Productivity system: Time Blocking

What is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is a simple productivity method where you decide in advance when you will be doing what. The basic principle is that you dedicate blocks of time to certain tasks or projects throughout your day.

There are two big advantages in doing this: first, it allows you to make time for the tasks and projects you want to be doing, and second, it lets you fully focus on the task at hand by getting rid of any constant task switching.

How Time Blocking works

1. Grab a calendar, digital or analog, and think about all the different tasks you have to do, either on a daily or weekly basis.
2. Take each task and carve out time blocks for that task in your calendar. Each block of time should be dedicated to certain types of activities e.g. admin work, customer support, emails or time that you will be spending on a specific project.

Note: you can use a shared calendar to let your family or colleagues know at which time you will be available/unavailable.

Once you’ve planned out your week, you might end up with something like this:

When to use Time Blocking

Time blocking is a great technique for those who feel overwhelmed by the daily influx of information and tasks continuously asking for your attention, and for those who find themselves frequently jumping from one task to the other without having the tranquillity to spend enough quality time on a certain task or project.
Furthermore, it is a great productivity method to provide some peace of mind: knowing that you have allocated a time for each of your tasks, puts you in control of your schedule and gives you the confidence to say no when something asks for your attention and it is not the right time.

This post is part of our big guide
“Productivity 101: the complete guide to productivity”
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