One of the most well-known (former) monks in the world, motivator, influencer, podcast host, and bestselling author in the self-help category, Jay Shetty, has suggested to his audience to throw their ‘to do’ lists in the trash. Considering all that he is involved in and that his schedule is likely overloaded, this request seems quite unreasonable, but Shetty offers a better method. Instead of a classic list of obligations and tasks, or writing a ‘to do’ list, he proposes a technique – ‘timeboxing’.
As CNBC writes, Shetty stated in a recent episode of his podcast ‘On Purpose’ that the most successful and productive people use a technique where tasks and obligations are not listed but arranged within a limited time frame. In other words, for each task on the ‘to do’ list, a specific amount of time is allocated for execution, and once it is time-limited, it is entered into the daily calendar.
An alternative to the list
With such planning of the day, distractions are easier to eliminate, and a specific time is reserved for a specific task. There is no thinking about what comes next – each obligation/task is approached as a meeting that needs to be completed. According to the experience of the former monk, you will find it harder to get stuck on completing a specific task if it requires, say, an hour to execute.
