Why do some people go to great lengths to schedule and plan every minute of their day? It sounds like a tedious task, something unnecessary.
Why the hype, though?
Probably because some of the most successful people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates are into time blocking.
Or maybe because people are finally finding out that it is more than just hype. Time blocking is a time management technique that helps boost one’s productivity.
How does time-blocking make you productive?
There are misconceptions about time blocking that hinder individual from trying it out, which is fairly understandable. Some people think it makes one a robot, controlling you as you follow everything that is written in your schedule. But, instead of controlling you, it is actually more of a guide.
Feeling lost and overwhelmed by how busy your day is normal. The downside is, more often than not, it results in overlooking other necessary tasks or errands. Instead of making progress, you end up doing that forgotten task or errand the next day. You can’t be productive if you keep on taking a step back.
When you block a specific time of your day to accomplish a certain errand, it makes it impossible for you to overlook it. But then, another concern emerged. How can you exactly know how long can a single task or errand take?
Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. For repetitive tasks, it’s no longer an issue. But, it’s a different story when it comes to important, sudden, and demanding tasks. How do you deal with it? Since you will be controlling your schedule, you can dedicate big blocks of time to make sure you get to finish it without ruining the rest of the schedule.
What to use when time blocking
You don’t need fancy stuff when you’re doing time-blocking. You can write it on a piece of paper, a notebook or whatever it is you have on hand. But suppose you want to make your schedules more organized. In that case, you have a lot of choices to pick from- digital time block planners, printable time block planners, or notebook planners.
Appointment Book Planner, Monthly, Weekly, with 15-minute increments
if you are still not sure about diving into time blocking, you can use this appointment book planner instead. It has a monthly spread where you can write and look at your schedules for that month. There is also a weekly spread with 15-minutes and hourly time slots. Each column starts at 7:00 am through 8:00 pm. Here you can make detailed scheduling and block times to do specific tasks.
If you are curious about time blocking and want to try it out but you’re not sure if it will work for you, you can try printable planners instead. It’s cheaper and you can choose whether you want to have 15-minute, 30-minute, or hourly slots.
