Sorta Random Sunday: How Time Gating Can Increase Your Productivity

Time management. Work efficiency. Productivity. There are so many experts, books, podcasts, and writings about how to optimize these ideals. And I've consumed most of them. In the end, I've determined that there are certain strategies that will work for certain people and others that will not. It's similar to finance, and most other things in life, in that way. The key is that you learn about as much as you can. Then keep and use the strategies that work for you and forget the rest. Well, time gating is a new strategy to me that I have found very helpful in my productivity.

So, I'd like to share a bit about it in this post.

What is time gating?

I didn't learn about this one from a book or podcast or social media. It actually came from a friend, Gus, who suggested I try it on a task I had for this very blog.

And it is a really simple concept: When you have a task, allot a certain amount of time to complete it. When that time runs out, finish working on the task. No matter where you are at that point.

Again, it's simple. But I think the simplicity holds the power.

What problem does time gating solve?

This is a fair question to ask.

In my opinion, the biggest enemy of productivity is analysis paralysis. We get caught up trying to figure out the best way we can complete a task. Or how we can create the perfect version of the task. And we waste so much time and energy on perfection that we lose sight of that actual functional purpose of the task and fail to get it done well or it takes us 10x as long to get the task done as it should.

Time gating forces you into productivity. Most of us will not accept just not getting something done. So this strategy forces us to get pen to paper or keys to keyboard within a certain amount of time. The result may not be perfect. But it is a result. And we can work from that as necessary. Whether it is improving on that version or just getting better for the next iteration of this work.

Time gating bypasses our natural tendency to procrastinate on perfection to increase our productivity.

How much time should we “gate” each task at?

This is probably the biggest tactical question when it comes to this strategy.

Each task is not equally important. And as we talked about in a recent Sorta Random Sunday post, greater energy and focus needs to be placed on the signal, not the noise.

But this is where the time gating strategy is really effective. Because the noise still sometimes needs to get done. And you can time gate any “noise” tasks very strictly. 10 minutes for this menial task that just needs to get done. 5 minutes for this one. And then move on to what is more important.

But important items on your to-do list still deserve time gating. Why? Because it helps us take big tasks and break them down. You don't get to the top of Everest in one jump. You go from camp to camp breaking the journey into more manageable sections.

So do the same thing with your big, important, needle-moving tasks. Create an outline of steps that need to get done and time gate each portion with a small (time-gated) break in between.

Trust me, it works. Time gating will increase your productivity.

What have I been time-gating?

My biggest issue (and again everyone's will be unique but this strategy is adaptable) was spending too much time on noise. Tasks that cumulatively would move the needle and things that I was learning to do better and just needed reps. I spent too much time trying to be perfect or do them the best right from the beginning.

My best example is social media. I am working to get better at social media and am focusing on Twitter/X as I do this.

I would say this experiment began about a month ago. When I started, I would spend so much time finding posts, looking for my audience, developing and researching posts, etc. It ended up feeling really stressful and also was time sucking. I'll admit there were even times it took me away from my posts here (the main content area I love to focus on).

And that is where time gating came into play. I finally started to time gate my social media interactions. Now, instead of writing or finding the perfect post, I just posted what I thought or felt and started to interact more organically.

The result is better productivity but also, with more reps and less pressure, I think better social media content. Of course, you can judge for yourself here!

Give it a shot

I really encourage you to give time gating a try and see how it helps your productivity. I think you will be very pleasantly surprised.

This is a very easy install and habit to pick up that can make a huge difference! For my money, that's the best deal right there.

Looking to improve your productivity even more? These posts will help:

What do you think? Have you tried to time gate any activities? Did it help? What causes you to lose productivity? What strategy would help? Let me know in the comments below!