Not to fall into the realms of cringe, but time blocking is one of the most often cited productivity frameworks by the uber-successful, people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates. If you’ve ever wondered how some of the world’s most productive people do it, this is how.

Time blocking is a productivity framework that I’ve personally used for about five or so years now, and it’s one that I’ve found to be incredibly valuable when it comes to structuring my day.

But what is time blocking, and how can you use it to be more productive?

This guide explains all!

What is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is a planning system that essentially divides your day into smaller chunks of time. Instead of looking at your day in terms of hours, you look at it in tasks, and the amounts of time you have allocated for each.

It’s a super simple process, but a very powerful one. It’s also an essential part of time management.

The time blocking method, you take into account the individual tasks you need to tackle each day, which is where it differs from a traditional to-do list. A to-do list will tell you the tasks you need to complete, time blocking tells you when to complete them.

Is Time Blocking for You?

If you’ve ever found yourself feeling that the workday is getting away from you, or that your list of tasks is doubling every hour, then you’ll definitely benefit from time blocking.

It’s been said that the single-task approach that’s central to the time blocking framework can increase productivity as much as 80%.

Additionally, if you find yourself finishing one task, but then have a lull in productivity, not knowing what you should be doing next, time blocking is for you. Once you finish one task, you can immediately see what needs to be done next.

But just in case you’re still not sure if time blocking is something you should try, take a look at the list below. If you resonate with any of these, then that’s your sign to experiment with time blocking:

Your work life is so busy and chaotic, that you can barely find time during the day to do anything other than work.
It feels like your schedule is ruled by meetings, meaning you can’t focus on the important work.
You feel like a victim of your inbox, and you find yourself constantly checking and replying to emails throughout the day.
Your job requires you to handle a lot of different roles. If you’re a graphic designer like me, this is 100% something you have to deal with.
You’re struggling to find a good work/life balance.

If you don’t resonate with any of those, then congratulations! Your productivity routine is totally fine, and you don’t need to make any changes. BUT, if you resonated with at least one, then keep reading to see how to can make your life easier with time blocking.

The Benefits of Time Blocking

A woman time blocking by using physical notes on a whiteboard

Once you’ve been time blocking your days for a little while, you’ll soon start to see a whole range of benefits emerge.

You’ll see your daily tasks get completed faster, and with a higher level of quality, as you’re able to dedicate specific time to tackle the task at hand. Instead of doing a million and one things at once, working on one single task allows you to dive much deeper into it.

But if that’s not a good enough reason, here are some more benefits you can expect to see after taking up time blocking:

Time blocking will force you to eliminate procrastination from your day, as you only have a certain amount of time allocated for each task
It will help you become a master of unneeded meetings. If you have time blocked out of your day for a specific task, you won’t feel bad about turning down meeting requests.
Time blocking allows you to be more effective by grouping specific tasks together. This is called task batching, and we’ll speak about more below.
This method will allow you to grab a greater understanding of how long your tasks are taking – helping you with future scheduling and commitments.
By blocking out time in your day for tasks, you’ll be able to see how you’re actually spending your time, giving you more perspective on what your energy is focused on.

How to Time Block

A top down photo of a desk and somone time blocking using physical notes

Now that we know what time blocking is, we need to see how we start incorporating the principles and ideas into our daily lives.

As we said at the beginning, this is a super simple productivity framework, so getting started with time blocking is, luckily for us, very easy! Here’s how to do it:

1. Decide what your goals are

This question will influence everything you do, and will become the basis for what does and doesn’t appear in your time blocking schedule.

Do you want to be more effective when working on design projects? Do you want to prioritise spending time with family and friends? Work out your top priorities before doing anything.

2. Create a to-do list

Once you know what you want to spend your time on, it’s time to create a to-do list. Ideally, you should start off your mornings (or make it part of your evening routine) by creating a list of all the things you’ll need to get done during the day.

Be sure to include both work and personal tasks in this, and highlight which ones need to be prioritised above the others.

3. Try task batching

We mentioned task batching earlier in the article, with the promise of coming back to it. So, now’s the time!

Task batching is essentially grouping together individual tasks that fit the same description, blocking out a chunk of time to handle them all at once.

For example, you could use task batching to tackle project research. Say you have four different projects that all require research, instead of doing that at different times, batch them together and complete all the research at once.

Not only can this save you time, but it can also help to inspire new ideas that you may not have come across had the research for all the projects been completed individually.

4. Plan out your day

Now that you’ve written your list of tasks, and potentially identified some tasks that can be batched together for greater efficiency, it’s time to plan out your day.

Look at a calendar that allows you to see each hour of your day (I personally use Google Calendar for this), and begin to add the tasks in, estimating how long each will take.

Remember to think about your natural energy, and where you tend to feel lethargic throughout the day. If you’re most energetic in the morning, schedule your most difficult task for then. If you feel more creative in the evening, put any tasks that require you to “think outside the box” towards the end of the day.

Ultimately, time blocking works best when you align it with your own energy.

You might find yourself overestimating tasks when you first start time blocking. This is fine, and something that’s totally normal. As you continue with this method of time management, you’ll gradually begin fine-tuning your estimates, and tailor your time blocks accordingly.

Some Tips for Time Blocking

Time blocking really is as simple as writing down your goals, identifying tasks in the form of a to-do list, and then blocking out time during your day to complete the tasks.

But whilst that’s the barebones of time blocking, there are some more things that you should keep in mind when working with this productivity system. These are:

Predict the unpredictable

It’s only natural that your day isn’t going to go 100% to plan all of the time. We can plan and plan, scheduling out every minute of our day, but the reality is that those unforeseen jobs will creep up on us when we least expect it.

It’s for this reason that I suggest using the final hour of your day (say 4 – 5pm if you work the traditional 9 – 5) to tackle the tasks you didn’t account for.

Say a client emailed a last-minute request or change to a project. Before time boxing, this would have been incredibly hard to fit in, but with it, you now have dedicated time for these little speedbumps.

Don’t underestimate your timings

We said earlier that the more you time block, the better you’ll become at estimating your timings. This is 100% true, but something that a lot of people new to this productivity framework will do is dramatically underestimate how long things will take.

When time blocking, it’s always much better to overestimate than underestimate. When you give yourself too much time, you can just fill it with more things, or give yourself a much-needed break.

Gradually you’ll become more and more competent at predicting the time you need for each task, so don’t worry if you’re overestimating in the early days.

Make sure to time block for everything

Time blocking doesn’t have to be just for professional work. As we said right at the beginning of this guide, you should also factor in personal things too.

Say you want to spend more time with your family, there’s no reason you can’t add a two-hour “family chunk” every day. In fact, this is one of the huge benefits of time blocking. When you see “being productive” as more than just completing work-based objectives, adding time for yourself each day becomes a priority.

Conclusion

So there we have it! You’re now an expert on all things time blocking.

In this guide, you’ve learned the many benefits that you can reap from time blocking, how to begin using this simple, yet powerful, productivity framework, as well as some essential things to keep in mind.

Now, if you want to take your productivity to all new heights, my productivity frameworks course will give you everything you need to know!

You’ll learn about all the essential productivity systems that some of the world’s most productive people use to set themselves apart from the competition.

Head to Gumroad to grab the course now!