Why is time blocking important?
One of the greatest struggles of people today is our battle with time. There are an infinite amount of possible goals that we can strive for in life, but our time to work towards those goals is limited. Therefore, the benefits you can gain when you time block your schedule are enormous.
Time blocking, in particular, forces us to recognize that our time in a day, and even our time in life, is FINITE. We simply cannot do everything. Therefore, we must highlight our priorities and designate specific times to complete these priorities.
My journey with time blocking
I have always been someone who loves learning and wants to do a million different things in life. This has gotten me into trouble sometimes in the past because I would try to juggle too many “priorities”, and I would always find myself unable to complete everything I planned to in a day.
I don’t want you to think that time blocking will be placing major limitations on your life though. For me, I believe it has had the opposite effect.
For example, before I started time blocking, I would enter each day with an overly ambitious to-do list, waste a lot of my day making decisions on what I was going to tackle next, and then ultimately go to bed dissatisfied because I didn’t finish everything I wanted to.
Now, I work as a full-time engineer where I travel regularly for my job, I run five times a week, I strength train four times a week, I do yoga daily, I spend time with my family and friends every week, I cook healthy meals daily, I read 3-4 books a month, I am learning to play piano, I am learning Spanish, I am working on this blog, and I still manage to find time to relax and binge Netflix in-between. 😉
This may seem like a lot, but there are MANY other goals that I have that I’m not currently working on at all. Time blocking has allowed me to recognize what I can achieve with the time I have and what I currently need to say “no” to.
I am a major 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.
Time blocking and the principles of Lean Thinking
As a major engineering nerd, I can’t help but also point out how well time blocking fits with the principles of Lean methodology. Most companies place a major emphasis on Lean methodology to eliminate wastes and drive efficiency in manufacturing environments.
Therefore, as a chemical process engineer, I am constantly using these ideas in my work, and I always try to think of ways that I can carry them over to my personal goals and aspirations. Then, I can spread this information to you so that you can leverage it in your own life!
The principles of Lean focus on defining value, mapping the value stream, developing flow, introducing a pull system, and practicing continuous improvement. Therefore, the primary purpose of Lean is to identify priorities and then continuously improve your process for completing those priorities until you have developed the most efficient flow. Time blocking follows these same principles.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering…
What are the benefits of time blocking?
1. It helps you realize that your time is finite
By far, the most important thing that everyone NEEDS to realize in life is that our time is finite. There will always be more to do – more emails, more projects, more goals, more global issues – but even though these potential tasks are infinite, our time is NOT.
Therefore, we MUST take a hard look at what our actual priorities are. It is easy to say that you can do everything, but impossible to actually do so.
This is where time blocking comes in…
When you time block your schedule, you are forced to pick out your most important priorities and designate specific times for completing those tasks.
As humans, we are inherently prone to over-committing ourselves and underestimating how long it will take us to complete a task. Time blocking forces you to make physical space in your calendar for a specific task. Therefore, it becomes easier to say “no” to other commitments or tasks that may pop up because you will be aware that you do not have space in your day for it.
Also, when I refer to your most important priorities, I am not just referring to work tasks; you must also determine what items in your personal life are most important to you. This should include things such as:
- personal goals,
- spending time with family and friends,
- self-care,
- and, of course, basic needs like sleeping and eating.
It is very important that you treat these items in your personal life as equally important to priorities at work. Our time in life is finite, and it is vital to make space for important areas in your life outside of work.
2. It reduces procrastination
Everyone struggles with procrastination. Before I started time blocking, I would find myself procrastinating the most when I was overwhelmed by my to-do list. The items I needed to get done seemed endless, and it was easier to not start at all than to decide what to work on first.
When you time block your schedule, you force yourself to determine your top priorities in advance and set aside appropriate and specific blocks of time where you will complete each of those priorities. This takes all the in-the-moment decision making out of your schedule.
Also, one important thing to remember when time blocking is that you MUST have space in your schedule for relaxation and self-care.
Tip: Scheduling a time block for relaxation and self-care can be done by either leaving “flex” space in your schedule where you do not have anything specific planned to do or by specifically scheduling downtime into your day.
One major reason people procrastinate is because they feel burnt out. If you are not consistently allowing yourself time to fully relax, you will reach this point of burnout faster. Time blocking specific time or “flex” space for relaxation into your calendar is a way of allowing yourself to treat self-care as a priority.
Therefore, you will have relaxation time and focused work time intentionally separated and scheduled into your day which will allow you to fully commit to each at the appropriate times. This can help you to avoid the guilt associated with taking a break from work since it is already planned into your schedule.
3. It helps you follow through with goals
If you’re anything like me, you have about a million goals floating around in your head at all times. In order to actually be successful with any of these goals, you NEED to have a clear plan.
In a review article completed at Harvard University, researchers found that people are more likely to follow through with a goal if they make concrete plans and have a specific time and place scheduled to work towards it.
You can achieve this easily with time blocking!
When you time block your day, you force yourself to set aside specific periods during your day where you will work to achieve a particular goal. Since this time is already planned into your schedule, you will be much more likely to follow through with it than if you were to just rely on vague intentions.
You can use this for any goal from starting an exercise routine to learning a musical instrument to cooking at home more often or even just to scheduling those doctor appointments that you’ve been putting off.
For example, which of these thoughts do you think would get you closer to your goal of running a 5K?
- I want to run one time this week.
OR
- I am going to run three miles at 5pm on Tuesday at the gym next to my house.
I think the answer here is clear. 😊
4. It forces you to avoid multitasking
When you time block your schedule, you also force yourself to avoid multitasking since you need to pick out the highest priority items and intentionally scheduling time for each into your day. This is key if you frequently find yourself bouncing around between different tasks on your to-do list each day.
A study completed by David M. Sanbonmatsu from the Psychology Department at the University of Utah found that only 2% of the population are effective multitaskers. Unless you are a part of this lucky 2%, it is imperative to schedule focused time to complete each task. This will allow you to focus all of your mental resources on a single task instead of spreading your concentration thinly across multiple items.
Therefore, time blocking allows you to develop a flow for completing tasks which is one of the primary principles of Lean thinking. As in Lean thinking, this flow will allow you to eliminate any wasted time spent inefficiently jumping between different tasks. In doing so, you will be vastly more productive since you can dedicate more focused time to completing each high priority item.
5. It stops perfectionism
Time blocking can also help all my fellow procrastinators out there! When perfectionists are given open-ended assignments without a clear due date or end goal, they will typically fall into these two traps:
- Perfectionists will procrastinate projects due to a fear of not being perfect. Sometimes it can feel easier to not start at all than to start imperfectly.
- Once perfectionists come close to finishing a project, they will always find small areas to nitpick and tweak.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Voltaire
Time blocking can limit these perfectionistic tendencies by forcing you to set a time limit for a task. You have probably heard of Parkinson’s law which is the old saying that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. Therefore, you can overcome this by planning a specific block of time where you will work on a task and accepting that, at the end of this time block, you will need to say “good enough” and move onto the next task.
Tip: If you find that you constantly spend more time on tasks than planned because you are trying to get everything just right, try imposing very strict time blocks on yourself. For example, tell yourself that you have three hours from 9am to noon to finish writing an essay and then stick to that plan. This will bring the atmosphere of a challenge to the task which will allow you to stay more focused on the task at hand and will force you to abandon perfectionism.
6. It leaves you feeling more satisfied at the end of the day
Many people swear by their to-do lists where they list out 20 different tasks that they want to complete in a day. This will almost always result in dissatisfaction at the end of the day, because they will inevitably only get to 2-3 items on their to-do list, and those items may not have even been the highest priorities. The primary reasons for this are:
- To-do lists do not factor in how long a task will take
- To-do lists are not organized by priority
- People tend to underestimate how long tasks will take
- People waste a lot of time making in-the-moment decisions
Time blocking is the perfect strategy to minimize this dissatisfaction.
Since time blocking forces you to make physical space in your calendar for each task you plan to complete, you will have a much clearer picture of what you can feasibly accomplish in a day. In doing so, you will have a bigger picture view of the steps you are taking daily to achieve your goals.
Also, the ultimate goal of time blocking is to help you schedule your time efficiently so that you are able to complete the highest priority tasks without wasting time multitasking, procrastinating, or making decisions on what to work on. Therefore, time blocking will allow you to be significantly more productive.
This increased productivity along with being able to set reasonable expectations for what you can accomplish in a day will allow you to go to sleep each night feeling much more satisfied with how you are spending your time.
Conclusion
From procrastination to perfectionism to goal setting and more, you can drastically increase your productivity when you time block your day.
If any of the benefits listed in this article resonate with you, why not give time blocking a try?
By helping you to stop wasting your finite time in life procrastinating or trying to be perfect, time blocking truly can help you to achieve any goal you set your mind to.
Are you going to give time blocking a try? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below!
