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How to Reclaim Your Time with Block Scheduling
Learn a simple process to prioritize tasks and manage your schedule to hit all of your goals.
You’re staring down your to-do list, feeling overwhelmed and behind—again. The stress and anxiety mount as you wonder how you’re going to fit everything into your day.
It’s a common scenario that most of us face consistently, but there is a better way. Block scheduling, sometimes called time blocking, is an easy way to find extra time in your day. It helps you become more productive to banish stress, promote deep focus, and avoid burnout.
We all have the same amount of hours in a week to accomplish everything on our to-do list. Block scheduling can help you make the most of them and spend more of your time on what you’re most passionate about.
What is Block Scheduling?
Block scheduling is a form of time management where you dedicate focus time to accomplish each item on your to-do list. It entails setting up blocks of time to complete a single task or smaller, similar tasks.
With block scheduling, you can put personal deadlines on your work instead of a vague sense that you should do something. This allows you to accomplish your tasks before the pressure and stress of a hard deadline. It can also be used to break down large and intimidating goals into manageable parts.
Take, for example, sending emails to prospects. If you send them sporadically throughout your week, you will probably find that your attention is divided and not used effectively. Instead, you could create a two-hour block twice a week dedicated to focusing on emailing with your other business development efforts.
How Block Scheduling Impacts Personal Productivity
The overall goal of block scheduling is to make time for all important tasks and eliminate what is known as “context switching.” Most of us would like to believe that we are efficient multi-taskers, but the reality is that the majority of people do not do two things at once well. Switching back and forth between tasks slows down our overall productivity and reduces the quality of our work.
If your schedule has no plan, you will usually find that everything urgent monopolizes your time and have none left for the important things. However, block scheduling has a different way of looking at time: due date versus do date.
In this video, Casey Clark, CEO and Co-Founder of Cultivate Advisors, breaks down the importance of having a due date as well as identifying a do time.
When we concentrate solely on when a project is due, we can default to reactive (rather than proactive) planning. When you set “do dates,” you can stop the feeling that your schedule is controlling you and instead create a practical plan to tackle your schedule.
How to Block Schedule
There are six critical steps involved in block scheduling:
#1: Keep Your Main Goal in Mind
What are you trying to accomplish? By setting your intentions and goals first, you can take a proactive role in your time and concentrate on what is important. Plus, your goals will help you measure how successful your scheduling is. Maybe you want to make sure you are getting home at a certain time every day, making more sales, or eyeing a promotion. Get an overall picture of what is important to you.
#2: List Everything Out
Make a list of everything you need to accomplish to reach the goal you set. Break it all down into practical steps so that you understand each part you need to get done. For example, if you want to give a powerful demo to a client, you may need to research their company and needs, put together a PowerPoint, and take time to practice.
#3: Assign the Time
With this list of practical steps, set the amount of time it will realistically take to accomplish each task. For example, don’t put down one hour to create a PowerPoint presentation when it has never taken you less than an hour and a half. Be generous with your time so that you have enough to get it done.
#4: Prioritize Your Tasks
You only have 24 hours in a day. Trying to accomplish too much will likely only leave you feeling burned out, and potentially important tasks will get left undone. Instead, identify the most critical things that have to get done each day and set them as a high priority.
#5: Put It on the Schedule
First, list out your non-negotiables. If you have set meetings each week, mealtimes, or have to be home by a specific time, put these on the calendar first to get a sense of your flexible time to manage your capacity.
Once you have a sense of what needs to get done and the time you have, identify the similar tasks that can be grouped together. Schedule them based on how you work best. For example, do you focus better first thing in the morning or later in the day?
Think about your week and the tasks that have to be done. Allocate a certain percentage of your time to each task and rank them by how important and impactful they are. From there, you can pick the time and day that works best for accomplishing these tasks.
#6: Review and Adjust
Regularly check in and assess whether your schedule is benefiting you. Before we start planning our time, most of us fail to realize how long tasks take. It may take some practice to create an effective and realistic schedule.
Does a particular assignment take longer than you think it will, or do your meetings tend to run late? Adjust your schedule to account for this lost time and avoid trying to compensate by frantically trying to rush everything else.
Tips for Success with Block Scheduling
Here are some practical ways to make block scheduling work:
- Commit. Instead of winging your days and hoping everything gets done, commit to creating and sticking to a block schedule.
- Be Proactive. Make some time each week and month to plan what comes next and assess any time wasters or bottlenecks in your schedule.
- Keep it simple. An overly detailed and complicated schedule is challenging to maintain and won’t likely last. Instead, keep simple and general blocks for long-term success.
- Be realistic. While we want to be fast and efficient in everything we do, that doesn’t always happen. Schedule for reality, not you’re hyper-optimized workday. Add 30% or even double the amount of time you think a task will take.
- Adjust as needed. Don’t just set your schedule and forget it. Continue to adjust to optimize as you get more skilled.
Most of us don’t get block scheduling perfect right away. Instead, practice, adjust and think ahead to start effectively managing your time.
Take Back Your Time
Block scheduling can be a critical tool to ending the stress and burnout many feel in their jobs. By creating set blocks of time, we can relax knowing that we have a plan to get the job done.
Effective block scheduling is just one way to unlock your personal productivity. If you’re looking to continue developing your skills in time management and productivity, check out our 9-course Personal Productivity Series. This series will help you unlock your full potential and get the most of your time. Get more done and banish burnout with everything from setting goals and prioritizing tasks to delegating to energy management.
Take your productivity to the next level with in-depth productivity training and sign up to take the 9-part course with Personal Productivity Series.
