How to Reclaim Your Time with Time Blocking

timeblocking Sep 13, 2017

Time is super precious. One minute you’re relaxing on the beach in the summer and then before you know it, you’re choosing this year’s Christmas tree. We could all do with a bit more time or rather; we could do with using his time we do have much more wisely.

Easier said than done, but time blocking is a novel idea that can help you to utilize your time and maximize the results.Let’s look at some ways that you can boost your productivity and adopt some time blocking behaviours.

Define: Time Blocking

So, what on earth is time blocking? Well, it’s a pretty simple concept. It involves splitting your day up into uninterrupted time blocks. You can divert all of your attention towards a specific task for a set amount of time and concentrate all of your focus on it. This means that you could decide you’re not checking your emails or even going to spend any brain-power on thinking about another task.

So, what on earth is time blocking? Well, it’s a pretty simple concept. It involves splitting your day up into uninterrupted time blocks. You can divert all of your attention towards a specific task for a set amount of time and concentrate all of your focus on it. This means that you could decide you’re not checking your emails or even going to spend any brain-power on thinking about another task.

One of the easiest ways to start time blocking is to set aside a timeblock i.e 2 hours and decide to answer all of your emails or return calls in this time. When you’re working throughout the day, new emails popping into your inbox can be really distracting, so answering them at certain hours of the day can give you more creative space at other times.

If you do decide to do this then make sure you let people know when your ‘email hours’ are in your email signature etc.

How to block

If you’ve decided that time-blocking is for you then there are loads of apps that will help you to do this online:

  • Toggl is a great app for time-tracking and you can use it across devices and platforms. It gives you simple tools to block off time and keep on top of your schedule.

  • Harvest is another effective tool with time-tracking capabilities and loads of fantastic integrations to help you be more productive. It has a good reporting suite, with lots of cool data visualization to make it easy to work out how you’re spending your time.

  • Everhour is really easy to sync with other project management tools you might use already like Trello and Asana. It helps you time track with a real-time dashboard and gives you useful summary emails about your use of time too.

Long-term goals

Time blocking is a great way to work on your long-term goals. It can be easy to neglect your overarching objectives, so setting aside 1 day of the week or month to concentrate on long-term planning can be very useful. This can help you to progress as well, because it can be tough to move towards your goals while you’re desperately trying to achieve all of your short-term goals simultaneously.

Planning time is always a good use of your time, even though it can feel counter-productive because you’re not necessarily completing tasks.

Prioritizing your blocks

Slicing up chunks of time into time blocks means that you have to decide which tasks deserve more time than others. This means that you’ve got to get friendly with the art of prioritization.

Now, the best time-blocking strategy involves scheduling in your most important work for the start of the day. The idea behind this is that doing the ‘most important things’ makes the rest of your work easier to achieve and means that you’re less distracted or conflicted. You can spend your whole day dreading a task and leaving it till the last minute, but this means that you won’t be in the best frame of mind for the other work you’re doing.

But you don’t have to necessarily do your most important tasks in the morning. You might not even be a morning person. Listen to your body and work out when you have the most energy. It’s in your high-energy moments that you should commit to your most important or difficult work.

Relaxing blocks

One of the best things about time-blocking is that it encourages you to self-care and leave space for relaxation. If you stick to time-blocks and you’re disciplined about carrying out certain tasks at certain times then you’ll have more time to do fun things. Setting aside time to relax and unwind will benefit you in the long-run and help you to achieve your goals.

Scheduling in breaks, vacations and ‘me time’ is an essential job, especially in a digital age where we can be bombarded with emails and notifications at any time. Committing to a ‘no email zone’ will help you to block your time effectively and balance your work and leisure time.

Final Thoughts

Time-blocking is a great way to stay on top of your short and long-term goals. By prioritizing your time, energy and focus effectively, you can become more productive and work on tasks that are important. Limit your distractions, concentrate your focus and get stuff done.

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