Project Managers, Unlock the Power of Timeboxing

Project managers are business’s great all-rounders. They need to be strong with numbers, planning, and people. It’s one of those disciplines that we struggle to classify as a hard (technical) skill or a soft (people) skill, as it falls right down the middle.

Globally, we spend $48 trillion on projects each year. We are all project managers to some extent. From film directors and restaurant owners to lawyers and accountants, many professions involve managing projects. And every project needs monitoring, supervision, and completion — in other words, they need to be project-managed.

The role of the project manager is changing. AI is set to have a major impact on project management. Gartner predicts that by 2030, 80% of projects will be run by AI (and note that projection was made before the rapid rise of generative AI this year). So, both dedicated project managers and those managing projects as part of their roles must introspect to identify and acquire the most valuable skills for the future.

Timeboxing, in particular — the practice of completing tasks with focus and within set timeframes — is a special, evergreen capability for all project managers. We will see that timeboxing lies right at the heart of project management and that better timeboxing begets better project management, and vice versa.

Two Types of Timeboxing

First, a point of clarification. Timeboxing is used in two contexts: agile software development and personal productivity.

The term was coined in the ’90s as a technique to plan and manage projects to build software and applications, usually over a period of weeks or months. Such projects are replete with deadlines and dependencies. Timeboxing is a method that supports many of the models (Rapid Application Development, Kanban, Scrum, etc.) used by teams to complete these projects on time.

More recently, the term has been used in a less-rarified sense, to denote a mindset and method of personal productivity. In this form of timeboxing, an individual systematically and intentionally decides what they will do, when they will start, and when they will finish, and then gets that task (and only that task) done in the allotted time. This type of timeboxing is for a single person, rather than a team.

Since the uses of the term share certain characteristics (tasks, deadlines), they often get conflated and confused. In this article, we focus on the second, more widely applicable form of timeboxing, and argue that its benefits and qualities enable high-quality project management in general.

Timeboxing Mirrors Project Management

The goal of project management is to help a team achieve a goal or solve a problem within an agreed timeframe. Timeboxing achieves exactly that — for an individual. Timeboxing and project management share a number of striking similarities:

• Estimation and forecasting. Timeboxing requires an individual to estimate how long a task will take and which set of tasks they will be able to accomplish that day (or in that week). Project managers need to estimate the length of time the project will last, taking into account dependencies, deadlines, risks, and commercial realities.

• Scope/time/cost. A timebox includes all these elements: The scope is covered by the description of the task, the time is how long the task should take, and the cost is the number of people involved (usually just one) multiplied by their day rate, multiplied by the timebox’s duration. In project management, these three items are called, literally, the Project Management Triangle, and are fundamental considerations for all projects.

• Prioritization. Understanding deadlines and dependencies, ordering tasks accordingly, and saying no (with justification) when appropriate are all essential elements of both timeboxing and project management. Peter Drucker’s 1963 warning remains apt now: “There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.”

• Harmonious collaboration. With timeboxing, a shared, digital calendar communicates to colleagues what you’re doing and when, and in some cases includes the context for your expectations or capability constraints. With project management, communication and stakeholder management is the essential people side of a successful venture.

Success on the small, individual scale will make you a better project manager. Experience with projects will make you a better timeboxer.

Learning to Timebox

You’re probably already timeboxing, at least a little. You almost certainly have meetings and plan some of your work. As we have seen, in managing projects (which in one form or another we already do), your skills are closely aligned to the essence and practice of timeboxing. But by paying extra attention to your own digital calendar, you will raise your game rapidly.

Try this: Pick one small item from your to-do list that’s been stagnating there for a while. Add it to your calendar in a 30- or 60-minute slot. Invite someone with an interest in the item in your calendar to provide a little bilateral social pressure to help you see it through. Treat the appointment seriously when it comes; make sure you get it done. Review how this worked for you and repeat with a few more to-do list items.

Timeboxing to Learn

Timeboxing is not only an especially important skill for project management. It’s also a means of sharpening the other instruments in the project manager’s toolbox. By design, the method finds its way into packed schedules and ringfences a period — a box of time — that can be used for focused learning.

The act of learning lies smack bang in the middle of the important-but-not-urgent quadrant of The Eisenhower Matrix. As such, without a system to wrench it from there into a schedule, learning is often the can that gets kicked down the road, continually. The engagement by staff with corporate learning systems is notoriously low. In response, some employers now offer an hour of elective learning time to their staff. If your employer does, use it by timeboxing that hour. If your employer doesn’t, then carve out the time personally (and propose the idea to them). An hour a week is a very small investment (2–3% of work time) for a company, but the compounding effects for the individual (as well as the employer) can become enormous.

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Modern work is inherently project-based and collaborative. For everyone, not just project managers, mastering timeboxing is a gateway to bridging the gap between intention and execution. Embrace this keystone skill, enjoy the increased productivity, and witness a transformative impact on your projects.

Copyright 2023 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate.

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