GTD Timeboxing as a “Getting Things Done” Strategy
TIMEBOXING is a productivity strategy in which you do the best you can to finish a particular task within a fixed time period you set. Timeboxing helps you avoid procrastination, helps you plan your tasks better, and helps you maintain the discipline of getting things done (GTD).
When a worker watches the clock to absolutely complete his final task by 5pm, he is timeboxing this task. By applying timeboxing to several tasks throughout your day, you can become more effective managing your tasks and getting things done.
Timeboxing is best for making you more productive on “open ended” tasks where you have flexibility in the finished work quality such as answering e-mail, researching, blog posting, writing, and computer programming. Timeboxing can also help you limit your non-productive activities such as web-surfing and coffee breaks.
Timebox Widget is a small and simple free countdown timer that displays the remaining time you’ve set for a task and sounds a visual and audio alarm when your time is up for that task.
Quickly activate the TimeBox Widget by clicking the icon on your desktop or in your Windows task bar. TimeBox Widget can read your assigned task time from any text you copy to your Windows Clipboard, or you can activate the TimeBox Widget then click a button to increase or decrease time assigned for a task in 10 minute increments.
The Timebox widget has two helpful features for bloggers that appear when you click the “more” button. The “WordCount” button displays the word count and character count of any text you’ve copied to your Windows Clipboard. The “Dashes/Spaces” button to converts spaces to dashes in your Windows clipboard text. This allows you to convert image file names to a format without spaces so they can be uploaded to blog posts.
Use TimeBoxWidget with ANY…”
* Task List Program
* Calendar Program
* Contact Management Program
* Highlight a time in ANY Program
PLANNING: Taking the first step of assigning a realistic time segment to each of your tasks can eliminate the uncertainty that is preventing you from completing complex tasks. When your time is limited by timeboxing, you’re more likely to prioritize your most urgent tasks.
AVOIDING PROCRASTINATION: TimeBoxing allows you to commit to an undesirable task for only a limited amount of time. It’s a lot easier to start working on a task you don’t like if you know you’ll only be working on it for the next 30 minutes and not for an unending amount of time.
RECOVERING UNPRODUCTIVE TIME: You can use Timeboxing to effectively recover unproductive gaps you may have between appointments, phone calls, meetings, and other tasks.
INCREASED MOTIVATION & FOCUS: Timeboxing allows you to be aware of the time you spend on a task while you focus on the single most important task at the moment. The timebox widget’s visual countdown timer can be an effective motivation tool to get the task done before the countdown reaches zero.
GETTING THINGS DONE: When you use timeboxing, you’re more likely to begin complex tasks and less likely to overrun on open ended tasks. Timeboxing allows you to objectively decide when a task is “done” so you can move on to the next task and get more things done.
Toyota PRIUS gas mileage
I was chatting online recently with someone in the UK where gasoline is approaching $10 per gallon. He said to me, “For me the cost savings for Hybrids isn’t there. People buy hybrids to save money at the pump, but the difference in the price at the pump will not be realized in savings compared to the price of the new hybrid for decades.”
I disagree with this.
You will certainly “Save money” on fuel if you’re achieving more miles per gallon, what’s questionable is whether the savings you achieve will justify the premium you’ll pay for a hybrid versus a non-hybrid.
Assuming you want to spend $21,000 on a vehicle, you have a variety of choices. Let’s assume one drives 12,000 per year, the mileage allowed by a typical lease. According to 2007 CAFE rules, a manufacturer’s fleet must exceed an average of 27.5 mpg. My Prius is rated at 62 miles per gallon. We all know that these numbers are overstated. I know that the way we drive our Prius, we average 45-55 miles per gallon depending on the season and the type of driving (HWY vs. CITY).
So, If you spend $21K on a vehicle that achieves 25 MPG, you’ll buy 480 gallons to drive 12k miles and will pay $1776 per year in fuel if you pay $3.70 per gallon.
If you spend $21K on a hybrid vehicle that achieves 50 MPG, you’ll buy 240 gallons to drive 12k miles and will pay $888 per year in fuel if you pay $3.70 per gallon.
Over 3 years of ownership, the Prius will have cost $2664 less to fuel than the 25 MPG vehicle. TRIPLE THE SAVINGS if you live in the UK. If you’re paying $10 per gallon, you will save approximately $8000 fuel costs over a 3 year ownership if you’re driving a 50mpg Prius versus some 25MPG non-hybrid vehicle.
I understand details about the hybrid battery replacement argument, but I won’t go into them here other than to say no Prius owner, from the beginning of time, has every had to pay to replace the battery. This is because of how Prius engineered the wear on it.
There’s another way to think of a hybrid purchase;
1) Even if you pay more for a hybrid vehicle than what you’d recover in savings, you’ll be reducing dependence on foreign oil, which reduces demand, which can ultimately help lower the price of gas.
2) Getting better gas mileage is better for the environment. Without regard to your position on global warming, I think that everyone agrees that planet is better off with the fewer pollutants we release into the air. If you achieve more miles for each gallon of gas you burn, you’ll be releasing fewer pollutants into the air.
We leased our first Toyota Prius Hybrid in 2001. We liked it so much that when the lease expired three years later, we bought our second one. I’ve just returned from a Sunday drive and noticed that the display shows 52 MPG for the past 200 miles driven.
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