The Story of How I Learned to Hack Time

Here’s what practicing and playing the guitar taught me about productive time management

A few years ago, I was trying to learn how to play the guitar.

I had a lot of grandiose ideas about being the next Jimi Hendrix or the next Carlos Santana. You know, laying down monster licks on the electric beast.

Yeah, it was a far-fetched dream. Call me crazy (if you want).

Soon after taking up the musical practice, I discovered to get good at playing the guitar, I’d have to put in plenty of time. Not just time here and there. But time every day practicing the six-string instrument.

So I started time blocking.

Every day from 6 to 8 pm, I would sit down and practice playing. I would start by warming up with some simple exercises, then move on to learning new chords or practicing my favorite songs.

And the results were incredible. Within a few months, I was playing the guitar better than I ever thought possible.

But there was one problem.

I soon dreaded my two-hour nightly guitar practice sessions. It felt like a chore, and I often procrastinated or made excuses not to practice.

So, out of desperation to improve my guitar playing skills, I tried something new. A different way to manage my time.

That’s when I switched to time boxing.

With time boxing, I would set a timer for 30 minutes or an hour, then practice playing the guitar for the entire session.

No distractions.

No checking my phone.

No more excuses.

Just me, the electric beast, and my two hands.

I found I could focus better when I knew there was a limit to how long I had to practice. Plus, I didn’t dread my guitar practice sessions nearly as much because they were shorter.

That’s why time boxing (or even time blocking) could be the answer to achieving your goals.

Both time management techniques have helped me to be more productive in life, get things done, and make progress with my goals and projects.

For anyone new to the world of time blocking and time boxing, there’s a big difference between the two methods.

Time blocking is when you schedule a set block of time for a task.

For example, you block off two hours for writing.

During that time, you work on nothing else but the task at hand. Like when I sat down to write this article on time management.

If you don’t complete the task or activity, then our normal instinct is to keep going. To get the job done.

Our brains are hard-wired through evolutionary psychology to complete tasks. The brain sees the unfinished task as an open loop. And us humans, we hate open loops.

We want to close them.

It doesn’t matter if the task is boring and mundane. We still want to finish it. So, we grind away, bored out of our monkey brains, until it gets done.

This is how the corporate world usually functions.

They set blocks of time on their calendars. Say a meeting. And if they go over that scheduled time, they feel obligated to stay in that meeting (especially if there’s a boss in the room) until everything gets discussed or actioned for later.

That’s why I hate meetings with a passion. When they eat up more time than I want to give them, I want to flee.

Flee on horseback like Paul Revere in the middle of the night.

Time boxing differs from time blocking.

It follows the same principle of setting aside a specific amount of time for a specific task.

But here’s where time boxing differs from time blocking.

Time boxing is when you set a timer for a specific activity, like my goal of becoming the next Jimi Hendrix, and work on that activity until the timer goes off. When the timer goes off, you stop.

No questions asked. No lingering. You just stop doing what you were doing.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of a killer riff or finishing your first draft or twiddling your thumbs in an important board meeting.

When the clock strikes the designated time, you stop. You get up and you move on with your day.

This is a great way to manage your time because it allows you to work with focus and intensity for a specific period. In advance, you’ve set constraints. All you have to do is live by them.

It also eliminates the temptation to keep going when you should be done. This is the beauty of time boxing. It forces you to respect your time and stick to the schedule you’ve set for yourself.

If you want to be more productive, I highly recommend you put your tasks in a strict time box and respect it.

Try time boxing for yourself and see how it works out.

And for good measure, here are the steps to “time box” effectively.

Let’s go over the time boxing steps one last time.

That way, you understand how easy it is in principle. And how you can leverage it in practice to boost your productivity and achieve your goals.

Here we go:

1. Choose your task or activity you want to work on

2. Decide in advance how much time you want to spend on it

3. Set your timer for that exact time (i.e., 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.)

4. Start the timer on your watch or phone, then start the activity

5. When the timer goes off, stop whatever you’re doing

It’s really that simple. Wash, rinse, and repeat for the next task on your list.

Just remember, with time boxing, once the timer goes off, you stop. No questions asked. No time extensions.

Because the goal is to be as productive as possible within the confines of the time box you’ve created.

In the years since I took up playing guitar, this time management technique has increased my mental concentration while helping me get a lot more done.

And if you try it, I bet you can do the same.