Get Everything Done

Other discussions on this forum have talked about lengths of time to work on projects or tasks.

I've recently adopted coach Garrick van Buren's 30-60-90 minute framework. He explains it on his blog at https://garrickvanburen.com/30-60-90/ (with a handy 2x2 matrix that we productivity types love).

The breakdown is:

- 30 minutes for a small, known* task.
- 60 minutes for a small, unknown task.
- 60 minutes for a large, known* task.
- 90 minutes for a large, unknown task.
- Tasks taking longer than 90 minutes should be broken up into more smaller, more specific tasks.
*known = something you’ve done before and can confidently complete within minutes

When planning my day, I've found this breakdown to be pretty useful and accurate when estimating what I can get done in a day. I do not hyperschedule every hour of my day, but I do know what usually needs to be done and, if it's a familiar or unfamiliar task, about how much time to allot it. They serve as good rules of thumb.

I will usually allot either 30 or 60 minutes to churn through items on my task list, and that feels about right.

That was an interesting read.
I've been having some success with timeboxing my work into 45 minute units for a few days now.