10 Time Blocking Tips to Skyrocket Your Productivity

If you asked everyone around you if they have enough time in the day to accomplish everything they want to, I guarantee they will all say no.

Time stress is ultimately one of the largest issues that we deal with on a daily basis. There are tons of time management methods out there to help you deal with this, but I think one stands far above the rest.

That one is time blocking.

What is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is a time management tool where you determine your most important priorities and intentionally schedule blocks of time to accomplish them throughout your day.

This will likely include professional tasks that you need to complete to be successful at your job, but you should also be sure to include personal goals.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER: I am a firm believer that time blocking works for the majority of people. If you want to find out if time blocking is right for you, you can check out my article on that topic here.

What are the Benefits of Time Blocking?

Time blocking has seemingly endless benefits in terms of productivity and gaining control of your time and life. In particular, six of the major benefits of time blocking are that it:

1. Helps you realize that your time is finite.
2. Reduces procrastination.
3. Helps you follow through with goals.
4. Forces you to avoid multitasking.
5. Stops perfectionism.
6. Leaves you feeling more satisfied at the end of the day.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER: If you want to gain a deeper understanding about how time blocking can help you achieve each of these benefits, read my article here on the six reasons why everyone NEEDS to start time blocking.

10 Time Blocking Tips to Ensure Your Success

1. Start small and build on your success

The most important thing to remember when you start time blocking is to think small.

For most people, this will be a large change to your schedule. Many people tend to approach each day by multitasking, jumping around from one task to another randomly, and getting distracted by notifications, such as emails or texts.

When you start time blocking, you need to be very intentional with your time.

Time blocking means you will be setting aside specific blocks of time where you will be completely focused on one task. This can be a very daunting change.

This is why it’s SO important to start small!

Pick one or two important goals in your life that you want to time block and start there.

For example, you may have an important project at work, and you also have the goal of losing weight. You can add specific time blocks to your schedule where you plan to work on the project and other blocks of time to complete a workout. The rest of your schedule will be open.

Once you feel comfortable with this, you can slowly add in more as it makes sense to do so.

You can also incrementally build towards longer time blocks for your most important priorities to ensure you have sufficient focused time to work on them efficiently.

2. Avoid overscheduling your day

Similar to the first tip, this next tip also relates to starting small.

In particular, you should make sure that you are allowing flexibility in your day by not overscheduling.

Some people swear by scheduling their day down to the minute, but I believe this is unrealistic for most people.

In most cases, there are going to be unexpected things that pop up during your day. For example, you may be a new parent, or you may have a reactive job that requires you to respond to issues as they arise.

If this is the case for you, you will only be setting yourself up for failure if you try to time block your day down to the minute. Doing so will cause you to feel disheartened as soon as you are unable to follow your planned schedule.

Also, if you schedule your day down to the minute, you will need to schedule in leisure time. Although this can be good for some people because it forces you to plan time for relaxation into your week, it can also make your downtime feel forced.

You should experiment with this to see what works best for you!

3. Make your schedule at the beginning of the week

Another thing you can do to set yourself up for success when it comes to time blocking is to schedule all of your time blocks at the beginning of the week.

I recommend doing this on Sunday evening. That way you will go into Monday morning with a plan and will not need to spend time procrastinating because you aren’t sure where to start.

You also need to accept that things may change though!

You should review your work at the end of each day. If you ended up with any uncompleted or new priorities, you should reconfigure your schedule for the coming days to account for this.

4. Do the hard stuff first

The next tip to succeeding with time blocking is to plan the most difficult tasks at the start of your day.

This is often referred to as “eating the frog”.

Imagine you are going into your day with one task you are absolutely dreading, such as responding to an angry customer.

If you keep putting off this task, you will likely be distracted by it all day. The thought that this task is still hanging over your head may permeate into the other work you are trying to do and will make you less productive.

That’s why you should stop procrastinating the hard stuff and get it done FIRST!

If you finish a difficult or unpleasant task at the very beginning of your day, you will go into the rest of your day feeling accomplished and more relaxed.

This will allow you to give 100% of your focus to the rest of the items you have scheduled in your day.

5. Group similar tasks

In order to complete your work most efficiently when time blocking, it is vital to group similar tasks together.

When you are making your schedule at the beginning of the week, it can be a good idea to start by making a to-do list. Then, you should pull all of the highest priority items from this list and write them down on a priority list.  

📝 AUTHOR’S NOTE: Make sure this to-do list and priority list contain personal as well as professional goals. When people are busy, they will typically end up pushing their personal goals aside first. In order to gain control of your time and life, you MUST be sure that you are prioritizing personal goals!

Once you have your priority list, it is key that you take the time to group similar tasks together.

For example, if you have two tasks that are both focused on data analysis, it makes sense to group these items so that you are working on them in the same time block, one after the other.

This allows you to get into a flow with your work. When you have good flow in your life, you will ultimately be more efficient with completing tasks.

Studies have found that it can take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to completely refocus on a task after a disruption or change.

If you plan to complete similar tasks in a row with no interruptions, you will eliminate the need to refocus on a task which will allow you to be most productive.

6. Use a software

 If you are serious about implementing time blocking in your life, I highly recommend finding a software to help speed up the process of creating your schedule.

Using a physical planner is great in some cases and I do still use one on a daily basis to help with creating my to-do list, priority list, and a rough version of my schedule, but using a software is extremely beneficial for time blocking.

In particular, time blocking will often mean that you have recurring meetings or appointments in your day.

For example, if one of your priority goals is running a marathon, you may be running 5 days out of the week. In order to make running a long-term habit, it may be a good idea to schedule your runs at the same time each day.

Therefore, if you use a software for time blocking, you can create a recurring appointment for your runs. By doing so, you will only have to enter this item once and set when you want it to recur. Then, it will automatically show up on your schedule for every day that you chose.

This capability is available in every calendar software that I have used. In particular, I recommend tools such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook.

An example of how to set up a recurring event in Google calendar is shown in the image below.

Ultimately, the goal of time blocking is to give you greater control over your time and make you more productive. This effect is diminished if you have to spend hours every week manually writing down recurring appointments across days or weeks.

I highly recommend finding a software that works for you to avoid this wasted time!

7. Protect your time (build a bunker)

Although it is important to be flexible with your time blocks, it is also vital to ensure you are properly protecting your time.

If you need to adjust your schedule because a valuable customer called you unexpectedly, that is one thing, but if you are constantly not following your time blocks because you are getting distracted by social media notifications, then you need to address how you are protecting your time.

The idea of “building a bunker” can help with this. When you build a bunker, you should do the following:

1. Designate a certain location to get the task done

The location you choose needs to make sense for the task you are planning to complete.

For example, if you need to pull data online and complete a focused analysis of it in Excel, you obviously wouldn’t choose a noisy park with no internet access to do this.

If you are unsure what the ideal space is for a task, you can also trial different conditions.

For example, if you are trying to decide if you want to workout at a gym, at home, or outside, you can trial each space and see which works best for you and your goals.

2. Get everything you need setup

You can use the 5S method of Lean manufacturing to do this. 5S is an organizational method where you ensure that only required items for the task are located in the workspace. Each of these items should also be placed intentionally in the optimal position to promote productivity and efficiency.

For example, if you need a notebook to jot down notes during a video call, you should ensure you have a notebook and pen located right next to your computer.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER: Gain a deeper understanding of the 5S method in my article here.

3. Sweep for mines

In this case, the mines I am referring to are distractions. Anything that can potentially interrupt your workflow should be removed from the workspace.

For example, if you do not need your cellphone for the task, it may be a good idea to put it in a different room so that you aren’t tempted to look at it whenever a notification pops up.

4. Enlist support

Make sure that you are telling others about your plans and ask them to only distract you for urgent matters.

Depending on the task and situation you can enlist the support of your family, boss, or coworkers.

Unexpected distractions are often the largest reason why time blocking fails. Therefore, enlisting the support of those around you can prevent this from happening as frequently.

For example, if you are a new parent, you can sit down with your partner and discuss specific times where one of you should be available to care for your child while the other is working on an important priority. Therefore, you can each complete your work without worrying that your child isn’t being cared for.

You can do the same thing at work by creating an availability calendar with your coworkers and boss. This will allow each of you to set expectations for time blocks where others should consider you unavailable unless there is an emergency.

8. Create a list of potential distractions and methods to limit them

One of the main reasons why time blocking fails is that we get distracted. To avoid this, you need to fully come to terms with the sources of your distractions.

Some of the major forms of distraction are notifications, people, and sounds. Let’s break each of these down:

Notification Distractions

Distractions by Other People

Another major form of distraction in our daily lives is other people.

While it can be nice to have a good friend at work to chat with, it’s important to ensure that you aren’t allowing this to negatively impact your ability to reach your goals.

You can avoid this by setting clear boundaries with others. For example, you may tell your friend that you need to get work done but will have time to chat at lunch.

You can also avoid distractions from other people by telling them about your planned time blocks. This relates to what we discussed in the previous tip regarding enlisting support.

For example, if you tell your boss that you are planning to spend focused time working on a project from 10am until noon, they can make sure to avoid asking you to help with other tasks during that timeframe.

Sound Distractions

The final form of distraction we will cover is sound distractions. Sound distractions are any noise that keeps you from being able to focus fully on the task at hand.

Sound distractions can even be self-inflicted in some cases. For example, the most common form of a self-inflicted sound distraction is music.

Many people like to listen to music while doing work. For some people, certain types of music can even boost their productivity. It is important to understand if this is the case for you, or if listening to your favorite band while doing your work is really just a subtle form of procrastination.

In other cases, sound distractions can come from your environment. For example, this could be loud construction work outside your window or a noisy office.

If possible, you should find a space away from these distractions to complete your work. If this is not possible, you could potentially invest in noise cancelling headphones to ease the distraction.

9. Respect your time block as you would any other meeting

In many cases, your time blocks will consist of solo work. For example, it could be a workout or a focused writing session.

When we don’t have someone else relying on us to be there for something, it can often be more difficult to hold ourselves accountable.

Remember that time blocks should consist of your most important priorities. If this is the case, it must be something you have a vested interest in, right?

Therefore, you MUST be sure to treat all of your time blocks as equivalently important to a meeting with your boss.

If you wouldn’t skip an important meeting with someone else, why would skip one with yourself?

Ultimately, this is your life, and you need to respect your priorities above all else.

This is especially true when it comes to personal goals!

It is often easier to push aside a personal priority, such as workout, rather than a professional priority where others are relying on you to get something done.

Again though, you NEED to make sure you are prioritizing yourself!

At the end of the day, you are what matters most. You will ultimately feel more fulfilled if you are able to successfully work towards goals that matter to you.

10. Approach time blocking with a flexible mindset

The final tip is all about your mindset. Ultimately, your mindset will be the difference between whether you benefit from time blocking or not.

You NEED to approach time blocking with flexibility. We are all human after all!

There are going to be times when you aren’t able to follow the time blocks you scheduled. It may be because something else came up that you needed to deal with, or it may just be that you were flat out too lazy.

No matter what the reason, do not use your time blocks as strict tools to punish yourself!

This will only lead you to feel disheartened and unmotivated.

Instead, you should view your time blocks as a flexible challenge. In essence, you are just challenging yourself to complete a certain task in an allotted timeframe.

I know this mindset has benefited me in my life since I am a rather competitive person. If I set a challenge for myself, it gives me extra motivation to carry through with it.

On the other hand, I also make sure to avoid feeling down if I do not complete a task in a given time block.

In other tips in this article, I have listed ways to help protect you time and limit distractions, but this will inevitably fail in some cases.

This is okay!

In order to succeed at making time blocking a long-term habit, you must be willing to accept and learn from failure and cut yourself some slack when you have a rough day.

Conclusion

When you first start out, time blocking can feel very daunting. If you start without considering the tips above, you will likely fall into the trap of overscheduling your time blocks and getting down on yourself when you aren’t perfect.

I don’t want anyone to fall into this trap and abandon time blocking because I know firsthand how valuable of a tool it can be for increasing your productivity and achieving big goals.

If you follow the tips in this article and approach time blocking slowly and with flexibility, I guarantee you will see benefits in all areas of your life!

Are you going to give time blocking a try? Keep me updated on your progress and any questions you have in the comments below!