TIME-BLOCKING AS A TOOL

I’m often asked about time blocking—or making a calendar appointment with yourself—to accomplish tasks, especially those you’ve been procrastinating on. Many people try to assign everything they need to do to a time on their calendar. I don’t recommend that, since the first person you will break an appointment with is yourself. So, I find that people who use their calendar this way spend too much time rearranging their calendar, leaving too little time to accomplish things. Also there is the danger of things falling through the cracks when you both don’t keep the appointment you made with yourself, and you forget to move the appointment to another time on your calendar.

However, there are times when it can be useful to make an appointment with yourself. Follow these three rules for greatest efficiency:

1. Use time blocking very selectively
2. Don’t block too far into the future, it’s too uncertain
3. Don’t make your blocks too long

Try this: Take a look at your calendar. Are you currently using time-blocking as a strategy? If so, review your blocked time and make sure that it meets the three criteria above. This will free your brain up from thinking about your calendar, so you have more mental space to actually get things done.