Do you want to stay more organized and productive? If so, you’re not alone. Situations like work burnout and social media overload have taken over our lives and make it nearly impossible to accomplish everything we want to do in a day.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to manage your time better and feel good while you’re doing it?
Lucky for you, there is a trick you can use to stay organized, even in the most stressful of times. Today we are going to talk about time blocking. Essentially, time blocking is a time management strategy many people use to squeeze the most productivity out of their day. The process involves creating objectives for specific times of the day. During this period, your focus should be solely on your task at hand.
There are plenty of benefits that come with time blocking. For starters, you’ll have more time to accomplish the things in life that bring you personal satisfaction. The goal is to spend more time focusing on your goals, which can help you find peace and happiness in your life.
Let’s look at several tips to keep in mind if you’re thinking about trying this popular strategy.
Take Small Steps
The first thing you’ll need to do is pick the calendar you want to use. You can keep a physical copy, use a program like Google Calendars, or even add a calendar to the backend of your website for easy access.
After deciding on what platform you want to use, we suggest that you take small steps when starting a time blocking schedule. The best way to take that first step is to think about when you’re the most productive.
We are not here to judge; some people are at their peak at 9 am, while night owls thrive when the clock hits 11 pm. Pick a time that works for you and commit to at least one hour of time blocking a day.
During this period, you should focus on the single task that you assigned yourself. The goal is to find out if you can get more done during this time. Experiment with different one-hour blocks until you find a time when you’re at peak productivity.
Avoid Distractions
One of the biggest barriers between people and their personal goals is distractions. Sometimes these distractions are something that needs our attention, like caring for our children. Other times, the distraction is completely avoidable. For instance, if you’re working on your personal project after work, you need to avoid your email when your inbox starts lighting up.
You instinctively know that a late-night email can wait until morning, but we have become so conditioned to working around the clock that we don’t leave enough time for our goals and aspirations.
Time blocking allows you to give your complete focus to something that inspires passion in your life. If possible, address the distractions you can’t control before your time blocking session. The rest of the process comes down to consciously stopping yourself if you feel your focus slipping during your block session.
Create a Flow
Once you understand when you’re the most productive and eliminate distractions, it’s time to start thinking about creating a time block flow. Your flow will consist of all of the things you hope to accomplish each day, with a designated slot for each time.
It’s important to note that creating a productivity flow is difficult if you haven’t committed to the one hour block in our previous step. Don’t be afraid to add things like “family time” and “yoga class” to your time block. As long as you have a goal, you can create a time block for that period of time.
Make sure you space out your blocks with some wiggle room. You don’t want to create an unmanageable schedule because you micromanaged every second of every day. Instead, add 15 to 30 minutes between each block. This tactic ensures that you have a clear path in front of you with room for snacks, distractions, and more.
Fine-Tune Your Time Blocking Sessions
Your schedule is going to change over time; there’s no doubt about it. As you get closer to reaching your goals, you’ll likely have to take time to rethink your time blocks and where you can add or remove blocks.
This is a natural process that occurs when you’re finally able to handle tasks that you’ve been too tired, stressed, or busy to complete. It’s about time you get your productivity back and start getting more organized in the process.
Now that you know how to start time blocking and what to avoid, it’s time to get started! What will you do with all of your extra time? Will you start a new blog? Reach your fitness goals? Let us know what you plan on accomplishing with your time blocking schedule.