Time Blocking Doesn't Work (Until You Do It Right)

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Hello, and welcome to biz Your Work Life Sorted. I'm m Vernon and today we're diving into something I've personally struggled with, time blocking. So you know that feeling when you look at your to do list and it feels completely overwhelming, or when you're trying to focus on deep work but keep getting distracted by Slack messages or emails. I have been there so many times, and I'm actually supposed to be deep into writing an article right now, but here I am instead talking to you, So please

Life, life and schedule.

Plus they are joined by productivity expert and artist Debo, who completely changed my perspective on how we think about organizing our time. Trust me, if you've ever felt like you're drowning in tasks or struggling to find focus time. This episode is for you, Michelle.

What's your vibe on time blocking.

I've heard of it and I felt like maybe it's something I should be doing, you know. I feel like maybe it's something we felt like we all need to try, or like we're missing out on something if we're not doing it.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you.

Actually, I had heard about it for a long time because a lot of the engineers at Google did it, and I was always like, yeah, I'm not a productivity person. Like, honestly, the word productivity gives me anxiety, Like I hate it.

I'm actually I'm a really slow operator.

So I'm that person where someone's standing over your shoulder and they're like by your computer and they're like he will just pull it up and do it now, just like go to the folder and do the thing, and I'm like, don't watch me. I'm really slow. So like,

I was curious about this because I would put myself in the camp of I've tried it and I couldn't commit to it, like it seemed a bit too hard to me, or like I needed to spend a lot of time sitting down and planning things, yeah, and do that over and over, which is just not something I can maintain.

So I asked on my socials if.

You've tried time blocking, and it's yes, I lived by it, tried it, couldn't commit, never tried it, don't know what it is. And the winner here was thirty eight percent of people said tried it and couldn't commit yeah, and then live by it was second with twenty six percent, never tried it, twenty one percent and fifteen percent don't know what it is.

Okay, So I think this episode will.

Be yeah, I am that personal the majority, So yeah, definitely tried it felt like it didn't work me. I actually tried it several times before I was able to get it to stick. But I still was thinking that I'm not doing it right and there's something that I'm missing. So it's kind of why we wanted to do this episode and why we wanted to go out and speak

Amazing.

Can't wait.

So Deb, there's two camps of people when it comes to time blocking. The people who, like I've heard of it, but I actually have no idea what it is. And then the second camp of people who have heard of it and think they're doing it but maybe don't feel like they're doing it properly. And I feel like I'm in that second camp.

So to just kind of clear.

Up the first question, what is time blocking and why should we even be doing it?

Time blocking is a really simple method where you just assign tasks to a timeslot during the day. So, for example, instead of writing your basic to do list like reading, writing, doing the dishes, you actually assign those tasks to a specific time, so you would do like nine am is your reading time, and then ten am is your writing time, and washing the dishes is at five pm.

Or something like that.

So it really is just adding a time slot to those specific tasks.

How do you actually decide what tasks you're doing when you know, is there a best practice we're meant to be following in terms of where we're putting tasks?

I think it really comes down to like trial and error, to be honest, Like, unfortunately a lot of people don't find time blocking that useful because they're just like, oh, a whole block of the days just work and that's it. But generally, I find that it really comes down to what you do personally. For example, like I can't exercise at night, so I will always put it in the morning. And I don't read after like nine am. I only read in the morning, so I always put it in the morning as well.

So it really comes down.

To like what works with your personal lifestyle. Even if people say wake up at four am, Like, that's just not really viable for everyone. So it's something that really comes down to trial and error. You'll pull a few things that will be your dream life, but then you'll realize really quickly that your life gets in the way, and then you have to like kind of move things around and test it.

Okay, So, because this is the kind of trap that I have been in before, I wanted to try time blocking, and then I tried it, and then I was like, it doesn't actually work for me. Then I had this sort of moment where I stopped and thought about what are the tasks that I'm doing and when is the best time of my day to do those tasks.

So that was a big light bulb moment for me.

For the listener at home who's never done this before, and maybe tried it and it didn't work. How do you actually get started in terms of deciding what are the better times of day to do certain things.

Is there any kind of tips that you have for that.

My main tip is to number one, be very forgiving, because it'll be a process, and I think it really is based on your energy levels, so you would naturally do things that are harder at the beginning of the day. Like for me, cleaning through my personal email is like very very easy, So I tend to do it at night when I'm watching TV because I can kind of like splice it with like low energy activities. But if something takes a little bit more effort, push it earlier

Kind of meeting afterwards.

So I think it really depends on your own temperament and whether or not this is something that you can handle. The thing is always just start really really easy and slot it in, try it for like a couple of weeks and test it to see how viabod is in your life. Just keep adding things very slowly. I wouldn't rush into anything that sounds good.

I remember.

The big aha for me was when I realized that my brain is different in the morning to the evening, and I can't actually concentrate on deep work in the afternoon. So where I used to put all my meetings in the morning and then I'd be kind of left to work in the afternoon, I completely flipped it and I started blocking out my mornings for actual work and time blocking all my meeting.

In the afternoon.

And that kind of kept my brain engaging anyway because I was talking to someone.

So that was a really big lab on mover for me in terms of planning out those blocks.

So deb someone who's just getting started, they have an open calendar, or maybe they've got a few things that they're already in that calendar in terms of assigned work meetings and things like that, can you actually break down the step by step process someone should go through to time block their week.

Generally I would either go digital or paper. I personally like writing things down, so I would just take a simple piece of paper, blank piece of paper, or you.

Can use a diary or anything like that.

What I would generally do is write major tasks that you want to get done during the day all the week as a list. So first start with a regular to do list, which I think a lot of people have, and then kind of consider what your priorities are for the week. So generally I pick three maximum.

I try to do.

Two because I don't want to like overwhelm myself, but it's maximum three. Once you kind of consider that, either in your calendar or on the paper, you kind of write down if you're doing the day. You write down time slots from top to bottom, so like when your day starts, which some people they want to start from nine am, so nine am, ten am, eleven am, twelve pm, one pm, all the way down to whenever you want

You got to do during the day as well.

Got it.

So if you kind of step back and you look at your your full day or your full week, should every slot of time actually be scheduled?

I would recommend not to.

I would just guarantee like certain slots to be put in because you need time to be kind of flexy. And then as you move through the week or move through the day, you realize that like things will change, like things will pop up, and if everything's like super rigid, you can't really move anything around, and I think that causes more stress than what the purpose of it is to like alleviate anxiety about tasks. So I would keep as much open as possible, and also give yourself off the.

Time as well.

You actually realize when you time block that there's so much time when you're not like stressing about when to do things. If you just say you'll do it, there's actually so much time to do things.

I feel like it's been a very long time since I've heard someone say there's so much time to do things.

I love that. Thank you.

I already feel more calm talking to you. How about the traps people get into? So who think they've tried this and they're like, it didn't actually work for me. What are some of the things that people actually get wrong.

The main thing that people get wrong about time blocking is just getting too stressed about making everything perfect and creating this really rigid schedule. And I myself am such a big perfectionist and I want things to go exactly as I plan them, but obviously that never happens, and you kind of realize that with age, you're like, you.

Can't control everything.

The biggest mistake really is that people don't do something and then they feel like they're failure off for not doing it, And I.

Think that's totally not the case. I think it's a trial and.

Error, as I said a bit earlier, and I think generally people do have to also assess whether or not the task that they want to do is important to them. Like two years ago, I tried to put reading in my time block for the longest time, and I.

Never did it.

I'd always be like, I've got other things to do, it's not important. Then I feel guilty about skipping it. But then I realized that reading was just not important for me at that time, and I just let go of that, and I was like, I'll go back to it when I have the time to do it. And now I read like almost every day because I've I want to do it. Personally, I think people try to force things that they want to do in the day when actually it goes against their values or it goes

And it really is less.

About the time blocking and more about what you have the motivation to do in general outside of time blocking.

That's a really important point.

I think it's not actually going to work to get you to do something by just putting it in your calendar and having a reminder set up, So it's really about time blocking is actually stopping and thinking and deciding what do I want to do on my day, allocating a realistic amount of time to do those things, and then trying to reduce some of the friction. So one thing I think is really important for people to think about when they're doing their time block planning is reducing

Context switching really is just moving from a different task to another that is so significantly different it takes your brain.

Like I think I read somewhere.

I'm not sure if it's accurate, but about twenty three minutes of your time to really emotionally move from one task to the other. For me, once I figured that out, or like when someone told me that, that really blew my mind because you kind of waste that time easing into the next task. So generally, it's best to group similar tasks together. So you want to have all your meanings kind of in the morning or in the afternoon, so that you have focused time in writing or like

For the people listening, this is it right, This is why, because you know, you might think I can plan some stuff in a calendar that's not really going to change my life. But the point is that because if you don't plan things, you're actually wasting so much time as

One trap that a lot of us getting.

To is that if you work in an office, your time's not necessarily your own. There's people putting meetings in, there's people hanging you on Slack and they're like, can you do this thing? Do you have any any tips for how people can protect their blocks of time that they've actually scheduled.

It really is like setting probably a no meeting Friday, which.

We do at work, which is pretty.

Good, and everyone really honors that and we kind of make sure everything is like in my Thursday, I think setting a time during the week or even like an afternoon. A lot of my workmates they put in that do not schedule time period, which like really cannot budge unless it's like so important, and I think everyone really respects that.

The other thing is just making sure you're putting in your certain end times in your calendar, so like at this time I'm commuting, I don't take calls or respond to messages, and then also including some of your boundaries in your signature as well.

I know a lot of people will say.

You know, I only check emails twice a day, and they'll even block those in their calendar that says, you know, this is the time I'm checking emails and responding to slack messages. These times do not disturb. Yeah, it's about having boundaries and trying to be consistent, but then having a little bit of flexibility as well.

Yeah, because there'll be times when like things are like have to be moved around, and it'll be good like to have that flexibility. But in general, I think, like across the whole team, it's generally very like much agreed that there are certain times that like cannot be touched. Having that freedom in general, like across the whole workplace, just makes people want to be flexible when the time requires it.

So I will just say everyone's jobs are different, right, and we are not saying that time blocking is going to work for everyone, And a lot of people have the type of job where their day is just not their own. If you don't plan your day, other people's priorities will plan your day for you. So it's just about getting on the front foot with your time, which is so precious. So if you can just do a little bit of planning, you can get on the front foot.

I think what I kind of like about this is I don't think i'm the kind of person that will ever actually time block, but I like what it stands for. I think sprinkling a bit the foundations of time blocking into how you do your job if you're not the kind of person who's going to time block is a good way to approach just being focused and intentioned about your day.

Totally, because I think for a lot of us the idea of time blocking every minute of your day just sounds awful, Like when is the time for impromptu conversations and having fun things like that?

So yeah, yeah, definitely with you on that.

One thing I loved when you were talking was around fitting things into your lifestyle, and I think you touched John like when is the best time of.

Day to do certain tasks?

And I think if you're maybe more in my camp, which might be the light touch time blocking camp. Two questions that I think could be good for people to ask themselves when working out, like when does your brain work best? Is asking yourself when do you procrastinate the hardest? Like when do tasks feel hard? And that really shouldn't be the time of day that you're trying to do deep work or really get into the weeds of certain things. And then when do things feel effortless, and that should

The same, oh my god.

Same. But some people that's when they're picking up My boss at Google, that's exactly when his primetime was kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, that's actually my first tip. So know what time of day works best for you, and also days of the week as well. So that's a really big thing, like know when your deep work is best and make sure you're blocking that. So I actually connected this idea of know what time of day is

Yeah.

The second thing that really changed it for me was this. If someone asked you to do something, like someone says, hey, can you present in the team meeting next week, instead of just adding it to a to do list, I would instantly open up my calendar and say, I think that's going to take me like three forty five minute blocks to do, and I would just instantly block the time up until that presentation next week, and then I would dump any kind of initial thoughts that I had

You're selling it to me, I love it. These are three little, really quick ones. You're gonna hate this one. You do need a block to plan your blocks.

So like I do have a little block on a Friday where I actually try to plan out the blocks for the wak ahead. Honestly, sometimes I skip it. I'm like, I'm having a margarita and I'm not doing that, But then I kind of, yeah, I do have to do it the next week. So yeah, if you are going to get this to work for it you, it does help if you actually have some planning time.

My favorite one out of all.

Of the tips is my task pebbles block. So this is just where I have two of them a week, and I just have a calendar block that says task pebbles, and as things come up throughout the week, those little things that you don't have time for, I just drop them into the description and save it and then when I've got time, I'll jump in. Sometimes if I've got spare time in between meetings, I'll jump in and pull a task pebble, or other times I'll just make sure

Have a break. It just makes you feel pretty good.

You're kind of like setting yourself up for failure if you start and you're time blocking and popping things in that actually aren't really a priority to you, or aren't things that you truly care about and want to do, like Deb's example of reading and then not doing exactly Okay, So how someone could start this tomorrow? They need to take away from your book and plan to plan, and do that at a time when you feel most motivated. So for me, it would probably be a Monday morning.

Get it into your calendar and get it into your calendar. Make it sound so easy, exactly, Yes, love it done.

So Dare hit us with some hard facts, especially when she said there's actually so much time to do things when you're not stressing about when to do them. As someone who's attempted time blocking multiple times and failed, hearing

Bye.

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