Use Time Blocking to Plan Your Day in Advance
There are many ways to create a schedule, from using a pen and paper planner to dry-erase markers and writing on a clock . They range from tedious to downright archaic, but everyone will find their way. One method I like aims to give you a deeper understanding of how you spend your time and help you plan your day down to the minute. It’s called time blocking.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is the process of scheduling your day so that everything you need to do during the day is visually accounted for . Ideally, this is done using a digital calendar like Google Calendar or iCal, but it’s also possible with a planner and markers. Even if you write everything down by hand on a piece of paper, consider using Google Calendar before you begin . Each day is represented by a column divided into 15-minute intervals, from midnight to 11:59 PM. When you add a meeting or event to the calendar, a field appears filling the space, indicating how much time during the day the event will take.
When blocking time, your goal is to fill the entire column with cells, leaving no empty spaces. Even rest periods should be marked accordingly (and yes, they’re essential for peak productivity, so don’t skip them). No activity—from eating breakfast to running errands or calling Mom—is too insignificant to leave out. Then, you can categorize everything with pretty colors (when it comes to time management, you need to find something you enjoy doing).
How to create a time blocking schedule
Start by making a to-do list for tomorrow. For example, you might wake up, watch the news, shower, make coffee, drive to work, eat breakfast, answer emails, go to a meeting, have lunch with an old friend, work on a project, drive home, take the kids to a baseball game, buy dinner, eat it, watch your favorite show, get ready for bed, lie awake thinking about climate change, and finally get some sleep. Be as specific as possible here. At first glance, your to-do list might seem simple: “meet deadlines at work” and “make a doctor’s appointment,” but consider everything else, like packing lunch, driving to your destination, stopping for gas, and so on.
Once you’ve compiled your full to-do list for the day, estimate how much time each task can (or should) take. This part will require practice, as we tend to over- allocate time to tasks, which is bad for several reasons. First, to be productive , you need a certain urgency and stress (but not too much), so you need a limited amount of time. Second, the longer you work, the more you stretch it out —and the less you’ll get done. Give yourself a few weeks to get the hang of reducing the time you allocate to each task, but ultimately, strive to reduce these time limits.
Next, grab the paper (or open the program) you use for time blocking and write down each event and task according to the time allotted for it. If you want to see how you’re organizing your day, choose different colors to categorize tasks, such as blue for self-care/bathing, yellow for work, and green for eating. However, be strategic about which tasks fall on which day. Use a prioritization method, such as the Eisenhower Matrix, to determine which of your tasks are truly urgent and which can be pushed to another day. Then, use a to-do list organization method, such as 1-2-3, to manage your time wisely. Remember, you have limited time in the day, so you can’t do everything at once. With the 1-2-3 method, you select one large task, two medium-sized tasks, and three smaller ones to complete throughout the day. Small tasks can be parts of a larger task or simple maintenance activities such as answering emails or picking up dry cleaning.
The trick after this is to treat each inbox the same way you would a meeting: don’t reschedule it. Don’t fiddle with it too much. Respect the time commitment it represents, commit to completing the task within the allotted time, and do your best to get it done within the time you’ve allocated. This is called time boxing , a similar but slightly different concept that involves giving yourself a set amount of time to do something, focusing solely on that task during that time, and stopping your work when the time is up. I’ve written in more detail about the similarities and differences between time boxing and time blocking , but all you need to know right now is that during the time you block off to do something on your calendar, you should fully engage in deep work , avoid distractions, and focus all your energy on the responsibility at hand. As with any pre-scheduled meeting or event, circumstances may arise that disrupt the schedule, but unless there are major disruptions (the kind that would cause you to reschedule a work meeting), commit to sticking to the allotted time.
It’s also a good idea to implement a time-tracking system here, whether by recording the actual time your tasks take or using work-monitoring software so you can adjust your time blocks as you become more comfortable with the system. During the first week or two, you’ll likely be estimating how long each task will take when creating your schedule, but over time, you’ll be able to identify whether something is taking more or less time than you’ve allotted and adjust your schedule accordingly.
The reason why time blocking works
Time blocking is very popular among its adherents. As Harvard Business Review notes, a typical to-do list offers too many choices and isn’t structured enough. Adding a time block helps you focus on the task at hand. Visually representing this time using color coding helps you focus and always know exactly what needs to be done. No more paralysis by indecision. You look at your Google Calendar and simply know what to do and how much time you have. Plus, if you share a calendar with colleagues or family, everyone else will also know when you’re available and what you’re doing.
This will also help you meet deadlines and stay on schedule. If you know a project or task will take 50 hours, time blocking will help you allocate these tasks and allocate time for them in your schedule, allowing you to complete them on time without wasting time thinking. If you finish something ahead of schedule , great! Add in a short break for relaxation.
A final note on time blocking
Time blocking is often confused with time capping, and many productivity blogs and articles use the term “time blocking” with this in mind. For example, the Harvard Business Review article mentioned above uses it. This is easy to mistake, and in fact, in a previous version of this article, I referred to time blocking as time capping. As long as you stick to a plan and create a detailed calendar, it doesn’t matter what you call it, but it can cause some confusion when reading other guides, so be careful. A full explanation of the differences between these concepts can be found here .