Time also needs to be planned and organized so that it can be used as effectively as possible. You can find out how this can be done in this article on the method of timeboxing.

At some point in my life I read the following sentence: ” Work expands to the extent that time is available for its completion “. This phrase comes from the British sociologist C. Northcote Parkinson and is widely considered to be the best known Parkinson’s law.

Originally Parkinson wanted to refer to the increasing bureaucracy in the administration of his home country in the year 1955. What would this man say to our modern bureaucracy today? Well, maybe he would be speechless. Sometimes words are lacking to describe something. Simply because the right words have not yet been invented.

In any case, I have made the experience in my working life that this law is confirmed in a surprising number of situations. That wouldn’t be tragic if the time available to developers weren’t incredibly volatile. Too many influencing factors play a role. Therefore, you should never assume that there is too much time available for a task. If it is, you may have missed a holiday and should devote yourself to your free time instead of work …

The antidote Fortunately, a few years ago I read about a method for using time effectively: timeboxing. In my experience, it is precisely this method that counteracts the law described above. One could speak of an “antidote”.

What is it about? Well, in simple terms: you define blocks of time in which you work on a task. The above-mentioned regularity is therefore set limits and takes away its leeway.

In my last blog post I wrote about short-term and long-term tasks. To keep track of things, I suggested managing personal tasks in a list. If you have a calendar at hand, this allows you to define a time block for each upcoming task.

The task is processed in this time block. I am deliberately writing “edited” here. Actually, I should use the word “do”. In my experience, that doesn’t always work. In situations like this, it is important for me that I have started processing, but have encountered an unforeseeable problem, have initiated measures to resolve the issue and have defined a follow-up time block. That helps a lot.

Practical use In order to use timeboxing in everyday development work, as always, some planning and organization necessary. These are the basic “ingredients”. As in many tasty dishes, olive oil and garlic form the basis.

I have already described how to get your list of tasks. That this list is sorted according to priorities suits us. The next step is to consider how much time you need for a task. Don’t worry, estimating this time is neither an exact secret science nor a psychic ability. But experience helps. As so often in life. Then you need a suitable time block in your calendar. That’s it Nearly. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.

Details and subtleties At this point I want I will first talk about some details and subtleties. For a long time I have been working with exactly two colors in my calendar. These are orange and red. I use orange to mark blocks of time that I can cancel or postpone. Time blocks marked in red are fixed. Force majeure means that I do not devote myself to the planned task during the period.

From the time of planning, anything is possible with me. Many tasks are planned the day before and processed the following day. Due to the very short planning horizon, disruptions are less likely. However, I also put a time block directly in the calendar during a phone call or a personal meeting and tell the person I am talking to. This creates trust that I take his concerns seriously and makes it possible for my counterpart to plan when a response can be expected at the earliest.

What, by the way, also deserves a lot of attention: The time periods between the time blocks. This does not mean, for example, traveling to the customer by train. That’s worth a separate block of time to me. By that I mean more valuable lifetime such as breaks. For example, having lunch with the family together.

On top of that, you should follow your own rhythm of life if possible. Those who are particularly fit in the morning can devote themselves to creative work and in the afternoon to administrative work. But watch out: if you have to work together across time zones, you should of course take this into account.

There may be days when it is better not to work with timeboxing at all, but let the day approach you. That is also good.

The real challenge Now we come to the real challenge . I had already announced that there was something else there. So, you have to have an incredible amount of discipline to use timeboxing.

Anyone who has not yet learned to say “no” and tries to do their personal tasks in a highly dynamic environment will run into problems. Regarding the underestimated value of the word “No”, I am also writing a separate blog. In order to work effectively in a block of time, it is sometimes necessary to ignore a phone call. It is best to allow the mail client and the private smartphone should be at least five steps away from the workplace. Because you can answer the ignored call and the incoming e-mails later and you can look at your private smartphone while having a coffee.

Daily review helps Since at the end of a working day I usually plan the next working day in detail, this is also a good time to review the day. What was my assessment? Which time block did I choose too small or too large? The Friday afternoon plays a special role here, because it is worth looking back at the week and at least roughly planning the following week.

Not for everyone and not for everyone Situation Due to the discipline required, timeboxing may not be suitable for everyone. After all, discipline also costs strength. One shouldn’t deny that. On the other hand, it has already cost me a lot more energy to bring order to chaos.

There are also positive side effects. On request, you can tell someone when you are working on a particular task or what you have planned for the next day.

Example from everyday life By the way, there is a well-known example from everyday life, that illustrates the positive effects of timeboxing. Let us assume that a guest unexpectedly announces a visit. Let’s say it will arrive in about two hours. That wouldn’t be a problem if the apartment didn’t have to be tidied up. What is effectively tidied up in these two hours is in no way compared to a complete Saturday on which you have decided to finally clean up.

In this sense, stay healthy and structured

Your Michael