You already know what time blocking is, but I'm convinced you're doing it wrong. To be fair, I'm also convinced I'm doing it wrong too. Time blocking seems like a relatively simple concept. Just schedule every waking moment of your day and you'll achieve ultimate productivity grand master level (I hear it comes with a robe 🤫). As it turns out however, this isn't as simple as it appears to be. I'm going to tell you about several frequent mistakes I've made and how to overcome them in hopes that one of us gets that robe.
1) Overestimate Time
This goes both ways. Either I'm overestimating how much I can do in a time block or underestimating the time needed. Complete a PowerPoint presentation you say? 2-hours, tops! Cue SpongeBob clip — 'Several Hours Later…' So why does this keep happening? Well usually it's because tasks are two broad in concept.
Solve: Start by taking your broadly vague tasks and breaking them down into smaller individual tasks. The smaller the better. Using my powerpoint example, here is the breakdown of what actually went down:
- Create an outline for PowerPoint — 30 min 🕛
- Use template and create slides for each subject in outline — 10 min 🕧
- Add talking points to each content slide — 1 hour 🕖
- Pull data and create graphs of data with annotations — 30 min 🕐
- Format Slides and add visuals — 30 min 🕝
- Send out recap summary of slide deck to team of review — 10 min 🕒
Total Time: 2 hours 50 minutes
Truth, be told I may only have 2 hours to dedicate to this, but I know I can at least get the first 3 bullet points knocked out today and block off time for the rest of my work.
2) Not Prioritizing Tasks
Lets say I know today is the last day to submit a recap for our last sprint session, but Lord knows I'm a procrastinator, so I'm going to achieve Inbox Zero and reorganize my tags in Capacities for the 3rd time this week instead. I'll defer back to the 'Eat the Frog' method. 🐸 You really need to get the highest priority things out of the way first.
Solve: Make sure you're not time blocking the day of. It's way too easy to push back all of the difficult things you need to do when it's only minutes away. Instead, I close each day with a 15 minute afternoon wrap-up. I use this time to create time blocks on tomorrow's calendar. It's far easier to have confidence that my future self will be prepared to do that daunting recap that my present self would.
3) Ignoring Breaks
Picture this, you've just had 3 zoom meetings, back to back and here comes the 4th one but your morning coffee is starting to hit. Guess who's going to be late for their quarter three financial presentation? 🙋🏻♂️ This took some time to get through to my thick skull, but apparently breaks are not for the weak. Here comes the pomodoro technique rearing its red head again. 🍅
Solve: Build in breaks everywhere you can. Not every break has to be 15 minutes long. While everyone else in my organization commonly takes an hour for each meeting, I take 55 minutes. I need the last 5 minutes to wrap up notes, walk to my next meeting, or flush out that morning coffee. 🧻
I tack on a nonnegotiable break after each task or meeting. My breaks typically aren't chit chatting or snacking either. I just need to turn off my brain for a moment. I'll clear clutter from my desk, get up and walk away from my desk, or refill my water bottle. I also don't go more than 2 hours without a break. These frequently little breaks throughout the day keep me going from morning to afternoon, long after everyone's lost the moment from that second coffee break.
4) Lack of Flexibility
Have you ever had a day so jam packed that the moment something interrupts your schedule it throughs everything else off track? "Not now Gayle! I only have 13 more minutes to achieve inbox zero and then I need to get work on my TPS reports!" Poor Gayle. 🥺
In a perfect world we would know everything that would happen and could time block our day minute by minute while still having room for Gayle. Unfortunately, interruptions should be expected. In other words, make room for unpredictability.
Solve: Don't overcommit yourself. I usually start my day committing to only 3 things. I see what meetings absolutely need me to be there, and I make sure to factor in all of the other things I can expect: commuting, lunch, breaks, 10:43 morning 💩. You know, normal stuff. If your day isn't filled with a bunch of distractions, you can always add more to your plate, but for some reason we have a more difficult time taking things off our plate.
5) Failure to Review & Adjust
So you started with a perfect plan to block out your week. You broke down tasks, prioritized things, included breaks, and even left room to be flexible for the unpredictable but things are still not working. Maybe they started off fine, but now your picture perfect schedule has shifted into something unrecognizable on a daily basis. It sounds like it's time to readjust.
Solve: On a periodic basis you need to evaluate your time blocking habits and understand where things have changed. For example, when my daughter transitioned from Middle School to High School, classes started later so I needed to drop her off later each morning. This meant I couldn't get to work as early as I did before. I needed to shift my morning routine so that I was waking up earlier to start my day at home to compensate for my new commuting time.
Anything can change a routine, either minority or majorly. You should reevaluate your time blocking routines and methods at least at the start of every season or when you notice it's not longer working effectively for you.
6) Not Account for Energy Levels
8AM David is ready to take on the world and could finish those TPS reports by noon, no problem. However, 1PM David can barely stay awake during the monthly marketing call because he had turkey meatballs for lunch. Curse you tryptophan! 😴 Yes, my mornings are usually filled with meetings and my afternoons are more open for deep work, but my energy is wasted that way.
Solve: I block out 2 mornings each week for deep work and do my best not to over commit myself. Understanding how your energy levels fluctuate throughout the day is vital to getting things done. I can't always control when things come up through my week or during my day, but I can be realistic about what time I need to protect to get the most value out of my time.
Also, it's a cardinal rule to ask if others can accommodate your needs. I'm not asking for the moon Greg, I just want to know if you're free after lunch to talk about industry trends, instead of 9AM.
7) Ignoring Personal Needs
It never seems to fail that keeping my professional and personal life separate seems to backfire in terms of my schedule. Somehow I accepted that 5PM call, even thought I knew I had to leave by 4PM to pick up the kids that day. Having one calendar for everything definitely helps but only if you're time blocking your personal commitments too.
Solve: A keep a commitment list going of personal and professional things. I want to never miss my daughter's volleyball games. I want to make time to spend date nights with my wife or dinner parties with my friends. I want to make sure I'm 5 minutes early for every meeting and available when my team needs me to be.
This commitments help shape my time blocking schedule. I place these important things on my calendar first, before weekly tasks or meetings start to fill things up. I capture commuting too, including walking to and from my car. I mention this because I once wrote my schedule as if I could teleport from place to place. ⚡️
So all you need to do is avoid these 7 common mistakes, put together a picture perfect time blocked schedule and reach that grand master status! Easy, right? Let me know when you get your robe. I think mine got lost in the mail. 📦
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Comment below 👇 if you time block and what obstacles you've had to overcome. I'd love to know I'm not the only one. 😅