Time Boxing

Play on words - Does it ever feel like a battle with your to do list, your calendar and your job. You want to come out a winner.

You want to knock those projects you have out of the park and come out of the day knowing you did your absolute best - 100% in everything you showed up for today.

As more and more of us are working remotely now - I feel like that is going to stay.

I remember when I was a Beauty Advisor I Time Boxed all the time, only my windows were much bigger . I had a block for me to get my workout in and get ready for work in the morning, then I had my block of time that I’d be at work, and then I’d have my block of time for dinner & family.

While I was at work, there were blocks along the day that went with the flow of the day but our number one priority was that person who just walked in the door. Put the task down and serve. Many days the “To Do” list didn’t get completed, but that’s okay., sales were up, and you still got paid if they were down. Clock in, clock out, Paid for all the time you were there.

Working from home, you might as well flip that on its head. There is no clock in , clock out guarantee pay time for dollars structure. Output is what is recognized as work. Production. Sure in some lines of work, in communications or project management it might BE your job to talk to people all day and that has to be scheduled- BUT guaranteed walking away from meetings creates an action step.

Then there are phone calls from mom, dogs to walk, kids to feed, and the yoyo parents have had this year - In school, out of school? And while everyone else is finding zen and planting gardens, you have never been busier or more scattered… What’s the deal???

Time Boxing could very well help - Apparently Elon Musk shared his time boxing method with the world, another way to describe it is Time Blocking. This is very effective to do weekly, then again daily- Things are bound to shift. It’s important to be disciplined, but also allow for a tiny bit of shifting,

Time boxing helps you stay in control when you feel out of control and remember - you still have the power to shift boxes but the key in my opinion is the discipline to close the box 

• Take out a calendar that gives you an overview of the week.
• You can use paper, a planner, whatever
• Establish your work time - Your “office hours”
• Schedule your breaks and self care time
• Look at your responsibilities. This may be client load, projects, meetings, etc.
• Establish how many hours you can work this week 
• Divide your client load into those hours- Allow for wiggle room 
• Schedule an “overflow parking day” but do not RELY on it . Be sure to use this time towards catch up because you are guaranteed to be knocked off best case scenario track 

Now you have your base- Your “best case scenario” - In a perfect world this exercise will give you full control over your schedule and life will be bliss.

Reality is, the value is in the planning, not the plan. 

The benefits are , you know what you have to say no to to make this happen.