Say Goodbye to Overwhelm: How Calendar Blocking Can Help You Stay on Track

Table of Content

Introduction – What Is Calendar Blocking?

What Is Calendar Blocking?

Time-blocking mistakes.

Benefits of Calendar blocking

Conclusion – What Is Calendar Blocking?

Introduction ­ What Is Calendar Blocking?

Julia Martins, in an article entitled Are you time blocking your Calendar? Here’s why you should start now outlines the perils of the modern working day as follows:

In the past week, you’ve probably reprioritized your tasks, rescheduled your Calendar, and maybe even worked late to get something done. You’re not alone. According to recent research, 87% of knowledge workers are working two hours later every day compared to 2019. Yet over one-quarter of deadlines are missed each week. Every day, we juggle competing demands on our time and, as a result, experience more chaos than clarity.

The above quote by Martins is an excellent description of the situation many people find themselves in. Now what is the solution? We could carry on as before and muddle through or devise ways of dealing with our overwhelm and find ways to work more efficiently. This is where time blocking comes in.

You have probably heard of time blocking as something that Elon Musk uses and think this is ridiculous and not for me. But you are right. Planning your day in 5-minute increments is silly and, in my view, counterproductive. It will make you give up on productivity after one day.

So, what is Calendar blocking if it’s not a planned day in 5-minute increments, and how does it help overcome procrastination, burnout and overwhelm? Read on to find out.

What Is Calendar Blocking?

In a nutshell, one can describe Calendar blocking or time blocking, as it is also known as creating a date with yourself for a specific task and putting it on your Calendar. But of course, there is more to it.

At the start of each day, or better still, in your weekly planning session, look at your to-do list and your Calendar—pencil in blocks of time between your appointments to do specific tasks. For example, if you have two hours on Monday between getting into the office and a meeting with your boss, you could use that to work on Project A. Or, if you have an hour on Tuesday, blog that time off for emails.

Some people have fixed blogs of time. If their schedule doesn’t change much, others change their time blogs to fit around their changing schedule. Time blogs don’t have to be the same length daily. They could be 25 minutes to fit with a Pomodoro session or 2 hours. Find whatever suits your working pattern and energy levels. Try and pencil in your most important work first thing in the morning to ensure it gets done. Anyone can time blog, whether you are a researcher with fixed long-term projects or an Account Executive doing reactive work.

Marija Kojic, in an article on time blocking, defines it as follows:

Everything you need to do is define a specific time frame for a task, event, or activity and reserve that time slot in your Calendar. After you complete the work in one time block, only then can you move on to the next one.

When you pick a time slot, you also get to decide how long each task is going to take. You can spend 15 minutes responding to emails and then do your focused work for 3 hours. There are no rules. 

Time-blocking mistakes.

From the above, time blocking should seem easy enough, but some time-blocking pitfalls can make you want to give up. I will briefly outline some of the most common ones and how to avoid them.

You are underestimating the time a task takes.

People, especially when starting out, often think that something takes less time than it actually does. They don’t pencil in enough time to complete their work and get frustrated. In the beginning, I would double or 1.5 times what you think it would take. If you finish early, you can always do an additional task or take a more extended break.

Not scheduling breaks into your day

Breaks are vital to restore you and give you buffer time in case anything unexpected pops up. So make sure to schedule breaks between each session. I suggest at least 5 minutes. Further, try and build in catch-up days where you complete all the tasks you didn’t get done during your regular work time.

Being too rigid

Another common mistake is sticking rigidly to your plan. Your plan should be a guide and not a strict instruction manual. Amend your time blocks as needed if unexpected things come up.

See your time blocks as a flexible way to challenge yourself, not strict tools to punish yourself when you fall short.

(Time Blocking)

Overscheduling your spare time

As a self-employed person, I am much more flexible with my time and tend to schedule some household chores as part of my working day. However, when I turn off my computer and end my day, I tend not to time block my evenings. Overscheduling your spare time can make it feel too rigid and not relaxing enough. Just time blocking off a few hours in the evening for hobbies is enough. You don’t need to time blog say 15 minutes for reading, 20 minutes for video games etc.

Benefits of Calendar blocking

There are multiple benefits of time blocking, some of which have been alluded to in the preceding paragraphs. I will outline them here in a bit more detail.

Take control of your time.

Time blocking allows you to get control of your time. In today’s interconnected world, there are distractions everywhere. Jory MacKay  on the Rescue Time Block states it quite clearly “Either you control your calendar, or it controls you”

With time blocking, you decide in advance when to do which of your tasks rather than reacting to demands that other people put on you. Anyone who has worked in an office will know that all too often, people will throw work at you, saying I want it done yesterday. Without prior planning, you will set off doing the so-called busy work and the priorities of someone else while not getting on with your major projects.

Get more done in less time.

Every head of Parkinson’s law? Parkinson’s law states that however much time you allocate for something, the task will expand to fill the entire time slot. With time blocking, you can create short realistic chunks of time to do something and therefore reduce the length of time it takes.

“A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.”

— Cal Newport, Author of Deep Work

Prevent procrastination.

Time blocking also aids in preventing procrastination as you know you have a fixed amount of time to complete something and a fixed start and end time.

Avoid multitasking.

With time blocking, it is usual to group similar tasks together. So, for example, you might have an admin hour every day between 4 and 5 in which you complete all your admin tasks.

Lifespan, in an article on their website, gives us a detailed outline as to why multitasking is a bad idea:

Multitasking makes us more distractible and prone to errors. For example, individuals rated as high media multitaskers (number of hours using multiple devices simultaneously, such as watching TV while also using a smart phone or tablet) showed poorer attention on cognitive tasks.

It will help you keep a record of your time.

Have you ever wondered what you do in a typical week? Time blocking can tell you that as you have a record of when you did what.

Conclusion – What Is Calendar Blocking?

In conclusion, calendar blocking is an effective time management technique that can help you stay on track and reduce overwhelm. By planning ahead, being realistic, using your Calendar as a visual aid, sticking to your schedule, and reviewing and adjusting as necessary, you can achieve your goals more efficiently and with less stress. So give it a try and see how it can help you stay organized and focused in your personal and professional life.

There is a variation on time blocking, such as Day Theming, task batching and such, but they are for another blog post.

Do you time block? If not, why not? Let me know in the comments below.

Need help? As always, I am here to help.