Task by the hour

Do you find yourself with not enough hours in the day to get all you need to get completed? This seems to be my life’s story. Never enough time. Juggling what we MUST do and what we WANT to do can be daunting at times. We must take ownership of our time to keep normalcy in our lives. With that being said, I have been researching how to manage my time. Do you feel like me, frustrated with a never-ending to-do list and find yourself wondering where your time went at the end of the day? Let me show you the solution. I am trying to balance the chaos and schedule my time like the boss babe that I know I am!

Time blocking is exactly what it sounds like, blocking segments of time and dedicating these segments to designated tasks. In a nutshell, time blocking is scheduling your day! Even if it is something simple like “6-6:30 Take the dog on a walk.” You have then assigned that 30 minutes to a specific task and you aren’t scrambling to find time to take your dog out. Instead of having a list that makes you feel frazzled, you have a neat calendar with scheduled times for tasks.

We write our daily to-do list, never once thinking about time. To get all the list completed, we must have a plan. This is where time blocking comes in. You can use a notebook or an undated planner or even use google calendar on your phone if you would like for your daily blocked schedule.

Now that you have decided where you are going to organize your time, choose how you will spend your time. There are 1440 minutes in a day and not all these minutes are usable (we must eat, sleep, and have personal time). I started with my daily routine for each day. This is called a “fixed” task. Now we can see how much time we have left in the day to get your daily to-do list completed. Be very specific in what you want or need to do within the hour for the day. When you use time blocking, you schedule your tasks and put them on your calendar or in your planner. You essentially force yourself to think of the task and how long it will take to complete it. Using this method forces you to look at your plans realistically.

Now the trick is to make sure you stick to your schedule. Don’t waste time in making a daily time blocker if you are not going to follow it. Time blocking is not a set-in-stone type of time management. It is a method of organizing your day into time slots to help keep your focus and manage your time properly. Adjusting time will be necessary throughout the day to reflect the actual time spent on tasks.

So, after you have completed a couple of days of your new time blocking schedule, revisit your schedule. See where you can make time blocks shorter for certain tasks or possibly make them longer to complete the task. For example, it may only take 30 minutes to clean your living room instead of the hour you blocked for completing the task. I am personally doing a day at a time, so I can adjust on my time blocks as needed till I can figure out and judge time to complete tasks better. Keep your time blocked calendar evolving so that it can continue to serve you well.

Are you ready to give block scheduling a try?

If you have any tips or tricks you would like to share or questions on time management or just simplifying your life, email me at publisher@thevindicator.com.