Secrets to Time Blocking Success
Episode 005
Subscribe
Points Covered
What is time blocking?
Why it’s worth giving time blocking a try
The secrets to time blocking successfully and the common pitfalls
Where to start if you’ve never time blocked before
Episode Transcript
Welcome to Episode 5 of The Seriously Sorted Podcast. Today I want to talk to you about time blocking, or more specifically, the secrets to successful time blocking. So I'm going to talk you through what is time blocking, why it might be worth you giving it a try, the secrets to time blocking successfully and the common pitfalls, and where to start if you've never time blocked before.
What is time blocking?
So if you've never heard of time blocking before it quite literally is blocking out your schedule or your calendar with specific tasks. So for example, every Monday morning from 9am to 12pm I have my time blocked out to make sure that I have recorded and edited my podcast episode. On Monday to Friday, I have allocated time at various times on different days to make sure I've done my client work. And once a month I have a time block to ensure that I have reconciled everything in my financial software. You can time block as much of your day or week or month as you'd like depending on what works for you.
Why you should give time blocking a try
Okay, so why should you give time blocking ago if you've never tried it before? Firstly, if you're quite a visual person, then this method of time management might work really well for you, because quite literally, it is putting appointments in your calendar, and you'll have a visual representation of your day, week or month. You'll also get a really solid understanding of where you're spending your time based on your time blocking.
So I kind of liken this to the "food diary" of productivity. You'll get to have a really honest look at what you're doing when.
It's a great way to make sure that tasks don't fall through the cracks, and I'll go through how to do that in a moment. And it also gives a really good sense of achievement of knowing that you've utilised your available hours effectively.
The secrets to time blocking success
Okay, so on to the secrets of time blocking success, and I have three for you today.
1: Be specific
So the first one is to be specific with your time blocking so what do I mean by this? The pitfall I see most often is time blocking without a particular goal in mind. So time blocking quite generically with particular topics. So just just time blocking social media without being specific on what you need to work on, time blocking just one hour at a time when you might not need that much time for that particular task or you actually might need more so it's unrealistic, or time blocking particular subjects too often, which often causes people to just sort of delete that time block and think that's alright I'll just wait until it comes around again. So please try and be specific with your time blocking.
2: Be Proactive
Okay, secret to successful time blocking number two, is to be proactive with your time blocking. So what on earth do I mean by this? Time blocking should be part of a bigger plan. So what I don't want you to do is be reactive with your time blocking on a day to day basis. So I don't really want you to sit down on a Monday and "come up" with a list of things to time block. and such. Time blocking works best when you've done it in advance. So I would definitely encourage you to at least try and time block a week in advance, if not two weeks to a month in advance based on your goals and your workload for that time period
3: Be flexible
And the third secret to time blocking success is to be flexible. So I don't want you over scheduling yourself. I don't want you scheduling a full 9 to 5 day without any room to move things around. I want you to think of each time block like an appointment with yourself. So if you had an appointment with someone else, and they weren't available all of a sudden, you would move that appointment right? So we want to make sure that you have the ability to move the "appointments" (in quotes) with yourself. So we don't want you deleting any of the time blocks. They're obviously there for a reason, so we need the flexibility to make sure that we can move them around.
*This is probably the main reason I see for people giving up on the time blocking method, because they've over scheduled themselves, they found it too restrictive, and just sort of given it away because it didn't work.*
But most of the time, you'll find that it's because you've over scheduled yourself and over committed to what you can do. So please stay flexible.
where to start if you’ve never time blocked before
Okay, so at this point, if you've never tried to before, it might sound a little bit overwhelming. So where on earth do you start if you've never done it before? I would definitely suggest starting with just time blocking a few key things. So the first couple of things I'd try out to time block would be client work. So if you've had a meeting with a client and you've scoped something out, why don't you even try and time block when you're actually going to get the work done. The next thing I would look to time block are things that sort of fall by the wayside. So those, you know, checking your finances and looking at where you're at in the month for example. Make that "meeting" with yourself and commit to doing that once a month. And then just gradually build up a set of time blocks a set of meetings with yourself that work for you.
So there you have it:
What is time blocking?
Why it might be worth giving it a try
The secrets of time booking successfully and
How to start if you've never done it before.
I really encourage you to give time looking at try if you haven't, let me know how you go.
your podcast hostess
Lauren Stratford
I’m Lauren and I help overwhelmed creatives like you embrace their strengths, get clear on their customer journey and maximise their impact (without adding to the never ending task list!).
The Seriously Sorted Podcast® is a registered trademark.