Time Boxing

At Integrum we have a dedicated Scrum master, known to mortals as Chris Young. Scrum is a series of advice and methods for handling software projects, with the hopes of squeezing as much blood out of rocks as possible. Conversations with Chris are always fun, because I try to eat lots of his time by throwing him interesting tidbits that are resistible to him the same way that stretched and veined neck is to a vampire.

I've been reading Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy lately - I don't normally write this way (I think).

One thing Chris has shown me (or at least given a name to, which makes it easier to wield) is Time Boxing. Time Boxing is the idea that you deliberately limit a task to a certain amount of time because the task will have a tendency to run-away, and then you've devoted days to writing a blog post about how Netbeans and TextMate differ in ability to find in files.

If I were to give myself 10 minutes a day to write a blog post, I think I could handle it. As proof, I did by writing this post in under 10 minutes just now. Some other things I've used to time boxing is bug-fixing, writing features, and some research. When the time is up, I go for help. It doesn't count that you're inching along when you need to be going at a brisk pace, after all.

I use Apimac Timer to help me with this. It's pretty easy to use and the demo version works just fine for most time boxing needs.