What It Means
These two methods overlap, since both put work on the calendar, and they differ in scope and in what happens when time runs out. Time blocking, as Cal Newport describes it, plans the whole workday in blocks so every minute has a job, and when the day changes you redraw the remaining blocks. Timeboxing has two labeled meanings: (1) as a personal method, reserving a calendar slot for one task and giving it your full attention, which Harvard Business Review describes as moving your to-do listTo-do listA written list of the tasks you plan to do, checked or crossed off as each one is finished. See more into your calendar; (2) in agileAgileA way of working, set out in the 2001 Agile Manifesto, that delivers in small pieces, gets feedback early and adjusts the plan as it learns. See more work, a fixed, maximum period for an activity, after which the work stops and progress is reviewed.
Try It: Which Method Fits What You're Planning?
Answer three questions about what you're planning. The tally shows which method fits it better.
What are you planning?
When a slot's time runs out, you'd rather:
What goes in each slot?
Answer all three to see which fits.
Time blocking fits. Plan the whole day in blocks and redraw them when the day changes, the way Cal Newport describes.
Timeboxing fits. Give the task a fixed, maximum slot, stop when it ends, and review what got done.
How People Say It
- "I block my mornings, but I timebox the report."
- "Are you blocking the day or just boxing that one task?"
- "My blocks fell apart after lunch, so I redrew them."
The Breakdown
Worked example. The same made-up morning, 9:00 to 12:00, planned each way:
| Time blocking | Timeboxing | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets planned | The whole morning | One task: the report's first draft |
| The slots | Report 9:00 to 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more:30, email 10:30 to 11:00, meetings 11:00 to 12:00 | Report draft, 45 minutes, 9:00 to 9:45 |
| When a slot runs over | Redraw the rest of the morning at the next chance | Stop at 9:45 and review: done, partly done or not done |
| What comes next | The next block on the plan | The next task gets its own box |
What the result means. In the time-blocked morning every hour has a job, so if the report runs long, email and meetings shift and the rest of the plan gets redrawn. The timeboxed version plans only the report, and 9:45 is a hard stop, so you find out exactly how much 45 minutes produced. That stop and review is what timeboxing adds.
Pick time blocking if you want a plan for the entire workday and don't mind redrawing it as things change.
Pick timeboxing if one task tends to take more time than it deserves, or you work with a team that runs agile timeboxes.
Using both. A time-blocked day can hold a timeboxed task: when a block holds one piece of work, give it a hard stop and a quick review at the end.
Where It Comes From
The Agile Alliance traces the timebox to software development in 1988 and to James Martin's 1991 book Rapid Application Development. Time blocking is most closely tied to Cal Newport, who has written about planning every minute of the workday on his website and designed a paper Time-Block Planner around the method.
Good to Know
Newport's version of time blocking expects the plan to change during the day, and his advice is to update it at the next chance. In the Agile Alliance's definition of a timebox, the end is fixed and the review is part of the method. Both pages on this site, time blocking and timeboxing, go deeper into each one.
FAQ
Is timeboxing the same as time blocking?
They overlap, since both put work on the calendar. Time blocking plans the whole day and gets redrawn when things change, while a timebox is a fixed maximum for one activity that ends with a stop and a review.
Which is better, time blocking or timeboxing?
It depends on what you're planning. Time blocking suits a full workday, and timeboxing suits a single task that tends to run long. The chooser above sorts it out in three questions.
Can I use time blocking and timeboxing together?
Yes. Block out the day first, then treat any block that holds a single task as a timebox, with a hard stop and a quick review when it ends.
Do It in Buhata
Tasks and Focus
List the day's work in Buhata Tasks, then run each timeboxed task as a Focus countdown and stop when it reaches zero.
Open BuhataRelated Terms and Categories
- Pomodoro technique
A focus method that splits work into 25-minute rounds separated by short breaks, with a longer break after every four rounds.
Sources
Cal Newport, "Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day"; Cal Newport, Time-Block Planner; Harvard Business Review, "How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive" (2018); Agile Alliance, "What is a Timebox?"
- calnewport.com/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day
- www.timeblockplanner.com
- hbr.org/2018/12/how-timeboxing-works-and-why-it-will-make-you-more-productive
- agilealliance.org/glossary/timebox
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