Time Blocking for Peaceful Productivity
Photo credit to www.aistesaulyte.co.uk
In the last few weeks I noticed how I have been spreading my to-do list too much and how it felt like I was working all day long, often ending pretty late in the evening.
When I accounted for the actual productive work done it was just a handful of hours with lots of distractions in between and so I decided to find a better solution to actually work when it’s work time and really rest when it’s free time.
A big motivation for the kind of work I do is time freedom, which means for me being able to create my own timetable and have time for myself and the lifestyle I cherish so much. But this idea can quickly be a slippery slope without a structure around it…..and you end up working all day long!
That’s when I looked back at time blocking. A system that invites you to block in your calendar not only the appointments you have with other people but also the tasks you’re doing by yourself which in my case are the ones that get moved around more easily.
So I opened my precious Google Calendar and at the beginning of the week I selected a specific time for each task I wanted to accomplish that week.
So far I ended up moving things around quite a lot and there were unplanned events that required me to postpone my tasks a few times but overall I’m loving this method and I want to continue using it!
4 Things I’ve learned from time-blocking :
It cannot be done far in advance in my case
I actually see it as something ideal to do the evening before because that’s when I have a good view of the following day. And that’s when I can pick the tasks from my weekly to-do list and assign them a time on the calendar. If I do it too far in advance it feels messy and overwhelming since there will inevitably be some unpredictable things happening during the day. In short it requires flexibility!
It provides a great feeling of peace
Having too much choice of what could be done with my time gives me anxiety because there are countless ways I could be spending an hour of my day but after having blocked the time for a specific task and actually doing it there is a sense of peace that comes from having to focus only on that thing as well as building a sense of self-trust for actually showing up for my plan.
It cannot be too detailed
It doesn't serve me to time block every single action of the day into it! I saw some videos and articles inviting you to schedule your morning/evening routines, the time you go to bed, when to read a book etc… and while this could fit your needs perfectly, it doesn’t work for me because it’s just too detailed. I’m mainly using my calendar for work tasks and only a couple of personal things that wouldn’t happen If I don’t schedule them in; like exercising and proper meal times. So I would suggest, focus on the things that wouldn’t happen If they weren’t scheduled and keep some white space for spontaneity.
It shines a light on how much free time you have
You get a great view of how much free time you actually have! This is the main reason I tried time-blocking, I wanted to clearly see how much free time I had during the day If I was batching work tasks in a shorter space in my day and I happily realized I can have quite a bit of free time If I stick to it (keep into account that I don’t have family or kids so this may look different for you).
So here you have my honest and personal opinion of time blocking, I’ll keep on using it to keep away distractions and focus on what really matters to me.
Your time it’s the most precious resource you have in life so it can be an incredible tool to remember to allocate it to what really matters, what makes you have and also to plant the seed for some dream projects you are postponing now, because sometimes even doing them for 1h/week can move your dream forward in tremendous ways!
Now it’s your turn, what do you think of time blocking? Have you tried it before?
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