Time blocking is a simple practice: You determine exactly when you will work on your daily tasks, usually at the start of the day, in blocks of time that you then “chunk” your day into. I like to schedule things in thirty-minute blocks and make an effort not to plan to do something for longer than ninety minutes.
Carving out this time away from work to logically think through your day accomplishes a couple things. First, you get to comprehensively consider all the things you will want to accomplish — this lets you make progress on everything you need to, so nothing slips through the cracks. (It helps to keep your list of work goals nearby when you define your time blocks.) Time blocking also, just as important, provides you with greater confidence that whatever you’re working on in the moment is what you should be working on. This means you’ll experience less doubt as you work, because you will have predetermined that whatever it is that you’re spending time on was the best possible thing to be doing.
To make time blocking as effective as possible, what you block time for must be grounded in a deep knowledge of what’s important. When it is, you ensure your momentary actions contribute to a larger purpose. Each block of time becomes a brushstroke that paints a picture of what you will accomplish.
Over the last decade of my studying and writing about productivity, time blocking has unfortunately never really stuck for me (until I changed my relationship with the practice). I have always found the technique a bit constraining. As someone whose highest value is self-direction, I like feeling in control and don’t like being told what to do. Maybe, weirdly, this extends to being told what to do . . . by myself.
In the past, to time block I would typically chunk the following workday out at the end of the current one — this way, I could loosely think about what I would be spending time on between when I finished work and started the new day. Returning to my desk the following morning, though, my reaction was invariably the same: I’d look at my upcoming day with resentment and dread. Even if plenty of breaks were interspersed between my focus blocks and I was working on stuff I found enjoyable, seeing that most hours of my day were predetermined for me instantly made me feel tired. Instead of feeling as though a day was full of opportunity and promise (along with a few meetings), I saw basically every time block as an obligation, determined for me by some previous version of myself. I typically didn’t go so far as to rebel against my past self, but I was tempted to. Screw this guy, I’d think. I’ll spend my time however I want!
Just as the same set of actions can help us attain multiple goals, most of my time-blocked and non-time-blocked days probably looked the same. I had things to do and I got them done. What changed was my relationship with my work.
When I was in the planning stages for this book, I knew I needed to write about the practice: Time blocking is a remarkable technique for ensuring your daily actions are guided forward by your overarching goals and intentions. But I also wanted to make the technique work for me: I set out on a mission to figure out a way to time block that helped me accomplish what I’d sought to do — while not feeling as though I was losing autonomy in becoming more intentional. (The irony of this is not lost on me.)
My time blocking breakthrough came in the form of a rather basic (and, in hindsight, obvious) realization: that I didn’t need to schedule my entire day ahead of time, all at once. Time blocking, as it is most commonly practiced, involves scheduling your whole workday as you block off time for different things. To feel more autonomy in the moment, at the start of the day, I still defined how long I’d be working on various tasks. But after defining what I would spend time on, I didn’t schedule anything. Instead, as the day went on, I’d choose which time block to start next. Sometimes, I’d choose the next few things to work on; other times, I’d choose just the next one. It was a simple change, but I still experienced the benefits of having predefined what I would spend time on — with the control I wanted.
After defining what I would spend time on, I didn’t schedule anything. Instead, as the day went on, I’d choose which time block to start next.
It took a bit of extra work during the day to block the hours of my day as it went on, but this let me hold on to the feeling of being in control — even if my days would have looked the same either way. At the start of the day, I made a list of all the blocks I wanted to spend time on (and for how long). Over time, I’d come to think of the ritual as “rolling time blocking.”
My ritual is an easy one, and I typically like to schedule my day the analog way. In the morning, on the lefthand side of a sheet of paper, I write the hours of the day I’ll be working. Then, as the day begins, I’ll slot in the first few blocks. And go from there. As the day goes on, I now typically have the next few blocks scheduled. This takes advantage of dedicating long blocks of time for focused work but still gives me the freedom to direct my day. Of course, it’s important to make sure you have time free in your calendar to fit those blocks into. If you’ve tried time blocking your day and the ritual hasn’t stuck for you, I highly recommend giving this modification a shot.
This article “Rolling time blocking”: Your next great productivity ritual is featured on Big Think.