My Simple Hack for Calendar Blocking Led To Productivity 3X

Time blocking (and its allies time boxing and task batching) are easy, yet productive techniques to get control of your workday.

I adopted the calendar blocking methodology in 2020 as I started working on Nextgen Digital (my new baby)and thought had achieved my highest level of productivity.

Surprisingly, I was wrong!

There are countless calendar hacks to get you more productivity out of the hours in your day. However, these tools only work if you schedule the right things and follow the systematic rules.

No matter what productivity tips you follow or how you manage your tasks, what matters is that you get things done and get them done effectively within the time period.

How can you make sure you’re not just stuffing the maximum amount of work into your calendar but that you’re stuffing in the right work? Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke just shared a smart but simple suggestion on the Observer Effect newsletter. Like many CEOs, he batches his days, setting aside specific blocks of time to focus on particular priorities.

Tobias adopts bulk-blocking his calendar and says — A lot of this is almost automatic by just having a good color-coding system, which is really fun. [laughs]

And, here is my hack as you might have guessed it by now.

Before I talk about my workflow on my daily and weekly routines, let me give you a little bit of work I do — make youtube videos (4 vids every month) on productivity, minimalism, and digital transformation + provide consulting + write blogs on Vocal and Our Productivity and also write for 4 more publications.

And, here is my workflow that has improved my life by 3X:

1. Block Mondays and Tuesdays for my video scripting, research, and recordings for all 4 videos — this way I am done for the entire month :)
2. All evenings are blocked for reading relevant books and articles on Vocal by all you amazing writers.
3. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings are for writing my journal and all abstract things that come to my mind.
4. Wednesday afternoons are for my calls and consulting work and blog writing + editing.
5. Thursdays are all for writing articles for different sources as I mentioned above.
6. Friday is for writing newsletters and my youtube video promotions, reply to emails.
7. Saturday — day off :)
8. Sunday — spend 4 hours planning for next week and prioritizing my work.

As Cal Newport states: ‘It generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40-hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without a structure’.

Time blocking pairs well with task batching. It saves you from scheduling every individual task on your calendar. Instead, block off chunks of time each day or week for when you want to complete batch of activities, e.g., email, invoicing, workouts, meetings, writing, coding, deep work, errands, meal prep.

Final Thoughts

The exceptional entrepreneur Elon Musk always managed to find time for his kids, all while working 120+ hours per week and making plans with NASA to colonize Mars – thanks to a time management technique called time blocking.

You can focus your attention, take control of your day, and reduce procrastination by using time blocking effectively. In the beginning, it may take some trial and error for you to create a blueprint that suits your taste, but with a few sessions of practice and a small dose of patience, you will be a pro in no time.

Following the completion of your schedule, work to protect your time the best you can. There will always be unforeseen events that you have to be flexible to deal with. However, resist the temptation to sacrifice your priority project time to something that can wait.