Time Blocking
Do you ever have one of those days when you have so much to do, but when you sit down to work, you don’t know what to focus on? This has happened to me so many times. I finally decided that I needed to find a “formula” that would help me know exactly what to focus on.
I found out that one of the best things I could do was implement the time blocking method. Have you ever used this method? It is a lifesaver!
What is time blocking?
So, what is time blocking? Time blocking is what you do to schedule out your ideal week. As you sit down to plan your week, you are going to look at your schedule. The first thing you will do is to block out all those times when you have meetings, phone calls, doctor appointments, etc. Anything that has already been scheduled for the week and cannot be moved. Write those in your calendar and make sure that you have that time blocked off. If you have to travel somewhere, make sure you block off time for travel.
After you have blocked off all those times on your calendar that you cannot move, you will then pick blocks of time to focus on different things:
- Blog post writing
- Graphic creating
- Social media scheduling
- Marketing and networking time
- Email and list building activities
You get the picture. Map out your time based on what you need to work on to get your business going in the right direction. Now if you have not done your quarterly and monthly planning, you need to stop right now and do that. Otherwise, you will not have a clear idea of what you need to focus on in order to grow your business.
How do you block time in Google Calendar?
If you are into using a digital calendar, creating your ideal week in Google Calendar is very easy. You can create a new calendar and then map out your ideal week by blocking off times. This will help you to know what you need to focus on when so that when you go to plan your actual work week, you already know what days and times you have blocked off. It’s easy to know what your week will look like. Your workflow will become much better and you will be more productive.
How do you use time blocking in your planner?
But what if you do not like using a digital calendar? You can still do time blocking on you physical planner. What I like to do is use different colors to indicate what the time block is for. Once I know what I have going on during the week, and have written in all those times when I have something scheduled that cannot be moved, I will then add my time blocks. Make sure to include a time block for personal things as well. For example:
- Get ready for the day
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Exercise
- Meditation
- Self-care
Many times you forget about yourself and what you need to feel good about yourself. It is hard to be productive when you aren’t sleeping, eating, and exercising well. Self-care is also so very important to schedule during your week, because you want to be able to take care of yourself so you have more to give to others. It will help you not burn out.
Remember that productivity is getting things done the help you reach your goals. Productivity is not just keeping busy all day with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. You need to know what to focus on, when to focus on it and this will help you be very laser focused on actually moving the needle forward in growing your business.
Combining your 90-day plan, your monthly plan, and then mapping out your weekly plan using time blocking is a step forward in the right direction to reaching the goals you have set for your business. What is your biggest struggle in reaching your goals? Let me know if the comments below!