How Time Blocking Can Make You More Productive

Have you ever heard of Time Blocking? If not, this is one item that you MUST look into as it will make you far more productive! Basically, time blocking, as well as task batching and day theming, give you an effective way to control your workflow and workday.  It is a very effective way to become proactive about the work that you must do, rather than reacting to the work as it comes in. You will be dividing your days into blocks of time and each block is specific to a task or group of tasks that correlate to one another and only those tasks are worked during that time. This is actually a combination of both Time Blocking and Task Batching, which is the easiest for most people to incorporate.  For example, most people lump items like all social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, etc) into one block, Strategic Planning could be a second block, Client Proposals could be a 3^rd block, Email a 4^th block and so on.

In the image above, the items on the left are NOT time blocked, whereas the items on the right are. You can see in our example that without time blocking and task batching, you would be jumping from item to item, only to find yourself going back to something that you’ve already touched earlier in the day. When you block your time, you will do all like items together in that particular time.  For example, if you have 5 client proposals to do, you will work on all of them until they are completed and/or your next batch of time comes up. Then move on to the next batch of items. Time Blocking and Task Batching work well together because you don’t have to schedule each individual item in your to do list, you add it to a batch of items. It takes less mental work to work a batch then it does to schedule each individual item.

The key is to prioritize your list in advance. Get into the habit of doing this daily (usually the day before) and you will remain more focused throughout the day because you always know what is next. If you do get pulled away or distracted, it is much easier to rein yourself back in when you get back to your desk in work mode. It is very clear that time blocking not only organizes your day so you can be more focused, it will also give you more free time to plan for tomorrow and spend with your family.

Another cousin to Time Blocking is Day Theming. This is similar to time blocking, however rather than blocking times, you are blocking days. For example, Monday is for Client Proposals, Tuesday is for Social Media, Wednesday is for Design, etc…

Personally, I use a combination of both Time Blocking and Day Theming. For example, on Monday I work on my own administrative work, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I work on client accounts and time block the work needed to be done and then Friday, I’ll use for catch up on whatever I need to from earlier in the week.
Time Blocking is one of the most effective ways to control your calendar which will in turn, increase productivity. If you are struggling with this, give Beacon Virtual Assistants a call for a complementary consultation.