To Succeed, Time-Block Your Work Hours
I’ve been a fan of writing out my work day in a To-do list for quite some time. I used to use Field Notes which were rad, but I was super inconsistent. I eventually graduated to using Notion to organize my life which I managed to do really consistently for like 8 months. It was only when I took my new job that I migrated to Microsoft’s built in calendar and other office tools to organize my work life.
All of this to say: I’ve used a number of different methods to try to keep track of all the different things I have on the go. What I used to believe was just me being “really organized” is now something I consider absolutely critical to my success in work. I can’t ever imagine not doing what I’m doing.
But see, I quickly learned it’s not enough to have a list of all the things you gotta do: you need to actually schedule your time in order to make that happen. This is where time blocking comes in.
Not that I think it matters, but I’ve blocked out names of meeting attendees for privacy’s sake
What is Time Blocking?
As the name suggests, time blocking is taking your calendar (I view mine in a weekly format that allows me to track the hours in a given day) and blocking out chunks of time for specific tasks.
If you look at a screenshot of my week’s calendar here (click to see full screen), you can see many of my days broken down by hourly sessions of work. This week is a little bit of a less intense week for me so there’s not even as many chunks of time as there sometimes are.
I even go a step further in my calendar and colour code stuff in order to help me see (at a glance) what each chunk of my day looks like. This is not a concrete system, but right now:
Green refers to Aidan-only time for getting things done.
Purple are all meetings involving at least 1 other person
Yellow are regular work tasks I need to accomplish
Blue is a special project I’m working on with tons of different layers
Parkinson’s Principle
One of the most encouraging and discouraging things I’ve ever learned is called Parkinson’s Principle. It states the following:
A project will either complicate or simplify itself to use the entirety of the time allotted to its completion.
In other words: the amount of time you give yourself to do something is typically how long it’s going to take.
Why is this discouraging?
Because it means I’m likely taking too long on certain projects I want to complete because I’m allowing myself more time than I need to complete it.
Why is this encouraging?
Because if I tighten up the reins on how much time a project gets for me to complete it, I might even be able to do it faster than I’m thinking.
Understanding Parkinson’s Principle, we can begin to take our time blocking already to the next level.
Why Time Block?
If the answers aren’t obvious and you need a bit more convincing, allow me to do so.
1. Regain control
I often think of my work as falling into 1 of 2 different categories:
Work people ask me to do
Work I want to proactively do
By time blocking, I’m able to visually/literally see how my time is being spent. If the work I’m actually completing falls out of line with what I think the proper balance of the above 2 categories ought to be, I know I can make adjustments for next time. It’s a self-audit in this regard.
It also helps me with telling people no. If I have too much on the go, I can tell really quickly by looking at my calendar. I can set proper expectations around demanding my time, and put off the little fires that pop up that “require immediate attention.” It’s been my experience that many of these problems tend to miraculously solve themselves if I don’t get to it right away (and by that I mean: the original asker finds a way to do it themselves).
2. Up your productivity
Remember Parkinson’s Principle? Here’s where we get to put it to use in our favour.
By laying out my day / week / month, I can get more things done because I’m not overwhelmed with the stress of having too much to do. I might still have a lot to do, but at least knowing when I’m going to get to it is going to help me focus on this other project right now while I slowly, subconsciously, mentally prepare to jump into another project later in the day / week / month.
If you only give yourself an hour to do a particular project in a really packed week, you know you have no choice but to do it. My experience tells me that, quite often, you find a way.
3. Fewer surprises
One of the biggest interruptors to efficient workdays are the little fires that pop-up on the daily. It’s easy for small problems to feel like big problems when they’re the most obvious thing right in front of us.
When your day is jam packed full of stuff, it’s easier to delay unimportant things. Your day is less likely to fall apart if you know you can’t deal with a small problem because you have other things on the go. Predictability is a breeding ground for success in my opinion.
4. More work on higher-level projects
Say you’ve time blocked your day and someone comes to you with an emergency (or “emergency”) they need your help with on ASAP. You now have a choice to make when you look at your calendar: Do I break my time blocking and help this person with this task, or do I stick to my schedule and allot time for this small fire later?
When you’re directly pitting 2 projects against each other, it’s much easier to analyze which is more valuable to you / the company, and which one ought to take priority. When we don’t have anything to pit a small fire against, we easily fold and give into it. Time blocking helps us resist.
5. Accurate estimates of completion
Ok: Not every project that comes across your desk is going to need attention right away, but it’s still nice for someone to have an accurate idea of when you’re going to get to it. Fair enough?
What if it’s something you don’t know how to estimate?
Look at your calendar and start time blocking when they’re asking you right then and there. You’re going to be able to barter timeframes on the fly, and you’re more likely to get your way if you have a well-thought-out calendar right in front of you pleading your case.
6. Deadlines are great motivators
My favourite trick to lighting a fire under you: put a deadline on your project. When you have no other alternative but to turn something in by a certain time (or stop working on a certain project to move onto another one), you find a way to get things done. It’s that simple.
First Things First
If you take a scroll back to my calendar screenshot there, you’d notice a section during the first hour of every day called “First Things First.” What’s that?
First Things First is a quiet hour of my day—every single day—where I look at my day and ask myself, “What is the most important thing I need to do today?” and I dedicate myself to getting it done within that hour.
If that seems a little counterintuitive to the concepts I’ve been discussing here, allow me to explain further.
Why is this concept so useful?
1. Small, nagging tasks
Sometimes the most important thing I need to do in a given day is finally schedule a meeting with a certain person, or fire off an email asking a few key questions, or any other multitude of small, nagging tasks that don’t fit nicely into the concept of time blocking.
Another way I’ll tackle this hour of time is to ask myself, “What’s the most stressful thing I have on my mind right now?” and then I’ll dedicate that hour to that project.
2. Head start on another task
Oftentimes whatever I’m working on during First Things First doesn’t take me a whole hour. I’ll use the remainder of my time to answer my emails, respond to Teams messages, or get the ball rolling on my next to-do item. You really don’t lose.
Especially if you’ve already time blocked “the most-important thing I need to do today” later into your day, this might give you the chance to get a head start on it, and potentially even wrap it up sooner than you think (something I told you earlier is nearly impossible).
Worst case, you’ve added another hour onto your time allotted to that given project. Best case, you knock it out in the first hour of your day. You win either way.
3. Momentum is undeniable
People have made millions of dollars selling books on the concept of making your bed every morning. How? Because that small accomplishment often snowballs into wanting to continue crossing things off your list. It’s a jump-start to your day.
While I don’t make my bed every morning (I’m out of bed first), I try to build momentum into my day by knocking off a big task at the beginning of my work day. Start small if you have to: any step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction. The biggest thing First Things First will help you accomplish is actually starting walking.
4. Interruptions do happen
As much as I’m preaching the discipline of saying “No” and slotting projects into your timeline (and not the other way around), the reality is: interruptions come up. There are some fires that need to be dealt with immediately. Kids do need to be picked up from school early from time to time. You will get an unexpected phone call you’ve been waiting on for weeks.
By completing the most important part of your day in the first 60 minutes, you give yourself freedom to be a bit more flexible later in the day if you need to be.
Obstacles to Time Blocking
So if time blocking is so great, why isn’t everyone doing it? A few simple answers to that one.
1. It’s not second nature
Time blocking feels awkward and unnecessary at first. Heck, a lot of days it still feels that way for me. Know how I deal with that?
I do it anyways. Not rocket science. If the benefits to time blocking are valuable, at some point I gotta just shut up and do it.
2. “I’m too busy”
Listen: you can’t afford not to time block. If you’re too busy, you’re exactly the kind of person who needs to be time blocking.
This one’s not an argument as to why you shouldn’t, it’s argument why you should. Own it. Do the work.
3. “I’ve got it all in my head”
Ha! So you’re saying you’ve never once, ever, forgotten something you were supposed to do? Or failed to properly prioritize your work week then?
I call bull spit on that one. If you haven’t yet, you will eventually forget something or get your priorities out of order.
When all your cards are laid out on the table in front of you, you can finally start organizing them in a way that’s going to serve you best. Even if you are good at keeping it together in your head, imagine how much better you’ll be when it’s on paper in front of you.
4. Succeeding, then failing
If the concept of time blocking is not foreign to you, you might have been previously convinced to try it. Maybe you were good for a time. perhaps you’ve fallen off the bandwagon.
That’s ok. Get back up there and try again. You can literally start time blocking again right now. There’s nothing stopping you except you.
The higher you climb, the more they want your time
Here’s a reality I see played out every day in my workplace. The higher up the corporate ladder you climb, the more and more your time is going to be valued. Honour it—and your coworkers—by scheduling it properly.
I don’t think you’ll ever have less responsibility or things to do the higher you climb. What you have to do might change, but it won’t become any less.
Build these skills while it’s easy.
Then we’ll eliminate all of the obstacles to time blocking when you’re called up.
In Summary
There are far more arguments in favour of time blocking than there are against it. The small investment in time blocking at the beginning of the week will pay dividends by 5 o’clock Friday afternoon.
Force yourself to do it for a few weeks. I promise you’re going to see the light.
I don’t know a single successful person who isn’t in control of their calendar.
Do you?
Hmmmm.
