There never seems to be enough time to complete all tasks. Here’s a time management tool that helps me break free from the hamster wheel and focus on what I truly need or want – time blocking.
The tool is ‘time blocking’
My colleagues often tell me that they don’t understand where I find time to read books, for example, considering the tight workload. So time blocking, actually, is the answer.
I simply schedule specific blocks for things I want to tackle. Even breaks and emails or book reading. It’s like making appointments with yourself.
The Challenge of Time Blocking
There are actually two significant challenges associated with time blocking, in my opinion.
First, there’s a challenge in even adding events perceived as non-essential to the calendar. You might notice that other events continue to flood your calendar while the non-essential, unadded ones get pushed aside. Although you might mentally ‘re-schedule’ them, you often fail to allocate actual time for them.
For instance, you might question the need to include ‘finding a movie to watch and relax’ when you can ‘easily look for a movie during free time.’ However, this often doesn’t happen.
Second, even though you may schedule events, there’s an unintentional tendency to prioritize work-related ‘important’ tasks over those that would be beneficial for your well-being. This shift typically happens on the fly—when a new task arises, you tend to overlook the well-being event on your calendar.
For example, you might have a 3-hour block scheduled for ‘writing an article’ in the evening, yet you find yourself still dealing with unanswered emails in your inbox. As a result, you continue checking your mailbox.
Be cautious of these potential time blocking pitfalls.
Stick to those blocks on your calendar, and you’ll see how much you get done. Although this part is challenging.
Try this and see if it helps you too.
You might want to complement this article with: Buy time when returning to a task by using zanshin.