Tidslump

Tidslump is a Swedish term used to describe a fixed interval of time allocated to a specific task or activity within planning, budgeting, and scheduling contexts. The concept is used informally in Swedish management and production discussions to denote a discrete “time chunk” that can be assigned, tracked, and analyzed.

Etymology and meaning emphasize that tidslump combines tids, meaning time, with lump or chunk to convey a portion of time rather than a precise unit. The term is not a formal standard in accounting or engineering, but a pragmatic label found in some organizations’ planning documents and performance discussions.

In practice, a tidslump functions as a planning device to allocate available time across tasks. It supports simple budgeting, workload distribution, and deadline setting by turning time into a countable piece of work data. For example, a project plan might assign tidslumps of 30 minutes for data entry and two hours for a code review. Teams can then monitor whether work fits within the allotted chunks and adjust estimates or staffing accordingly. The concept is related to, but distinct from, formal time-boxing or takt-based planning, and it often relies on historical data about how long similar tasks have taken.

Critically, tidslumps are informal and can be flexible; they depend on organizational practices and may encourage either prudent overflow buffers or overly optimistic estimates if not used carefully. They are best used as a rough planning aid alongside more detailed tracking methods. See also: timeboxing, time budgeting, takt time.