Timebox Everything

Do one thing very well, and then move on

An engineer on my team many years ago, Daryl, told the team a story about an airport deli with a very long line that he was in. The guy in line in front of Daryl was clearly getting agitated by how slow the line was moving, and was intently observing the one woman making the sandwiches, and the time she was taking with each sandwich, seemingly unaware of the length of the line. When that guy got to the counter, he commented to the woman that she could probably spend half as much time on each sandwich and still get the job done. The woman smiled and said, "I do one thing very well, and then I move on."

There is a constant debate over Time Management vs. Energy Management vs. Attention Management. Is one the most important? Are the others distractions? I think the reason it's debated so much is because they are actually necessarily intermingled. I do believe that Energy Management is at the top. You need to keep your Energy Flywheel¹ spinning to operate at your best. And your Attention and Time Management contribute to your Energy Flywheel, so they are key components to this winning combo. The most sure fire way to add energy to your flywheel is with the deliberate direction of your attention to a single task for a fixed amount of time.

My previous post² talked about the coping skills I've developed to mitigate the challenges of ADHD. My #1 coping skill is to timebox everything. I parcel out my attention clearly and strictly. And this yields a sense of accomplishment on an hourly basis that propels me forward in my day. I do one thing very well, and then I do another thing very well, and then another …