Timeboxing

Overwhelm, distraction, procrastination, and the always-on work culture plague workers today. This toxic cocktail saddles people with anxiety, reduced performance, and, ultimately, exhaustion and burnout. Marc Zao-Sanders, CEO of Filtered, a learning tech company, offers a way out: a system for taming the chaos that he calls “timeboxing.”

Originally a concept from agile project planning, timeboxing means scheduling specific blocks of time to focus on and complete individual tasks. Zao-Sanders notes that timeboxing not only helps workers reclaim agency, reduce stress, and use their time better but can also dramatically improve goal achievement. In one study he cites, researchers asked two groups of students to perform a certain task. They instructed one group to timebox it and gave no specific instructions to the second group. Of those who used timeboxing, 75% completed the task, compared to only 33% of those who didn’t.