Let’s imagine the hiking in the mountain path.
When the goal is far away, you want to take a break soon, especially when there is a hard slope. However, if you know that there is a resting place on the way up the slope? Even if the top of the mountain is still far away, you feel that you can keep trying hard.
Timeboxing works very similar. For example, if you declare to yourself that “I do X for the next 25 minutes” and start the timer, even if that task becomes painful in ten minutes, you can keep working thinking that “if I try hard for the next 15 minutes it is over”. If you start the task X as for today’s task, when it gets hard, you may escape to other tasks — for example, checking emails, taking care of colleagues kindly, going to the bathroom.
The escaped people justify their choice, saying as follows:
- Checking mail is part of my work.
- It is necessary for work to help colleagues.
- Going to the bathroom is physiological desire so it cannot avoid
However, observing from the viewpoint of others, it seems to escape in 10 minutes from a hard task and to do other things. It is procrastination by creating an urgent task themselves, and takes time from an important task.
To avoid the procrastination, setting the visible goal by timeboxing is useful.