How To Make Time Blocking Work For You

Last week I wrote about the basics of time blocking—why I think it’s so great and how you can quickly get started today. If you’re interested in time blocking but struggling to effectively implement it, this post is for you. I’ll dive deeper into the methods that I use to make it a helpful tool, not just another draining task. I will share what works best for me, but I encourage you to play around and find the best balance that works for you. (It’s an art, not a science!)

My 7 Principles For Better Time Blocking

1. Keep It Big-Picture

I talk about this concept a little bit in my original time blocking post, so be sure to check it out there. In summary: I recommend that beginners start with a very big-picture approach to time blocking. “It’s always best to start small when you’re trying something new, and when it comes to time blocking, starting small means starting big—big chunks for big categories.”

However, this isn’t just the approach I would recommend to beginners. This is the approach I would recommend for EVERYONE.

Here’s why: When you try to plan at a detailed task level, it requires you to know how long each task is going to take. This may be possible with some tasks, but more often than not we get time estimation wrong. And wrong estimation will lead to extending blocks, moving things around, etc… Essentially it becomes a big time blocking fail.

So rather than planning at the task level, I recommend blocking time for general categories. Then your approach is more of a determination of how much percentage of your time do you want to dedicate to this category. It allows you to prioritize from the top-down instead of from the bottom-up. Then you can prioritize WHAT within that category is most important while you’re working on it.

Sometimes you will still have true deadlines and things that can’t get delayed. There’s always an exception to the rule. But usually, by taking the category-time-blocking approach, it’s way easier to focus and actually get the urgent things done, because everything else is peacefully planned.

2. Keep a Regular Cadence

The more routine, the better! Routines are great because your activities become second-nature, and you don’t have to devote as much brain power to making a decision or thinking about what comes next.

Never forget that decision-making is work. Yes, sometimes it’s a luxury to have a choice. But this day in age with so many options and thus choices, most of us are suffering from decision fatigue. So the more you can decide once and then automate your schedule, the more free space you will clear up in your brain.

Time blocking makes routine even easier, and routine makes time blocking even easier. They are a perfect pair!

Some examples of routines to consider:

• Exercise at the same time every day.
• Always using your morning for deep work and afternoons for administrative tasks (or vice versa).
• Call somebody on your drive home from work—or, even better, the same people on the same day of the week each week.
• Start the dishwasher every night & empty it every morning (even if it’s not completely full).

3. Don’t Block All of The Time

Be realistic. You don’t want to block all of your time, because then you’ll never have time to rest. Plus you need buffer for things when they don’t go as planned! So leave some free space in your time block schedule. If you overfill your days with all work and no flexibility, you’ll likely end up right back where you were with to-do lists: behind schedule and constantly reworking the plan.

4. Include Other People

Alright, here’s the thing… I am an introvert, and I absolutely love to work alone and get into a deep flow of work. But sometimes when I keep completely to myself, I lose motivation and get off track quickly because I have zero accountability. That’s when it’s helpful to work with other people. (This is true for me in my home and my job!)

When I was in college, I time blocked time to get my homework done, but I really struggled to execute on my time blocked schedule. It was just difficult to summon the discipline to actually work on the undesirable task of homework. Then, during my senior year, my sister and I started a little study group that met at Starbucks every Tuesday and Thursday. That ended up being a very useful time block for my homework progress. Having other people around who were also working on the undesirable task helped keep me accountable to do the work. There were certain types of tasks that I couldn’t get done while other people were around because I was too easily distracted for deep focus work (like writing essays or reading textbooks). But for the other types of work, working with (or even just around) other people was incredibly helpful.

You can experiment a little bit to find what type of tasks on your list are best with other people around, versus what type of deep-focus work you should do on your own. But the moral of the story is this: don’t try to do everything on your own, or you’re more likely to lose motivation. (Yes, even if you’re an introvert!)

5. Set Up Good Pairings

I’m not usually a fan of multi-tasking, but it can really work well when you get the perfect pairing. Try to set up your time blocks to support each other.

Here are some examples of good multi-tasking pairings:

• Listen to an audiobook or podcast while you clean or tidy up the house
• Exercise in the morning so you only have to shower/get cleaned up once in the day
• Laundry day + movie night!

As you plan your schedule, keep asking yourself: What would be the easiest situation for this type of task? How can I arrange my time blocks in order to support that?

6. Remove Distractions

It’s so important to only focus on one thing at a time for time blocking to be truly effective. Remove any other distractions that are not serving the purpose of the time block. If you have distractions that commonly get in the way (like phone time), then try to leave that for the empty space on your schedule. Or—better yet—actually schedule in a time block for those distractions.

7. Accept “Good Enough”

You might think that the most important part of time blocking is the start of the time block, when you must summon the motivation to begin the work. Yes, that’s certainly valuable. But even more important, and where I see other people stumble a lot, is the wisdom to finish on-time.

Even if your tasks for the given category are not fully complete, you should try to stop your work at the end of your time block as much as is possible. This is key because it enables you to be on time for the next time block.

I personally struggle to do this, but I am such a huge believer in it. I often get so caught up in my current project that I delay my next task, and then that throws me off completely.

But rather, by accepting your current category’s work in an unfinished state, it allows you maintain the overall prioritization that you set for yourself when you planned your day. As long as you are completing the most urgent or important tasks within each category first, the tasks you’ll find yourself cutting short are usually okay to be delayed.

This is the essence of anti-perfectionism. Remember… Done is better than perfect.

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Whether you choose to use Time Blocking or not, these strategies are sure to prove useful for being more productive with your limited time. Give them a try and let me know how it goes!

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Have you started Time Blocking yet? What is and isn’t working for you?