There never seem to be enough hours in a day. But what if you could increase the productivity of each hour? What if there was a way to complete more work in less time? Time blocking is a game-changing strategy for owning your workday and maximizing your productivity.
I have recently begun using time blocking in my blogging business and have been amazed by the results!
Time blocking might be right for you if:
- You lose a lot of time doing busywork
- Are a diehard procrastinator
- Manage many different responsibilities
- Get easily distracted by email and social media
- Find it hard to finish big projects
If this is you, don’t worry! This was me, too, for the longest time. I am one of many people who have found time blocking to be an effective way to manage my schedule and responsibilities.
“A plan is what, a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done.”
Peter Turla
Time Blocking is Time Management
I don’t know about you, but my to-do list seems to be never-ending! There are always so many things to do in a day. It is difficult to feel like you’re being pulled in nine different directions.
It can be tempting to stay stuck in your busyness and exhaustion. But, running yourself ragged is not going to produce the results you want. Meaningful projects will suffer, and emails will go unanswered. Your work will be scattered because YOU feel scattered.
The truth is this: if you don’t manage your time, your time will manage you!
Productivity is not just a fancy word on a resume. It is a valuable skill that brings clarity, focus, and success to your life. Invest time in developing productivity systems that work for you, and you will be unstoppable.
Deep Work vs. Busy Work
“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
Publilius Syrus
Almost every task falls into one of two categories – deep work and busywork.
Most of us are familiar with busy work – daily chores like responding to emails and filing paperwork. Busywork is sometimes called shallow work. These tasks are part of your responsibilities but don’t require a lot of focus to complete.
Busy work is essential in most jobs. I like to think of it as a necessary evil! Busywork tasks are crucial, but can quickly take over your whole day. We will talk about how to plan busywork into your schedule to prevent this.
On the other hand, deep work refers to meaningful tasks that require your focus. This could be developing a course, filming a video series, or writing a business plan.
Deep work projects are usually the most difficult for people to complete. That is because they require creative energy and practical analysis. We often don’t do our best work on these tasks because we are distracted by our busywork.
What is Time Blocking?
Time blocking is a way of organizing your time to get more done – especially meaningful work. To time block, you sort your tasks into busywork tasks and deep work tasks. Then, you block out a certain amount of time in your day to devote to each task.
When working on a particular task, that is to be uninterrupted work time. For example, let’s say you’ve blocked two hours for content writing. During those two hours, you may not check email, social media, or chit chat with a co-worker. Keep your time blocks solely devoted to the work at hand. I find it useful to set a timer for my time blocks.
Getting Started
Start with Deep Work
As you plan your time blocking schedule, always prioritize your deep work projects. They are the meaningful aspects of your job and deserve the most time in your day. Place your biggest blocks for the most important projects first. The rest of your blocks can fall in between these cornerstones of your workday.
Reactive Tasks
We’ve established that most of your day should focus on proactive work. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t have reactive tasks too! Reactive tasks are things that happen in your day that you must respond to. These could be emails, requests from your boss, or a problem that needs to be solved.
Don’t neglect to block time in your day for reactive tasks. You may need an hour, or you may only need twenty minutes. Giving yourself that wiggle room for these reactive chores will help you stay on track in the long run.
Plan Your Busy Work
For me, it’s email and social media – those are busywork tasks that can sabotage my whole day! Luckily adding a busywork time block to my day has solved my problem and saved me tons of time.
As we’ve discussed, busy work is necessary. However, it shouldn’t take up much time in your day. Perhaps you need a half-hour for email and a half hour for social media. Great! Add those blocks in your schedule, and you’re on your way.
The tricky part is keeping those tasks within their box! You see, when you add busy work to your schedule, you can’t do it at any other time. Email and social media need to stay out of the rest of your day.
You’ll be amazed at all the time you have when busy work has a place on your schedule.
Transition Time
No one is a robot. We need time to transition from one task to another. Coffee and bathroom breaks are essential for staying focused. Make sure to allow for breaks and transition time between your time blocks. We all need a little wiggle room!
Use a Timer
I cannot time block without my timer. My blocks for content writing are generally two hours every morning. I set my timer and sit down to write. I do not stop writing until the timer goes off. It’s an incredible load off my mind to not watch the clock or check my phone. Using my timer allows me to dive straight into deep work with no distractions.
A timer will also hold you accountable! I stop my timer whenever I pause to chat with my boyfriend or use the bathroom. In this way, I make sure every minute is going to the task at hand. How quickly I learned that I am easily distracted!
After a lot of practice, I can write for over an hour without any distractions. Timers for the win!
Reflect and Revise
You will learn a lot about yourself as you begin time blocking. Don’t forget to adjust your schedule as you understand what works best for you. Time management is a skill that takes time to optimize. No one is perfect, and there’s always grace for improvement!
Ways to Time Block
Google Calendar
Many people use Google Calendar for time blocking. This is great in the workspace as you can easily sync work meetings into your schedule. You can also turn on notifications for reminders to begin each time block.
There’s an App for That
A quick search of the iOS application library shows many results for time blocking apps. The highest-rated app is called TimeBloc and functions as a daily planner. You can add daily routines to your TimeBloc schedule and sync it to your phone calendar. The app also offers statistics to help you reflect on your productivity over time.
Planner
Lots of people prefer to use a pen and paper for planning. I’ll admit to being one of them! Luckily, there are lots of great time-blocking planners available on Amazon and other online retailers. Smart Planner has excellent ratings and is designed to help maximize your time. It even has a habit tracker! Whatever your style is, you’re sure to find a useful planner that works for you.
Canva
It’s beyond easy to design a personalized planner on Canva! In fact, they already have tons of planner templates ready for you to use. I use Canva for every part of my business and love designing beautiful schedules that fit my needs.
Canva is the world’s easiest design tool. With an enormous template library and 200,000 free photos, it’s the all-in-one platform you never knew you needed. The best part? It’s free.
Other Time Management Strategies
There are a few different systems very similar to time blocking. However, they are all distinct and separate organization strategies.
Task Batching
Task batching is the practice of sorting and grouping your tasks by similarities. Let’s say your to-do list looks like this:
- Write email blast
- Research apartments
- Finish health article
- Respond to insurance email
- Research best neighborhoods in Denver
- Email the bank
- Draft budgeting article outline
- Send email blast
To task batch, look for similarities in tasks and sort them into groups. For example:
Email:
- Respond to insurance email
- Email the bank
- Send email blast
Moving:
- Research apartments
- Research best Denver neighborhoods
Content Writing:
- Finish health article
- Write email blast
- Draft budgeting article outline
Easy, right?
Task batching often goes hand in hand with time blocking. I often task batch before I time block my day. Time blocking this to-do list would look like this:
Email: 30 minutes
- Respond to insurance email
- Email the bank
- Send email blast
Moving: 1 hour
- Research apartments
- Research best Denver neighborhoods
Content Writing: 2 hours
- Finish health article
- Write email blast
- Draft budgeting article outline
Here is where time blocking gets really fun. If you finish your tasks before the end of your time block, do not move on to the next block. Instead, find proactive work to do within that area. Let’s say your email tasks only take you twenty minutes, and you have ten minutes left over. Use this time to complete more email-related tasks.
Maybe you take the time to sort your inbox. Perhaps you send a few networking emails. The choice is yours!
Leftover time is what makes task batching and time blocking a powerful combo. Not only do you finish your work – you have time to maximize it!
Day Theming
My blogging schedule was an absolute mess before I discovered day theming. Day theming is when you assign each day of the week to a different theme or focus area. Here is what my day theming schedule looks like.
As you can see, blogging has a large variety of responsibilities to juggle every week. I’m sure your job is like that, too! Day theming helps me accomplish more and reduce my stress. Instead of running around trying to finish my random to-do list, I can focus on one facet of my business at a time.
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If a new task comes up on my radar, I simply add it to the task list for its day of the week. I no longer worry about dropping everything and being reactive. My mind is free to focus on the work at hand because I know everything will get done. It feels great to have a plan!
Time Boxing
Time blocking and time boxing are similar, so it’s easy to get them confused. However, time blocking means you allocate blocks of time in your schedule for a given task. At the end of the block, you reflect on whether you were able to meet your goals within the time frame. If not, you can readjust your schedule for the following day or week.
Timeboxing is a bit more strict. You can think of it as a self-imposed deadline. To time box, set a limit on the amount of time a task will take you. You must finish the job within this time box. There is no room for adjustment!
The purpose of timeboxing is to motivate hard work within a short period. Most people tend to be more focused on their work when there is a hard and fast deadline. I know I do!
Which productivity strategy should I use?
The best productivity strategy is the one that works best for you. Personally, I like to use a combination of time blocking, task batching, and day theming. After weeks of adjusting my workflow, I have perfected my schedule. With these three strategies, I get the most work done in the least amount of time.
Get creative and experiment with each of these methods. Perfecting your productivity is a fun process once you start seeing results!
Benefits of Time Blocking
Time blocking promotes deep-focus work. When you have time in your schedule to complete your busy work, it no longer takes over your day. That means that most of your time can be spent writing, creating, and developing your big projects.
Another benefit is task completion. It’s easier to knock big items off your to-do list when you have big blocks of work time in your schedule! Last month, I wrote an eBook, grew my email list tenfold, and appeared as a guest writer on two sites. I would not have accomplished any of these things without a time management system in place!
Just like budgeting and money, time blocking will help you see how you spend your time. By analyzing and adjusting your schedule, you will account for lost minutes, hours, and days. Reflecting on your time blocking practice helps you tighten your schedule as you learn which tasks require more of your time.
Common Mistakes
Time blocking is a skill to learn, and it’s okay to make mistakes as you go! That being said, here are some common errors to avoid to achieve time blocking success.
Underestimating Task Time
When starting out, be sure to err on the side of bigger time blocks. You’ll be surprised how long specific tasks might take you, so it’s better to plan with extra time in mind. Adjust your time blocks as you learn what works for you.
Over-scheduling Break Time
I’m guilty of this one! Although it’s vital to plan breaks into your day, too many of them can derail your productivity. Breaks that are too long can also interrupt your focus and flow that you need for deep work. Be thoughtful with your break schedule, and keep yourself on track!
No Wiggle Room
On the other hand, a schedule that is planned down to the second can also be ineffective. When you don’t allow any wiggle room in your day, you are setting yourself up for failure. Remember to schedule a time for busy work and reactive tasks. And don’t forget that even the best-laid plans can go astray. Give your schedule some breathing room, and don’t be afraid to be flexible.
