Time Blocking for Time Management

Either you control your day or your day controls you !!

What is Time Management?

I do not have precise definition, but I can give you a scenario that I, and probably most of you folks, have experienced.

Initially you have one thing to be taken care of, easy to remember, no bookkeeping needed, nor any fancy gadget. It's all inside your mind. Gradually, there are now many things to be taken care of, each having difference in terms of importance, priority, and urgency. Now you need to delve into time management. Here, I am writing about what have worked for me so far.

(1) To Do List

When things are small in numbers, the to-do list is a great tool. You put a date/time and description of the things you need to be done. Once done, put a check mark. No fancy gadget needed. Even a small piece of paper and a pen are sufficient to implement this technique. One thing to keep in mind is you need to keep your to do list under your constant or frequent visual radar, reminding and focusing you on tasks that need to be done.

(2) Calendar

Calendar is a great tool. It could be in a physical form or inside a fancy gadget. Calendar is a representation of your 24 hours in a day and help you to visualize how to best utilize these 24 hours for fulfilling your intended goals and dreams. Usually, you have an 8-hour workday, but it rarely translates into an 8-hour productive day due to constant emails pop-ups, multiple meetings, colleagues popping in for favors, or switching one task to another. One important function of calendar is Time Blocking that can make your 8-hour workday as your 8-hour productive day.

Time Blocking is the technique of assigning a specific time ‘block’ of your day to a specific task in advance.

• Fixed work hours: you decide what would your work hours, either 8 or 10 hours and either from 9 to 5 or from 7 to 5. Having fixed work hours makes your focused on your day to day routine. Also, your work is now consistent and predictable.
• Prediction: it forces you to guess amount of time any particular task going to take. This will make you think about what needs to be done for any task and you would be more prepared to handle to that task.
• Evaluation: you review your blocked time each week/month, reflect what worked, how accurate your predictions were, where you can improve.
• Focus: Having blocked time makes you focus on that particular task with 100% concentration, provided you remove your easy distractions during that blocked time. Time blocking works so effectively because of this particular advantage. By blocking time, you effectively guard yourself against distractions. Focusing on a single task is up to 80% more effective than splitting your focus across multiple tasks.
• Grouping similar tasks: one of important advantages of blocking time in calendar is that you can group similar tasks as per your desired time of day or day of week. For example, you can group most meetings in one particular day of a week, so other days of a week can be free from meeting distractions.

Another important aspect of the calendar is easy collaboration, through fancy apps in your gadget.

One thing to keep in mind is that blocking time in the calendar requires a detailed level of planning, but it generates amount of productivity multiple times than that of the to-do list or other forms of time management.

Currently, my best time management tool is the calendar, either Google or Outlook. Calendar is not just for scheduling events. It's important tool to do effective time management through time blocking.

Hope you will also try the calendar for your time management !!