Time blocking 101 A starting point overview To accomplish more in fewer working hours, people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Cal Newport all employ the time management strategy known as “time blocking.”
Here are some details about it, how it can benefit you, and how to start using it right away.
Time Blocking 101 Your Guide To Getting Started
In this article, you can know about Time Blocking 101 Your Guide To Getting Started here are the details below;
Time blocking is a time control strategy that some of the most productive individuals on Earth use to accomplish more in less time. This piece will provide a clear explanation of time blocking, including what it is, how it can benefit you, and how to start using it right away.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is incredibly straightforward at its heart. There are three stages to it:
Determine in advance what to focus on and when to complete important tasks.
Schedule a specific amount of time for each job on your calendar.
A typical to-do list outlines your tasks, according to RescueTime site editor Jory MacKay. “Time blocking indicates when you will complete it.”
Time blocking can be helpful if you frequently find yourself putting off your most essential tasks, wasting too much time on unimportant ones, and unsure of what to work on next. Let’s examine time blocking in more detail.
That benefits of time blocking
The three main advantages of time blocking are that it makes you concentrate on the most crucial tasks, reduces the amount of time you need to decide which tasks to complete when and reduces task switching for better concentration.
1. Prioritize tasks
The first, and possibly biggest, advantage of time blocking is that it increases the likelihood that you’ll complete your most crucial tasks. Selecting a project to focus on is the first step in time blocking. As a result, you must choose which duties need to be done immediately and which can wait. Making a decision about what to work on before you begin will help you avoid wasting time on unimportant chores. At the back of the day, you’ll probably feel more accomplished, and you’ll probably accomplish your larger objectives more quickly.
2. Make fewer decision
When a job is complete, it can be frustrating to have to decide on the spot what to work on next. It is also irritating to have to make a decision regarding how long to continue working on a job at hand. Additionally, work often grows to fill the available time. Time blocking entails making a decision once as to what you will work on that week (with updates as required along the way), and then starting the task that is on your calendar. You can overcome perfectionism and accomplish more by scheduling calendar events with start and stop times for each job using a productivity method called timeboxing. less job switching, fatigue from making decisions, and spending too much time on unimportant activities increased output
3. Stay focused
After you begin working on a task, it takes about 20 minutes for you to focus entirely on it because at first, a portion of your brain is still considering your previous job. This effect is known as “attention residue” by researchers. So you can never focus deeply if you switch activities every 15 minutes. Time blocking calls for focusing only on the job at hand during the time block allotted to it. It is a means of assisting in ensuring that you have the lengthier blocks of time required for deep work. Adding chores to your calendar also makes you face the finite nature of time. Because every block is a zero-sum game, it is simpler to refuse lower value obligations. Additionally, scheduling your tasks on your schedule deters your coworkers from requesting last-minute meetings or other interruptions during your Focus Time.
How to time block your calendar
The stages are listed below, but our Head of Community Anna has a video tutorial that will show you how to time block your calendar:
Here’s how to start time blocking your calendar in just three steps to increase concentration and productivity.
Pro tip: If you use Asana, the Clockwise + Asana integration makes time blocking your schedule even simpler.
1. Create your to-do list
If a job has a set location, date, and time, people are more likely to finish it.
Decide what needs to get done over the next week before you begin time blocking.
Pro tip: Check out 5 Incredible Free Wunderlist Alternatives Compared if you still use a paper to-do list or need a new task management tool.
Try to be thorough, but you don’t have to consider every potential job. It’s okay if a pressing matter arises during the workweek. Be prepared to need to modify your time limits each day as things arise. But first, make a summary of your top priorities for the coming week.
Next, give that plan a priority. Your tasks can be prioritized in a variety of methods. You could, for instance, consume that frog or apply the Eisenhower Method. You might also take a look at your yearly objectives and consider what you can do over the next week to improve your chances of success.
2. Estimate how much time you’ll need to complete each item
You currently have a list of jobs with priorities. The next stage is to estimate how much time will be needed to complete each task. If finishing a task will take more than one session, consider breaking it up into smaller tasks and calculating how much time each one will take.
A piece of advice: When you first start out, you should double all of your projections. The majority of people frequently overestimate how long activities will take. This is known as the Planning Fallacy in psychology. If you continue time blocking, your estimation skills will improve. In the mean time, finishing a job early and moving on to the next one is much more enjoyable than having to keep pushing everything off.
Let’s use the writing of a ten-page report as an example of how to break down a large job. Let’s say you figure it will take you five hours to finish. Double that number first. Now, it’s likely that you won’t labor nonstop for ten hours. (If you are, I want to know your secret.) There are two approaches to take here. In my view and experience, the best course of action is to divide your large task (write a ten-page report) into smaller tasks. (research, write outline, write section 1, etc.). The second option is to simply divide the larger job into five sessions of two hours each and label them “big report.”
3. Schedule an event on your calendar for each task
Making calendar events with the name of the job you want to complete during that time is the final step in time blocking. However, where should you plan your tasks? There are several options for choosing this. First, it’s best to plan in accordance with your everyday energy flows rather than against them. Most individuals experience daily fluctuations in their level of creativity, energy, and productivity. Therefore, plan your hardest work for when you’re at your most motivated, your inventive work for when you’re at your most inspired, and so on.
For instance, when author and creator Kevin Taylor was working on his book, finding time each day to write was of the utmost importance to him. He did nothing else during the first four hours of his workday as he dedicated them to writing his novel. He set aside that time when he was marketing real estate to make calls and generate leads for buyers and sellers.
Here is an example of a regular 2-hour writing session each morning:
Pro tip: Use this game to figure out your patterns if you’re unsure of them.
Theming, or scheduling related activities close together, is another strategy to use in conjunction with time blocking so your brain doesn’t have to switch gears as frequently. It’s also known as task batching, and it could mean, for example, arranging all of your marketing tasks for Monday and all of your accounting tasks for Tuesday.
Pro-tip: Doist suggests taking this free day theming training on Skillshare.
Additionally, instead of allowing yourself to be interrupted by incoming messages at random times, you might want to schedule blocks of time for replying to them. Yes, I am avoiding you. (Read more. This is why.) There’s no need to put up with interruptions during your Focus Time as long as people know when they can count on an answer from you.
With task batching, color-coding your calendar can be a huge assist. One method for doing this is to categorize your work and then make a separate Google Calendar for each group. Consequently, you could, for instance, have a schedule for business development, client work, content creation, and marketing. Your tasks are then added to the appropriate calendar for each category. To distinguish the calendars from the blocks, give each one a unique hue.
Here is an example of a time-blocked calendar:
- Here is an illustration of a RescueTime time blocked plan with Focus Time for writing:
- time blocking illustration
- Some people who use time blocking break their days into 15 or 30-minute segments and give tasks to each segment. For managers or salespeople who like the Pomodoro technique, this works wonderfully.
- Longer blocks, however, will be much more effective for the majority of knowledge workers.
- Also keep in mind that time blocking isn’t just for business. Atomic Design author Brad Frost schedules three hours each night for family time.
- Look at his schedule:
- Your calendar’s time blocking
Brad told RescueTime, “Before having a baby, my wife and I would both work well into the nighttime hours, mostly because we could and there was nothing stopping us! “Obviously, there are a variety of ways in which that is unhealthy. So it’s been wonderful to think about how to make the most of our workdays so that we can play with our children.
Time blocking apps
Blocking of time is fantastic. However, doing it by hand takes time. Thankfully, you can automate the procedure with a few free apps.
The best three apps for free time blocking are
1 clockwise
- Plan
- Planyway
With the help of the free clever calendar assistant Clockwise, you and your team can schedule events more effectively. It is a free browser add-on that integrates with your Google Calendar in the background to handle time zones, resolve conflicts, and increase Focus Time.
GIF displaying Clockwise You can plan tasks between meetings by using Autopilot to open Focus Time Plan and Planyway. However, Clockwise will make meeting suggestions based on everyone’s preferences as well as the times that conserve the most Focus Time. Your meetings will also be moved to more convenient hours.
You can time block your calendar with Clockwise while still allowing your teammates to arrange meetings with you. If a teammate conflicts with your flexible meeting block, Clockwise will look for a different time on your calendar where the job can be completed. Depending on your deadline or other preferences, you can set it to locate a slot the same week or day.
Other strong points:
Schedule meetings inside Slack, show your availability status based on your schedule, look at a daily meeting forecast, and have Slack sync turn on your notifications automatically. Do Not Interrupt
sync zoom: With one click, you can add a Zoom call to any conference.
Teams: Establish and safeguard business or team holidays and no-meeting days. You can also quickly assess your team’s bandwidth and instantly sync team availability and OOO schedules to a shared calendar.
update of a person’s calendar: Sync your personal and professional calendars to ensure that you never mistakenly double-book or overlook a crucial personal occasion.
Color-coding: Quickly distinguish between your one-on-one talks, standups, and other events
Integration of Asana: Three taps will time block your calendar.
Setting your working hours and tastes to coincide with meetings and lunch is all that is required for clockwise onboarding.
If you don’t use Asana, you can combine Clockwise’s work management features with those of Plan or Planyway to get the best of both worlds.
Time blocking can improve your ability to predict how long tasks will take, help you stay focused, battle perfectionism, get interrupted less frequently, and get more done in less time. This tutorial should enable you to initiate time blocking on your calendar app right away.
Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work, claims that “some time people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning.” “My response is straightforward: It produces a tremendous quantity of productivity. I believe a 40-hour time-blocked work week yields the same results as a 60+ hour work week done unstructured.
Making sure you’re always working on the right job at the right time of day can be achieved by using time blocking. Setting up can take a lot of time, particularly at first. But with practice, you’ll become more adept at setting priorities, planning your time accordingly, and determining how long it will take you to finish each task. And getting started is now simpler than ever thanks to the proper technology.