Use Time Blocking to Take Control of Your Work Time
Time blocking is my go-to method for time organization when it comes to work time. I find a time blocking schedule very effective to improve my work productivity and get things done. With many distractions to beat at the office. This time management technique keeps me focused on work tasks with the help of a time blocking template.
In this post, I have shared how you can make a time blocking schedule and tips to make it effective and avoid common mistakes.
What is Time Blocking?
Time Blocking is a time management technique that involves assigning a certain amount of time to a task and ensuring it is completed within the assigned time. Hence, time blocking involves focused work for the assigned block of time.
The intent of time blocking is to make sure you complete the task within the block of time you have planned. It revolves around Parkinson’s law that states work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Thus, by assigning a fair amount of time to work by blocking time, you do not spend more than the required time to work on it.
Time Blocking Schedule For Work Productivity
Now that you have a fair understanding of time blocking. Let’s get into the details of how to perform time blocking.
1) Prepare a To-Do list
The first and foremost step to start with time blocking is to have a To-Do list. You can start with brain dumping to have a fair understanding of all the things you need to take care of and prepare your To-Do list.
It is very important to have a running To-Do list of all the various activities that you need to perform.
A To-Do list is the most essential and basic requirement for any time management technique, and often is not prepared the right way.
You can read 10 Ways To Make An Effective To-Do List to make your To-Do list.
2) Prioritize work
Based on the importance and urgency of work, prioritize your tasks from the To-Do list.
The most important and urgent work should be your highest priority, followed by important work but non-urgent work, followed by urgent but not important work, followed by neither urgent nor important (these can be delegated to others if possible. Read How to Prioritize Work Tasks to know more about prioritizing tasks effectively.
Based on this, you can plan your entire week or maybe more.
3) Daily time blocking
I personally prefer to plan for 1 day of time blocking and do it the previous evening. When you do daily timeboxing, you are more realistic and can take the unavoidable situation into consideration better.
I follow the Ivy Lee method and simply write 1, or 2,3 on the task in my daily To-Do list and take them in the order of priority or the schedule during the day. These tasks will be my focus for the day.
Once you have your task for the day, go ahead and time-block them. This means determining the amount of time required to perform the work and the time of day you will perform the work.
For example, if I have to make a report for the annual customer feedback. I will determine the amount of time required to make it. Let’s say I need 2 hrs to make the report. Since this is going to be deep-focused work, I will choose the afternoon from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm to do work, since I have observed that post-lunch time is the least distracting time for me, so I keep deep focus work during this time.
4) Keep buffer time
Always keep a buffer of a minimum of 15 min before and after time blocking a task. This allows you to relax in between tasks, giving you a few extra minutes in case your task is not completed within the time. In case you have a meeting, it gives you time to prepare and compose yourself for the meeting, or it doesn’t make you run if your meeting extends the time.
5) Perform a Weekly Review
Always perform a weekly review of the work to find a way to make time blocking more effective for you.
The way time blocking needs to be done varies for everyone, depending on their work, schedule, style of working, productive time of the day, etc. Hence, it is important to review your time blocking schedule.
This will help you determine tasks that were not completed and need to be planned for the coming week. Find if the time allotted was insufficient for some tasks, the times you face the most distractions, etc.
I beat distactractions, stay organized and time block effectively with my Work Planner. I have all my task, daily time blocking schedule and everything I need to do on a day at my dashboard.
10 Tips for Effective Time Blocking at Work
Now that you know all about time blocking and the way you need to perform it. I would like to share some tips to make time blocking more effective at work.
1) Do time blocking on a daily basis
Perform time blocking on a daily basis. If you do it for more than one day, you may not make it realistic and may not include Mood and uncertainties for the day.
P.S. You may like the post How to have a productive day
2) Time block important tasks first
Always assign time to your most important task first. This doesn’t mean that you have to take on the important task sequentially. But while planning gives priority to the important task first and schedules the other activities around it.
Continuing with my previous example, making a customer feedback report is my priority, but that does not mean I need to take it first in the morning. I will take it at a time that will have the least amount of distraction and focus on it better. However, planning it first allows me to give it the most suitable time.
3) Plan around your most productive hour
You may be a morning person or someone who works best at night. Everyone has a different productive time throughout the day.
You need to time-block your most essential work during these hours. In a conventional work schedule, you typically have a workday from around 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, so you cannot work very early in the morning or late at night, but you need to find the most productive and least distracting hour through the day and use that for important tasks.
P.S. You may like the post 12 tips to boost your productivity at work
4) Deep work v/s shallow work
In a typical workday, you may have some tasks that will involve deep focus, but there will be certain tasks that do not require a lot of concentration.
When planning, try to avoid deep work sessions back-to-back. In fact, I find it useful to always have deep work followed by shallow work.
For example, deep work of preparing a report for customers should not be followed up by another intense task like review meeting presentation preparation. Instead, you should plan a deep task followed by a shallow task, such as responding to emails or other administrative activities like updating records.
5) Take breaks
Always break in between intense sessions of time blocks at work to relax, regenerate your energy, and avoid fatigue. You may find taking breaks is a waste of time, but it is very important to keep up with your productivity. Ensure to practice wellness at work with 10 self-care at work tips for your wellness at the workplace
6) Create a focused work environment
In order to focus better, it is very much required to have a focused environment at work. Try to have a minimal work desk setup to avoid distraction and not waste time searching for things. Keep your work essentials, such as your stationery, calculator, or any other prerequisite for your work, handy and organized.
P.S. You may like the post 14 Tips to Organize Your Work Desk
7) Keep flexibility
Time blocking is a tool to help you work better; it is in no way a rigid system that cannot be altered. If at any point in time, you feel that you should move from one task to another timing you should not hesitate.
Also, if an unexpected work or situation comes up, you should be able to address it and move your planned task to another block of time. Also, at times, you may not be able to complete work in the set amount of time. In that case, you can always extend but rather stop the work at the defined time and take it up later, as this will break the flow of thoughts, and you may later spend more time refocusing your attention on the same activity again.
8) Avoid distractions
For time blocking to work effectively, you should be able to focus on the work in the given time period. To do this best, we should avoid all possible distractions.
Some simple ways to avoid distractions are putting your mobile phone in silent mode or turning off notifications. You can also close your email inbox to avoid distractions. Most of the time, we also get distracted by co-workers. A simple trick to try is to put on headphones this will reduce the noise around us. Also, just by seeing you wearing headphones, your coworker’s main limit is reaching out to you.
Hope you found some practical ideas to make time blocking easier and useful for you. One of the things that helped me be consistent with time blocking was using my digital work planner. It just streamlines everything I need to do.
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