20 Jun 2024 · 3 min
Bec and Amanda Barr talk time blocking, a scheduling method they say transformed their productivity. They share practical tips for using it in both personal and business life.
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Hi, guys. Bec and Amanda here from no Bullshit Business Tips. And we wanted to talk to you today about something that's been a game changer for both of us, and that is time blocking.
Absolutely. Now, time blocking, if you have no idea what that means, is, you know, going into your calendar and actually setting up specific times of your day to do specific tasks, right?
Yeah, exactly. And so I'm so big on this now that I put in for family, I put time in for walking, I put time in for, you know, all the things. And I've got five kids, I've got three businesses, and so life is very crazy and it is the best way for me to go. Okay. I'm going to focus on this one thing at this time and nothing else. And that's the key, though, right?
Absolutely. Because we've all been guilty of, you know, getting to the studio or working from home and opening up our laptop and going, lots of shit to do. Where do I start? Right, yeah, we've all been guilty of that. So, you know, time blocking really allows you to, you know, do what the most important tasks are. So some of the things I like to put in my time blocking as a studio owner is definitely things like, you know, time to answer emails, for example. But then that's it. You know, I've got from 9 to 9:15 to do that, and then that's it.
Yep.
Then I have time to on marketing, you know, and I think that's the big one, is putting the time into the important things. You know, I have, you know, a couple of hours to put into marketing each week. You know, a couple of hours on admin tasks or, you know, billing or, you know, looking at my finances or whatever it is, but actually putting times for that and doing just that.
Yes, doing just that. Not getting distracted by that email that's just coming from that parent or that message that's coming or anything like that. And actually focusing wholly on that task is definitely the key.
Absolutely. We've all been guilty of that, you know, and we know that when you batch things together, you know, it's so much more efficient. Right. It's such a better way to do. To use your time rather than jumping from task to task to task. So, you know, use that focus mode on your MacBook. It's important. Right. You know, don't reply to that email that very second. Yes, you've probably got to reply to it, but you don't need to be constantly picking up your phone, checking that Facebook message, checking that email, doing that. Actually Time block where you need to do all of your tasks throughout the day and throughout the week and have some kind of structure to it on an. Like a weekly basis. Right.
And you know what else I love about this? It helps you to make quick decisions because sometimes we can procrastinate and procrastinate. Procrastinate on something and it takes up way too much time. Whereas if you're like, right, I'm giving myself an hour to do this, and I'm going to have it finished by that hour. If you have to make decisions on that thing, you're going to make them pretty quickly.
Absolutely. It's absolute key, you know, especially things around, like choreography or costumes or stuff like that. That can take a really long amount of time. So can. But if you just let it take. It'll take as long as it takes. Right. Whereas if you're like, hey, I've only got an hour to choreograph today, and I've got to, you know, get through all of these classes or whatever that is, you know, you'll make it happen because then you've got to move to marketing or then you've got to move to doing those accounts or whatever. So what we want you to do is try time blocking. It's such an easy thing to do. Just in your Google calend.
Yeah, it's on your phone. Yeah, it's just on your phone. If you go into your calendar and you can color things different colors. So, like, you know, I color my family yellow, I color my exercise green. So you can color them different colors and have them all in there. And that's a cool thing to see as well, is like, how much time are you spending on that stuff? Then how much time are you spending on your business? Like, it's good to see all of that too.
Absolutely. So if you haven't ever tried time blocking, do it today. It is such a game changer in your life. Not just your business life, but your personal life as well.
Absolutely. We want you guys to take amazing action on this. We'd love to know in the comments what you've done. Let's do this shit.
