The overlooked value of timeboxes-past
Incentivise your present-self with rewards for your future-self
TLDR: Your timeboxes can be a comprehensive, useful and inspiring record of activity and achievement
Word count: 400
Read time: 2 mins
A glorious side-effect of timeboxing is that it provides a convenient, searchable record of what you’ve done. The third chapter of Timeboxing is devoted to this idea. Your historical calendar serves to remind you in the future of what you did in the past. That can be handy (“What’s the name of that person I met from Microsoft?”) as well as poignant (“Ah, that’s exactly what we did to celebrate our daughter’s 8th birthday!”)
But it’s more than just a memory aid. The log can also serve as a mini-reward or credit for what you’ve done - “I’m doing this chore, I don’t want to, it’s not going to be fun”. But when it’s done I’ll be able to see it in my calendar (in the past!), remember it and, in certain circumstances, get credit from others for it. As such, it acts as an incentive to get the task done in the present, to counter procrastination.
I do this with emails. Processing the inbox is usually not riveting. But by putting a timebox in the calendar, stating how many emails there were at the start and then, when you’re done, at the end (I call this timeboxing the inbox), I often conjure up some extra motivation for myself.
I do this with domestic chores too. I don’t like any of them. But by putting it in a 15-minute timebox, I’m simply more likely to do it — and do it without protest, suffering or delay — when I know that I’ll have a timebox verifying the accomplishment. I concede that this is a little ridiculous — that a self-awarded digital acknowledgement should influence my action and emotion afterwards. But it works. A pat on the back is in all our gifts, and just what we need, sometimes.
Many people have this with step-counting devices. Walking’s OK. But if you can also get a digital display to gamify the process, motivate you as you go, congratulate you as you succeed, and record the whole thing, walking may feel more worthwhile.
If a task is not in your future calendar, it likely won’t happen. This is a classic tenet of timeboxing. But if a task is not in your past calendar — and you can’t remember it — did it even happen?
Our calendars don’t just shape our future; they can also validate our past. And in validating our past they can help us in the present.
Marc
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
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