - Elon Musk
Introduction
People with very busy schedules, like Elon Musk, need to follow a strict routine for their tasks and schedules. In order to remain effective and keep up with their responsibilities, they utilize a strategy called timeboxing.
What is Timeboxing
Timeboxing is a technique widely utilized in various domains that helps you define what you do, when and for how long by proactively allocating blocks of time for those tasks.
A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all. - Rita Mae Brown
What are the benefits of Timeboxing
One of the major benefits of Timeboxing is that it ensures that you will retain all your attention in this one task, reducing the possibilities of leaving the job half-done, as people usually do. Focusing on one task at a time will also boost your efficiency levels since our brain are good at focusing on one thing at time.
Read here more about why multitasking is a myth: https://shorturl.at/WaSCA
How Timeboxing affects your stress
As Jeff Bezos said, Stress doesn't come from hard work, stress primarly comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over.
Using timeboxing technique, you will be able to complete tasks that you are thinking of, which will reduce your stress and make you feel more empowered to take action.
How to perform Timeboxing
There are two types of time boxes:
- Soft time box: which means that after the time you allocated for the task you can have the flexibility to extend and spend more time on
- Hard time box: which means that when the time block is over, you have to drop everything and move on to the next task on your agenda
Steps to successfully perform timeboxing
- Define your To-Do list tasks for the upcoming day(s)
- Prioritize your tasks (In case something is urgent.)
- Block time in your calendar for each task
For long term tasks, such as things you want to complete during a month, you can block time and set this time asa a recurring event so you are certain that you will allocate the time needed and this task will be completed.
Conclusion
Timeboxing is a great technique to utilize in order to get things done. It will reduce your stress and boost your performance. Starting the day with an agenda of knowing what to do can have tremendous impact for every individual.
