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Time Blocking 101: Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Daily Schedule

By John Rampton | Scheduling | No Comments

Let’s get down to brass tacks. You’re here because you’re on a journey to find a way to manage your time better while boosting your productivity. While there hundreds, if not thousands, of options to achieve this goal, one surefire technique is time-blocking.

If you’re not familiar with time-blocking, then you’ve come to the right place. In the following article, I’ll describe what time-blocking is, why it rocks, and guide on how to implement it into your daily schedule.

What is time blocking, and why is it effective.

“Time blocking is simply a time management technique where you set aside a specific amount of time for a particular task,” explains Calendar’s Howie Jones. “For example, instead of checking your phone every time you receive an email or social notification, you would do this at clearly defined times.” However, how you decide to block out your day is at your discretion.

For Jones, he sets aside a block to check his inbox and social media before diving into his work in the morning. “There’s another block after lunch,” he adds. “And, the final one is later in the afternoon before calling work a day.”

Others, such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk, are fans of micro scheduling where their entire day consists of five-minute blocks. But, a more common practice would be to reserve an amount of time, like around an hour, to complete an important task or attend a meeting. A short break follows it, usually no more than 20-minutes, before getting back to the grind.

That’s all well and good. But why is time-blocking so effective?

For starters, while useful at times, to-do-lists are inferior. Mainly this is because they don’t account for time. You may have ten items you want to accomplish today. But, if the first two take longer than expected, you’re never going to complete the rest. Because of this, we tend to tackle those more manageable and less critical tasks first, meaning those delicious frogs just sit there getting cold.

Moreover, time-blocking discourages you to multitask. “By scheduling chunks of time for a specific task or problem, you’re promoting deep focused work,” explains Jones. “It also helps you focus less on ‘shallow work,’ which is urgent, but not essential activities.”

Time blocking also fights backs against perfectionism and procrastination since there’s a time limit attached to your daily responsibilities. It also makes it easier for you to reject requests for your time. And, it helps you reflect on your priorities by giving you a document of what you did and did not accomplish in a specific timeframe.

Are you ready to harness the power of time-blocking? If so, here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you finally take control of your daily schedule.

Step 1: Untangle your mind.

Before you start adding blocks of time to your calendar, you first need to determine how you’re going to fill them.

It would be like building a shelf from scratch — if you possessed such a talent. You need to do a lot of planning upfront. If not, you may have a shelf that serves no purpose because the dimensions are all wrong. But, if you knew that you wanted this shelf to hold your vinyl collection, then you would first lookup plans. Now you would purchase the right materials to meet your storage needs.

Like most of us, though, there are probably a million things you have to do swirling around in your head. So, get them out of there by doing a brain dump.

It’s a simple activity where you literally write down everything that you must do. You can use a pen and paper, an app like Evernote, or your phone’s note app. Start by listing your commitments like attending a meeting or handing in an assignment by a specific date. Other items to include here would be things like your morning ritual, daily commute, or anything pertaining to your goals.

You’ll also want to include things that you would like to do but haven’t yet committed to them. And, also throw in anything that you wouldn’t mind doing down the road.

You don’t have to do this daily. But it’s something that you should frequently. Personally, I think that this should be a weekly activity, like Friday afternoon or Sunday evening.

Step 2: Identify your priorities.

With your list in tow, it’s time to prioritize it.

Thankfully, if you broke your list down into must, want, and perhaps, you’re halfway there. But, you still need to analyze it so that you can identify the items that must get done this week. Anything else can either be scheduled for a later date, delegate to someone else, or erased from your list.

If you’re stuck because everything seems essential, here are a couple of strategies to prioritize your list:

Determine your MITs. These are no more than three things that absolutely have to get done today.
Use a priority matrix. Here, you would place everything on your list into the following quadrants: urgent and vital; necessary, but not urgent; critical, but not important; and neither urgent nor important.
Determine the value of your tasks with the ABCDE method. Just assign “A” to your most important task, “B” for important, “C” for perhaps, “D” equals delegate, and “E” is for eliminating.
The Pareto Principle. Focus on the handful of activities that deliver the most results.
Warren Buffett’s 2-list strategy. Jot down the 25 things you want to accomplish this week. Next, circle your top five and forget the rest.

Step 3: Prepare a daily blueprint.

Now that you’ve got your priorities figured out for the week let’s figure out where to place them in your calendar.

Your first option would be to work through your tasks in chronological order. Let’s say that you have then items that need to get down by Friday. Your first two tasks would be scheduled for Monday. Tasks three and four would be scheduled for Tuesday and so forth.

I like this. It’s pretty straightforward and not overwhelming. When I wake up on Monday, I know which fish to fry — as I do for the rest of the days of the week.

Of course, there are some considerations here. First, you need to estimate how long each of these tasks will take you. If each one eats up five hours, I doubt that you’ll complete both of them on the same day. It’s not that you can’t work a ten-hour day. But, that’s not feasible when you take into account breaks and distractions. In this case, you’re looking at more of a 12 plus hour day.

Another factor would be before commitments like conference calls, meetings, appointments, or hard deadlines. It’s going to be a challenge to tackle two large tasks when you’ve got two meetings already in your calendar.

And don’t forget to work around your energy levels. We all have different times when we’re most productive based on our own ultradian rhythms. Track your own so that you know when you’re most productive. As a general rule of thumb, we’re usually most alert and energetic a couple of hours after waking. Also, as the week goes on, energy levels begin to decrease.

With this in mind, you would want to schedule your most challenging tasks in the morning. You would then use the afternoon for less draining activities like meetings. Also, try to front-load your week so that you aren’t working on a high-objective item on Friday.

Step 4: Blockout your entire day.

Let’s take a breather here. I mean, I just threw a lot of information at you. But, we’re pretty much at the point you’ve all been waiting for — time blocking every day of your schedule.

Since you’ve already identified your priorities and came-up with a blueprint for your week, this shouldn’t be all that difficult. It probably goes something like this:

5:30 a.m. – 6:30 a.m.: Morning ritual
6:30 a.m. – 7:00 a.m.: Commute to work.
7:00 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.: Email, social media, and Slack.
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Meaningful work.
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Break.
9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.: Conference call.
10:00 a.m. – Noon: Meaningful work.
Noon – 1:00 p.m. Lunch.
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Email, social media, Slack.
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.: Team meeting.
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: Unscheduled – available for office pop-ins.
3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Email, social, Slack.
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.: Commute home.
4:30 – 9:00 p.m.: Quality time with family.

That’s an elementary daily schedule. But, I think you get the point. Your time has been accounted for the entire day. You’ve also blocked out time for your most important work and shallow tasks like email.

You’ve also dedicated chunks of time to your morning routine, daily commute, breaks, and family time. There’s even an unscheduled block of time just in case you didn’t complete your work in the morning, take care of back burner tasks, or you have to take care of an unexpected occurrence.

Step 5: Transition from block-to-block.

If you want to perfect the art of time blocking, then you must have buffers in-between each chunk of time. It’s unrealistic to believe that you’re going to jump immediately from one task to another. Your brain needs time to decompress and recharge.

What’s more, you need these transitional periods for things like traveling to a meeting. Let’s say that you have to go across town at 2 p.m. to meet with investors. You may have a meeting blocked out. But, if it takes you 20-minutes to get there, you should also block out from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. It’s just a simple way to prevent you from accidentally scheduling something else that may cause you to run late to the meeting.

Step 6: Turn off and tune out.

Another way for time blocking to be useful is to eradicate those pesky distractions. Alright, eradicate might be a bit harsh. But, you get the idea. Distractions interrupt you from getting things done.

The main culprit? Your smartphone. Thankfully, you can block apps at certain times by setting limits on your phone or using tools like Freedom or FocusMe. You can also put your phone on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. And, if that doesn’t work, you can always keep your phone in another room.

Besides your smartphone, you may also get distracted by co-workers or your family if you work at home. Sometimes this is unavoidable. But, you could close your office door when you need to focus on work. If they don’t get the hint, place a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on your door or share your calendar with them so that they can when you’re free to chat.

I suggest that you keep a distraction log. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just make a note of what interrupted you and when. For example, if a noisy trash truck causes you to lose focus every Wednesday morning, put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones around this time.

Step: 7: Revise as necessary.

Finally, revise as needed.

To do this, review your calendar from the past week. How productive were you? What didn’t go as planned? For the upcoming week, move some blocks around to see if those changes were beneficial or not.

It would also be wise to use a tool like Calendar that can analyze how you’re spending your time thanks to the magic of machine learning. It can then make smart suggestions. For instance, it can keep tabs on your meetings and then recommend when they should take place, along with whom to invite.

Is Time Blocking Effective?

By John Rampton | Time Management | No Comments

Folks like Elon Musk and Bill Gates may have been getting some bad press as of late. But, regardless of how you personally feel about them, there’s no denying that they’re super-successful in business. They’ve also mastered the art of time management. Here’s the question: is time blocking effective?

Want to know Elon and Bill’s secret? It’s something called time blocking. It’s been proven to be one of the most effective ways to become more productive without burning yourself out.

What is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is simply a time management technique where you set aside a specific amount of time for a particular task. For example, instead of checking your phone every time you receive an email or social notification, you would do this at clearly defined times. Personally, I set aside a block before diving into my work in the morning. There’s another block after lunch. And, the final one is later in the afternoon before calling work a day.

How you segment your day, however, is totally up to you. Musk and Gates are known for creating five-minute blocks for activities like email and meetings. Cal Newport, a computer science professor and author of Deep Work, dedicates “ten to twenty minutes every evening to building my schedule for the next day.”

“During this planning process, I consult my task lists and calendars, as well as my weekly and quarterly planning notes,” adds Newport. “My goal is to make sure progress is being made on the right things at the right pace for the relevant deadlines.”

Newport says that this “is like a chess game, with blocks of work getting spread and sorted in such a way that projects big and small all seem to click into completion with (just enough) time to spare.”

Regardless of how you section out your calendar, time-blocking forces you to focus on more meaningful activities. In turn, this will reduce the time you spend on unnecessary and unproductive actions. Additionally, it encourages you to carve out time for yourself so that you can remain at peak condition.

Why Time Blocking is Effective

The benefits listed should be enough to sell you on time blocking. But, that’s just peeling the fit layer of the onion.

To-do-lists are inferior.

After interviewing over 200 billionaires such as Olympians, straight-A students, and entrepreneurs, Kevin Kruse, New York Times best-selling author, and LEADx founder found a common thread. “Ultra-productive people don’t work from a to-do list, but they do live and work from their calendar.”

As Kruse further explains in a piece for Forbes, this is because to-do-lists don’t account for time. “When we have a long list of tasks, we tend to tackle those that can be completed quickly in a few minutes, leaving the longer items left undone.” Research shows “that 41% of all to-do list items are never completed!”

Kruse also argues that lists don’t distinguish between urgent and essential. And, lists can contribute to our stress thanks to the Zeigarnik effect. For those unfamiliar, this states that we often remember unfinished business better then what we’ve completed. As a result, these “intrusive, uncontrolled thoughts” can make us feel overwhelmed. Lists can even contribute to insomnia.

Time blocking discourages multitasking.

“Time blocking is the opposite of multi-tasking, a cool-sounding term that, in reality, can cause long term damage to your productivity — and happiness,” notes writing productivity expert Chris Smith. By scheduling chunks of time for a specific task or problem, you’re promoting deep focused work. It also helps you focus less on “shallow work,” which is urgent, but not essential activities.

Science has also found that when we multitask, we experience “attention residue.” In a nutshell, this is a more sophisticated way of saying that our attention is divided when constantly switching between tasks.

Moreover, behavioral researchers Thomas Buser and Noemi Peters conducted an experiment to see how multitasking impacts performance. They concluded that the “Subjects who are forced to multitask, perform significantly worse than those forced to work sequentially.” Interestingly, they also discovered that “subjects who can freely organize their own schedule also perform significantly worse.” According to Buser and Peters, this means that “scheduling is a significant determinant of productivity.”

It combats perfectionism and procrastination.

Perfectionism and procrastination are two of time management’s most challenging adversaries. Thankfully, time blocking is a powerful way to thwart them both.

Time blocking encourages you to reserve your energy and willpower by scheduling your most challenging tasks first. You can also use it to break larger projects into more manageable pieces. Also, when you add items to your calendar, it forces you to commit to getting them done.

And, researchers Dr. Todd Rogers and Dr. Katherine L. Milkman have found that“concrete plans help people follow through on their intentions.”

Time blocking makes it easier to say “no.”

Saying “no” to others can be awkward. But it’s one of the best ways to protect your time. After all, if you say “yes” to ever time request that comes your way, you won’t get as much done. Eventually, your priorities will get buried underneath others.

Time blocking makes it easier to say “no.” For example, let’s say someone asks if you can meet for lunch. You can politely let them know that you already have plans and suggest a time when you’re available. Or, you could avoid this conversation altogether by sharing your calendar with them so that they can see when you’re free or busy.

Encourages you to reflect on your priorities.

Finally, go back and review your schedule this past week. How did you spend your time? Were you able to spend your time productively? Did you allocate the right amount of time to the right activities? Or, did you spend too much time cleaning out your inbox or attending unnecessary meetings?

When you reflect on how you spent your time, you’ll be able to plan better your schedule going forward. More importantly, it will encourage you to fill your calendar with more meaningful entries.

The Downside of Time Blocking

Despite these benefits, there are drawbacks to time blocking that you should be aware of. For starters, time blocking may be too rigid. If your calendar is jam-packed, it can’t handle emergencies. It also takes the fun out of spontaneous encounters. And it can be complicated. Mainly this is because we’re not always the best at estimating the amount of time it takes to do things.

While valid, these concerns shouldn’t stop you from trying time blocking out. The key is striking the right balance. For instance, block out specific times for when you need to focus on uninterrupted deep work. But, leave some white space in your calendar in the afternoon so that you can address any schedule changes.

Outside of work, don’t hyper-schedule yourself. Having a little unstructured free time makes life fun.

Getting Started with Time Blocking

Ready to take time blocking for a test spin? Then here are some pointers on how to get on your way:

Find out when you’re most productive. Instead of sticking with the traditional 9-to-5 schedule, identify when you’re most productive. When you know this, which is by determining your ultradian rhythms, you’ll want to schedule your most important or challenging tasks when you have the most energy.
Allot enough time. Track how long it usually takes you to complete certain things. It can help avoid under-or-overestimating your blocks of time. Also, add buffers just in case you run over.
Reserve breaks, time off, and the unexpected. You need time to recharge. So, set aside time for breaks, vacations, and when you’re off the clock. What’s more, keep your calendar flexible so that you avoid overcommitting and have the time to handle the things that happen.
Ditch those distractions. Write down the things that distract you the most. Then, you can find ways to eliminate them to make your blocks more productive. For example, if the notifications on your phone interrupt you, then either turn your phone off or block certain apps during the time that you’re working.
Track your progress and revise it. At the end of the week, reflect on how productive you were by reviewing your calendar. If you noticed that you underestimate how long it took you to finish something, then add more time to that task when creating next week’s schedule.