Transform Your Life with Time Blocking: The Ultimate Guide
I know what you are thinking, “time blocking?! Are you kidding me?!” No, no I am not kidding you. Time blocking is one of the best ways to be able to craft your dream life. It is something that helps you become efficient with your time. And, it allows you to fill your days with the things that matter most to you.
Yesterday I briefly mentioned time blocking as one of those daily habits that will allow you unlock your dream life. And today I am going to chat a bit more about why that is, and how you, too, can unlock time with this habit.
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What is Time Blocking?
Simply put, it is a way for you to manage your days and have focused time on deep work. It can be used in a multitude of ways, and I am going to go over some of them today for you. But, the bottom line is that time blocking allows you to shut out the noise and focus on what you value most. And, we all know that is one of the keys to living your dream life. You have to be able to take time for the things that you value, whether that is task related, or relationship related. If you do not focus time on those areas of your life that you value most, it will be a struggle to craft and then live your dream life.
A time block can be any set amount of time. It can be 25 minutes, like a task block in the Pomodoro Techinique. Or, it can be several hours of focused time. There are benefits to having both in your weekly and daily rhythms. So what do you include in each time block? That is where it will depend on your individual life and what you want. The idea is to separate your day into time blocks where you are focusing on specific things within each time block.
How I manage Time Blocking
If you are like me, you wear a lot of hats throughout the day. I am a mom, and a homeschooler. Also, I spend a fair bit of time as a home manager and small business owner. What would happen if I tried to work on all of those areas at the same time? Would things get done? Perhaps, but it wouldn’t be an efficient use of my time.
Instead, I manage my day in blocks of time. Each chunk of the day has a different purpose. When that happens, you are able to be not only efficient with your time, but take time for what you value most.
A quick breakdown of the time blocks I use:
- 5am-8am – morning routine and work tasks
- 8am-12pm – homeschool related tasks
- 12pm-1pm – lunch and home management
- 1pm-4pm – work tasks or passion projects (goals and other projects I want to work on)
- 4pm-7pm – dinner and family time
Now, does my day run that smoothly with zero interruption? No, but I am able to focus on particular tasks in particular time blocks by setting my day up like this. You also can utilize this strategy to make your days exactly what you want them to be.
But, I already have obligations!
Yes, that is a fact. Most of us already have obligations and commitments that we have made, whether or not they are the best option for us. It is possible that you can do nothing in the moment to change your daily rhythm. However, seasons will change, and you can make different choices.
It is difficult to make those choices sometimes. Sometimes you feel like your schedule is dragging you along and there is no exit ramp. If that is the case, I recommend getting really personal with your choices. It is uncomfortable to recognize that we all have the same 168 hours each week to do with as we choose. You may not feel like you are making the choice, and sometimes you won’t be making an active choice on how you spend your time. But, it is a choice.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with all that you have going on, you should sit down with a piece of paper and write out all of the obligations and commitments you have made. What is one thing that you can cross off the list? It may be challenging to say no to something you have already said yes to. But, if it is something you end up resenting are you actually helping that person/organization/class that you have committed to? And if you really want to take the next step, write out a yes and no list.
Create a Time Inventory
In order to find out exactly where your time is going, I recommend doing an in-depth time inventory. This is going to help you to figure out exactly where you are spending your time. You have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes that honesty is difficult. I know when I have done time-inventories in the past, and I see large chunks of time mindlessly scrolling on social media, that is a problem. I have nobody else to blame except me. But, you also recognize all of those interruptions in the day, all of the struggles you already have with your daily rhythm.
That is what is going to be gained from the time inventory. You will see patterns. And you will also see where you can make changes to improve the flow of your days.
Time Blocking Your Day
Once you have the data in front of you about how you are spending your days, you will be able to figure out some time blocks to try. It doesn’t mean that you will get all of your time blocks correct on the first try, far from it. Instead, it will be a bit of trial and error.
You will see time periods where you are doing a particular task for a longer period of time, and that will become a time block for a specific area of your life. You may also see where there are a lot of areas of your life that you touch on in one single hour – is there a way to mitigate that? Or are you trying to spin too many plates in the air at that particular time?
Yes, I know that sometimes you just have to get to urgent emergencies, but that doesn’t have to be the accepted way that you live your days. Take some time to write ideas out, and the test them. Will it all work perfectly the first go around? No, probably not. It takes time to develop good habits and that also goes for time blocking.
A bit about Task Blocks
Task blocks are similar to time blocks in that you are focusing on one particular task for a set period of time. However, instead of a large chunk of time, you are instead focusing on a short time period like when using the Pomodoro Technique. I mentioned it above, but it is setting a timer for 25-minutes, and focusing on one task for that 25 minutes.
You will be amazed the amount of work you can get through when you focus for 25 minutes. It doesn’t mean that you have to have your entire day broken up into 25-minute increments. However, it will be incredibly helpful when you try to put a time block on a group of tasks.
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Remember, time blocking is for a group of similar tasks that you will work on in a larger time period – think a couple of hours. Where as task blocks are for individual tasks. Can you do a bit of habit stacking in order to be more efficient within one task block? Yes, and in fact, my very basic morning routine and work communication routine are stacked together even though they are from completely different areas of my life. I know that my basic morning routine of coffee, Bible, and planning takes me about 15-minutes. This is only tier one of my morning routine, and if I have more time in the morning, I often have other parts that I add to it. But, for my busy mornings, my morning routine is about 15 minutes. And then I will take about 10 minutes going through answering questions and comments before I move to the next stage of my morning time block.
Have you tried time-blocking your day? What is holding you back? Do you feel like it would be too restrictive? Or is it the fear of how much you have going on holding you back? Let me know in the comments!
