According to Cal Newport, Author of Deep Work – A 40 hour time blocked work week produces the same amount of output as a 60 plus hour work week without structure.
It’s difficult to juggle a busy work day of email, slack messages, meetings and busy work. There’s always distractions, whether they be work related or home related. Which is why many of us need a little structure – and time blocking can help.
Time blocking, and its alternatives: task batching, time boxing and day theming are all simple, effective ways to take control of the work day.
- Any of these variations might be ideal for you if you:
- Juggle different projects or responsibilities
- Spend a lot of time responding to messages and emails
- Find your day broken up by meetings
- Deal with numerous interruptions throughout the day
- Have difficulty finding time and mental space for big-picture thinking
So What Exactly is Time Blocking?
Simply put, time blocking is a time management method where you divide your work day into blocks of time. Each time block is focused on completing a specific task or group of tasks only rather than having an open-ended to-do list of things you’ll eventually get to as time allows. With time blocking, you start every day with a defined schedule that shows exactly what to work on and when.
The key to successful time blocking is to carefully review your daily or weekly schedule and prioritize your task list in advance. Then make a rough draft of your time blocks for each day. At the end of your work day, review any tasks that you couldn’t finish and any new tasks that may have come in, and adjust your time blocks for the rest of the week accordingly.
When your days are time blocked in advance, you will find you can focus more easily on the task at hand and won’t have to spend half your day making choices about what task to focus on next. Try to follow your schedule all the time, but, if you do get distracted, take a look at your schedule and get back to whatever you’re supposed to be doing as quickly as possible.
Here’s an example of a time blocking schedule.
| 9am | Email and messages |
| 10am | Write for project 1 |
| 11am | Write for project 2 |
| 12pm | Lunch |
| 1pm | Email and messages |
| 2pm | Edit for project 3 |
| 3pm | Family time |
| 4pm | Email and messages |
| 5pm | Finish up any overdue tasks |
| 6pm | Prep for tomorrow |
With time blocking, you divide your day into manageable blocks of time. This could be increments of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour or even longer – whatever works best for you.
Time Blocking Alternatives
There are a few other methods that are similar, yet different to time blocking that may work more efficiently for you. They are:
| Method | Explanation | Example |
| Task Batching | Group similar small tasks together and schedule specific times to complete them all. | Scheduling 20 minutes twice a day for emails and messages is more efficient than checking your inbox and slack every 15 minutes. |
| Day Theming | A more extreme version to task batching and ideal if you juggle a lot of responsibilities. | If you have a lot of responsibilities or projects all competing for your time – schedule one full day each week for each responsibility. |
| Time Boxing | With time boxing you put a limit on how much time you’ll dedicate to a specific task. This helps you to work more efficiently because you only have a certain amount of time to get something done. | I will finish the first draft of the blog from 9 to 11am. |
Why This Productivity Method is so Effective
When you set a specific chunk of time to one task you are able to use all of your focus and mental ability on that task rather than spreading your attention between several tasks. In fact, it’s said that the more you single-task, the more you build mental muscles that are necessary for deep work and the easier it is to stay focused.
Time blocking, or any of the alternatives also helps you to knock out the shallow work more efficiently. Shallow work is a type of busy work that’s urgent but not important to your long term goals – paperwork, some emails etc. When you set aside time for this type of busy work, you are setting limits on how much of your time you’re going to allow it to take. Also, grouping like tasks together in a specific time block allows you to push through them more efficiently and have the rest of your work day for the more important tasks.
Another advantage of time blocking is that it makes you more aware of how you spend your work day. Most of us are bad at time management and really bad about estimating how long a task will take, which means we often overcommit. With time blocking, we are forced to consider our current commitments and priorities and look more deeply into how our time is spent. For every new project you start to work on, or every new item you are assigned, you’re forced to find space on your calendar. This makes you think a bit more deeply before you say yes or no to a new project or task.
Are you a perfectionist? Do you find yourself holding onto an item and checking it over and over again to ensure it’s perfect before you submit? Yes, we want you to turn in the best work you possibly can, but if you’re too much of a perfectionist it can be hard to know when things can’t be tweaked or improved anymore. Tim blocking forces you to say this is good enough and press the submit button.
Like the other productivity methods we’ve talked about, time blocking isn’t for everyone, and it may not be the perfect option for you. But, it can be very useful at helping us structure our days.
If you decide to give it a try. Please leave a comment and let us know how well it works for you.