Time-unboxing is a good way not to make any progress on anything.
Well since “I’ll do it on Monday!” is all about not making progress or being productive, I thought I turn a productivity method on its ear. The method is called timeboxing. Timeboxing is a method of setting aside a period of time each day and focusing on one thing to make progress on that one thing. Well the obvious way to unbox it is by not setting a time period. However we need to go further than that.
With time unboxing you need a to-do list. It needs to have some items that were set aside for a period of time, also would be good for things you do every day but don’t necessarily write down because you do them every day for a fixed period of time. Instead don’t spend any particular amount of time on it. Let’s say you clean for 30 minutes every day. But today when you unbox that time, you say okay I won’t set any time limit. Alright so you’re cleaning and it’s been 5 minutes and you’re starting to get bored, tired, or sore. Then just quit. Hey you didn’t keep the house clean today; you just stopped being productive today. Maybe less productive today than you were yesterday.
Okay maybe you have a list of items and want to work 30 minutes each on them. Erase those minutes. Now put more items on the list, everything you can think of. You just created a whole host of items that may never get done! It’s just that easy. So try time-unboxing today because it may mean you never get that project done!
Until ‘Monday’