Time Striping: A Different Approach to Time Management
As a university instructor, I often have weeks-long stretches of unscheduled time in between sessions, which I need to use to catch up on all the projects I’ve let slide during the hectic second half of the semester. As a freelance writer, I always have a stack of little projects as well as ongoing commitments (like my thrice-weekly posts here at Lifehack) that need to get done.
The Trouble with MIT’s and Contexts
While I like the idea of “Most Important Tasks” (MITs) — where you write down the three or four things you absolutely must get done each day, and work on those first, leaving everything else for whatever time is left over at the end — the fact is that a lot of my commitments can’t be handled that way. I’ve got more than three ongoing commitments, each of which needs at least a little attention every day.
I also find that contexts in the GTD sense don’t really work for me — yes, all of these tasks might be alike in that they happen at my computer, but they require different mindsets. I try to batch things like phone calls and emails, when I can, but for the rest of my work, that doesn’t really work. To finish a writing task, for example, I might need to sit and read a little, write notes and thoughts by hand on paper for a while, and then sit at the computer and work — before heading back to the sofa for some more reading.
Time Striping: Like Time Blocking, But Stripier
What works for me is a variation on time blocking that I’m calling “time striping”. In time blocking, you schedule uninterrupted “blocks” of time for different projects across your schedule. Since a) many of my projects are ongoing, and b) some projects emerge rather suddenly, I need a little more flexibility than that.
So what I’ve done is created a loose schedule where each hour is dedicated to a generic project, i.e. “Project #1″, “Project #2″, etc. As I finish a project, I slot a new project into its timeslot; if Project #5 only takes an hour, then tomorrow it will be something different. It’s conceivable that a particular time block will be used for 5 different projects over the course of the week.
Each slot, then, creates a “stripe” of time from Monday to Friday. In some cases, where I know I need more than 1 hour for a project, I’ll block off two hours or more and flow the rest of my projects around it. For instance, every other Thursday morning I record Lifehack Live, and I need two hours to prepare, record, and write up my notes. So that’s a block, instead of a stripe.
The Time Striping Form (with variations)
If you’re wondering what this all looks like, I’ve thrown together a generic version of the form that I use, which you can download. The first is a PDF you can print out using Adobe Reader or any other PDF reader; the second is an RTF file that you should be able to open and edit with almost any word processor (although in my tests, the formatting differs greatly from app to app; I got good results from Word 2007 and WordPad, and terrible results from OpenOffice.org 2). Here are the files:
At the top is space to put any fixed commitments for the week. The bottom table is your key, with space to define up to 10 projects; as you finish a project, cross it off and fill in the next box with the new project for that space. The middle is an hour-by-hour schedule for the week, with one-hour slots from 9-6. (You can change the working hours or start the calendar on Monday by editing the RTF.) Generally, you’ll put “Project #1″ in at 9-10am and draw a line all the way across (or fill it in on each day); if you need two hours, just repeat “Project #1″ in the 10-11am slot.
Here’s how my schedule looks (click for a larger view):
Since I’m a slow waker, I’ve set aside the first three hours to check my email, look at feeds, check my site stats, have breakfast, and get dressed for the day. At 9, my workday starts — Project #1 is Lifehack, so I’ll work on posts, brainstorm ideas, do site maintenance, and whatever else I need to do. At 10, I move onto my next project, which at the moment is editing an e-book I’m going to release this summer. When I finish that, I’ll replace Project #2 with something else. Project #3 is preparing an online course I’m teaching this summer. And so on.
You’ll note that around Thursday it breaks up; I need two hours for Lifehack Live, so I take that time from Project #2; on Friday, I’ve scheduled time to do laundry and other housework, and my weekly review. At the start of the week, then, I was careful to assign slots that wouldn’t get 5 hours to smaller projects.
Notice, too, that I’ve added three email times per day. Let to my own devices, I’d check email constantly throughout the day; this is my way of reminding myself to stick to the task at hand and check email right before I break for lunch and at the very end of my working day before I go to make dinner.
The benefit of all this is that I can see at a glance how much time I’ve set aside for each project over the course of the week. If something new comes up, I can easily replace a project slot (or more, if necessary) with it and re-allot time as necessary. I’ve only got 8 projects on there; the last two are for family projects and would go in the weekend or evening time slots; at the moment, I don’t have any.
Maybe This Will Work for You?
Time striping won’t seem all that new to people who are already practicing time blocking — the only difference is that I try to keep the same projects at the same time every day, and the flexibility of having slots dedicated to generic projects instead of particular ones. That’s what works for me, and I think it might work well for some of you out there who are having a hard time getting a grip on your schedule.
Let me know if this is helpful, or if you have your own slightly off-beat way of working through your various projects.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
ARTICLES BY THIS WRITER »
Tags: 
Get your own Avatars at 
Loading ...
Comments
Chris says on May 21st, 2008 at 11:40 am
Dustin, thanks for yet another helpful post! I’m going to attempt a modified version of this. I’ll let you know how it goes. Please keep Lifehack your #1 project! =^]
Bill Wallace says on May 21st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Hi Dustin
At first I thought: “Oh no, another variation of time management. How many can we have?”
What I like about the concept though is that as each segment passes you move to the next one, regardless of progress (I assume) on the one you’re finishing.
The value then lies in the fact that you are remaining constantly up to date on all projects.
Nice idea. I’ve got stacks to do at work so I’ll try this and see what progress I make.
Good article. Thanks
Bill
Nate Nead says on May 21st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
A truly great post. I’ve done this same thing, but I think it was good to hear it explained so succinctly and well thought-out.
Ivan Blatter says on May 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Great post! I always knew how important a regular rhythm in life is. But I never had the idea to block the same time for the same projects. I’ll try this!
Thank you!
Ivan
Wardy says on May 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
Sounds just like a uni lecturer, thinking about everything but the students !
As i understand it, it takes time to switch from 1 “project” to another and get “in the zone” so this can only help “waste” more time, something university lecturers seem to have down to a fine art.
Nothing personal but if you haven’t got the time don’t commit to a new project.
Paul Lagasse says on May 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
A truly innovative twist on traditional scheduling. I’m looking forward to trying it out, with a couple of personalized tweaks — color-coded stripes (I assign a color to each client to provide visual cues across apps) and 90-minute blocks (which seems to be my natural “chunk”). Thanks for sharing this!
Amanda Himelein says on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 am
There are people who don’t get to decide whether or not they commit to a new project — students and employees being the most likely.
I suspect the utility of this system depends on your personal work style and time management needs. Some people switch projects faster than others, and some people have a longer attention span than others. If the 3 Most Important Tasks model works for you, great. Keep using it. If it doesn’t, here’s another one to try.
Some people DON’T do their best work when sitting down to focus on a project for 3-4 hours. We get distracted after 1 hour, or 1.5, or 2. After that point, this project will not be continued - the only question is whether we switch to another project, or spend the next 3 hours playing Tetris. Even if we do force ourselves to “work”, the result is inevitably low quality, poorly organized, or downright incomprehensible.
If you’re the sort of person who likes to focus on one thing all day, then yes, this system will only waste time. But odds are good that you’ve already found a system that works for you, so why are you looking at changing it anyway?
If, however, you’re more like me, and find yourself working faster or better with multiple projects each day, then try time striping. And check out “Refuse to Choose” by Barbara Sher.
Dustin Wax says on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
Wardy: Actually, Wardy, this is my response to the fact that contexts, where disparate tasks are lumped together because they happen at the same place, *don’t* let me get into “the zone” (I called it “mindset” above, but I think we’re talking about the same thing). If I have an hour to, say, write a 900-word post, that’s plenty; if I need more (if I was researching an article, say — which at the moment, I’m not) I’d just give that several slots. Which would not only give me several hours a day to work on it, but by putting my time in 1-hour chunks, I’m also reminding myself to take regular breaks, which is important for tasks like a long session of website coding.
Of course, there’s projects and there’s *projects” — a lot of the slots right now are filled with low-priority projects that I put off while the semester was in session, and they can be put off again if something else comes up. None of this is meant to be a solution of over-commitment, and frankly, I’m not over-committed.
As far as my role as an instructor, I’d highly recommend you take my class before determining what exactly I have down to a fine art. Because that *is* personal.
Danny Q says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Dustin: Thanks for bravely printing your ‘heresy’ against blind and complete GTD devotion… and for your appropriate response to Wardy!
I won’t automatically assume Wardy to be a young college student, but I will relay this story — Long ago, when a friend informed his favorite teacher that it was his 18th birthday, the teacher replied: “Congratulations!!! You are now the smartest you are ever going to be.”
Think about it for a minute.
Thanks, -D.
Chris Guillebeau says on May 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Hey, I don’t usually comment through my RSS feeds, but I came over to say thanks for writing this, and also for spending what was probably a lot of time checking out the different RTF versions of that document.
This is helpful to me and I appreciate it. Rock on.
Ann says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I’m traveling now but I’d like to give this a try when I get back.
I work part-time from home and I juggle a lot of different projects and responsibilities along with household management.
Staying focused is a challenge for me, so I’m hoping that a plan for switching gears each hour might just work!
Ann
Jen says on May 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
Yes!! Thank you Dustin! Finally, someone has listed an actual example of a schedule that includes the mundane tasks like grocery shopping as well as the project stuff. Staying focused is a challenge for me too, and I’ll be trying out this system. It correlates with the project category stacks I’ve read about too. Would starting a new habit like exercise come under the morning routine or be treated as a project? Are projects the non-repetitive stuff that have specific delineated ’starts’ and ‘finishes’?
cheers
Sven Fechner says on May 23rd, 2008 at 6:10 am
Nice post. However, I believe this is suitable to people working as freelancers or rather small companies. If working in a larger corporate environment this methodology would fail quite early one since all the nice slots/strips will be messed up by conference calls and meetings. Pretty much uncontrollable.
I agree that GTD’s context are difficult for people like us, that do most of their job in front of a screen. Everything sort of becomes “Computer”. And managing the really important commitments of the day is also a dangerous thing: You’ll find yourself making as many as possible tasks important for a particular day since you realised that all other “non-important” tasks get neglected…
Dustin Wax says on May 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Paul: Color-coding is a nice addition, and one I originally added but dropped for two reasons: 1) I do most of my printing on a black and white laser printer, though I can always add highlighing to the printed copy, and 2) I created the original draft using Adobe’s Buzzword, which I love, but which doesn’t offer enough pastel colors for all the “stripes”, and the colors need to be light enough that they don’t make the text unreadable. But certainly anyone editing the file or making their own chart could add color easily enough.
Jen: I think *I* would add an exercise regimen in the unstructured morning time, just like I know I’m going to get dressed at about the same time every morning. But if I were going to a gym at a set time every day or every other day, I might add it as a project.
It bears mentioning that I’m using “project” here very loosely, and not in the GTD sense. Some of these projects are clearly defined, but some aren’t — they’re more of the “later, rinse, repeat forever” variety. So some of my “projects” are simply things I woork on every day; each “stripe” is time that I’ll work on specific types of GTD-defined projects.
Danny Q: I’m not sure I’m challenging the GTD orthodoxy here, to be honest. I think that I’m inserting something into a space that Allen left blank, either because he didn’t know how to define it or because he didn’t think of it. In interviews and other materials, it sounds like he’s about to talk about something like this (or more likely time blocking). For instance, in the GTD> Weekly Review audio set, he talks about Next Actions as “triggers” for a chain of actions, at the end of which you record the next Next Action you should take after all the unwritten Next Actions you’ve just done.
That is, you sit down, you look at your list, it says “Look up phone number for cable installation”. So you look it up. The next thing to do would be to call the cable company — there’s no reason to add that to your list, though, it just follows naturally from the first Next Action. Then you’d order cable, check your schedule for good times to have them come out, maybe call work and make sure you can leave early one day, and add the installation to your schedule. None of these Next Actions need to be written down. When you’ve gone as far as you can, then you’d add “Talk to cable installer about awkward placement of cable outlet” to your list, or maybe you’d just add “Be home Tuesday 12-4pm for cable installation” to your calendar. The point is, you’ve just used a block of time, maybe a block you’d set aside for your “Get cable” project, maybe just a block of unscheduled time.
What I’m adding is just the scheduling — “Get cable” is an easy project, but “Build website” isn’t. If you’re a website builder, though, the flow of Next Actions comes pretty naturally to you; all you need to do is make sure you’ve set aside a block of time to let that flow happen. Maybe you have a checklist somewhere, but you don’t need a list of Next Actions to get you through the process.
This is, I think, why Allen eschews traditional project planning for most of our typical projects. But he’s never (so far) filled in what the replacement is, other than having a “mind like water”. I have a “mind like oatmeal” so I need a little extra push there.
Ann says on May 24th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I must add another comment, because you are my soul-brother . . . “mind like oatmeal” I laughed out loud, that describes me to a “t”!
My other analogy is that my brain looks like the jumble of cables under my desk - thanks for the giggle, I needed that today!
Cris says on June 13th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Thanks, Dustin. I think this is a really neat system. I can see how it would totally work in medical research (where there are no real deadlines, but everything is important). I have also mocked up an example of how it might work for medical professionals here:
http://tinyurl.com/3sscyc
I think this doesn’t conflict with GTD, as it is just about making sure that things don’t get lost. I always have trouble choosing what to prioritise in my context list, and this is a way to facilitate that.