How to Time Block for Maximum Efficiency

I love the idea of using time blocking to get my calendar under control. However, in reality, time blocking feels to me like I am trying to fit all the things I need to do into this tiny little box and it's never going to work. Let's face it, there are some things that you are likely really good at and there are some things that you are likely still struggling with. And for me, for a long time figuring out my calendar was that thing. However, I have adapted over the years and created an entirely new way to manage and adjust my calendar, both short and long term. I want to tell you about those strategies now because if you struggle to get all of the things done and to prioritize and line things up so you're not overbooked, you're not double booked, this is the episode for you. Imagine starting every week with a clear plan for what needs to get done. Imagine arriving at a point in time that you planned four months ago and realizing I have plenty of space to get what I need to get done. This is the magic of what is going to happen when we flip the script and apply trans traditional time blocking methods in a new way so that everything you need to get done, all of your priorities, have space and time in your calendar and you still have time left over. So today I'm going to break down my time blocking method, compare and show you how it differentiates from traditional time blocking, and I'm going to walk you through some very specific things you might want to integrate right now that will change the game again, short term, but also months and even years down the road. Your future self is going to be thanking you today for taking a moment to implement some of these strategies. The way I first learned traditional time blocking was that you would set aside a day or a period of time each week on your calendar for a specific activity. For example, Monday might be your meetings day, Tuesday might be your content day, Wednesday might be your client's day, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But what I struggled with is that each week, each day was not so set in stone for me. My life, my priorities, what we have going on as a family or in the business are a bit more fluid, so I couldn't stick to a set Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday. Schedule Fixed blocks like this don't leave room for unexpected changes, and it assumes that tasks fit neatly into a box that we have idealized. And that's not always the case either. When you're managing kids schedules, family schedules, unexpected client activities that need your attention as well team activities, etc. So we want to build a system that allows for some flow flex in there. In addition, when I look at my calendar and it is blocked to the max, this does not feel spacious to me. I don't feel like I have space to be creative or to pause and walk away or to move things around when those unexpected things come up and I inevitably have to adjust. You see, I find that traditional time blocking can really box your well, what we really need is a system that's flexible and adapts to the realities of our lives and our businesses. So with my time blocking method that I've adapted over the years, this is where flexibility meets focus and intention. Here's how it's different and I'm going to break this down for you step by step. First up, I block my non working time first. This allows us to take a life first first approach to getting what we want to get done. So yes, years and months in advance, I am blocking my calendar and I'm going to tell you exactly what I include in those calendar blocks. But this really protects my energy and allows me to think ahead and plan ahead. And when I get to a point in time in the future when I have a big project or I've been working, working, working and then I just need a break, it is already there and carved out for me. Now does this mean I won't arrive on a productivity week like I have next week and it's something unexpected will come up that I want to carve out space and time for? I will absolutely, from time to time hit manual override on that. For example, a client reached out to me and said, I would really love to have a conversation with you next week. Do you have space and time? And I looked at my calendar and I was wowed because this was one of those weeks where I gave myself that space and time by blocking the entire week years in advance. And I called this week, this block a productivity week. Simply put, it's space and time I have carved out to get the most important things in my business or my life done. So I had space and I hit the manual override button and I said to that client, absolutely, you're going to see that my calendar is blocked. However, these are all the times that I have available. And I loaded her up with options using Google Calendar's scheduling option to automate that. This productivity week that I mentioned is a week that I plan once per month. Again, it is indefinitely set on my calendar. So it is on there for years out. And the way that I set this up is that I scheduled that the last set Sunday of every month entirely blocks my calendar as busy for one week. So every last Sunday of the month, it's going to kick off a full block on my calendar that allows me space and time to get deep work done. And I've planned for it years in advance. Again, I will from time to time hit that manual override button. But I'm being very intentional about it. I'm being very strategic and I am making sure that I'm primarily prioritizing the things that we have on our plate that need to get done with those manual overrides. And certainly a client conversation is sometimes a very important priority. As I set my calendar up, I absolutely have those regular meetings that come into play. So if there are any team meetings, if there are any regular client meetings that you have, if there are any regular work blocks that you do want to make sure you have. For me, I have a weekly Monday the CEO time and a weekly Friday CEO time to bookend my week and kick off the week focused and intentional, knowing what I need to get done and to wrap up my week reflecting on the week prior and setting myself up for the week ahead. But those meetings are already built into my calendar. So as people are using automatic booking links, as I'm scheduling doctor's appointments, as the kids things are come up, I have those things on my calendar and I won't usually override them unless it is something urgent that comes up unexpectedly that necessitates that. And yes, of course I will make weekly adjustments to this time blocking to flex with it as I need to in that Monday time. I am just making minor adjustments. That's usually a 10 minute Monday CEO time for me because the bulk of my CEO time is actually on Friday. Again, this is where I reflect. This is where I look back on how the week went. What did I get done versus what did I want to get done, what activities are carrying over to the week ahead. But the other core thing related to time blocking that I do in this Friday session is that I look at my calendar and I look at what I need to get done this week based on the priorities that we have identified. And those priorities pull through in a number of ways. They're in our strategic plan, they may be in our project plan, they're definitely in my six week or my 90 day plan. So I look at those most important things that need to get done and I make sure I have time next week to get it done. Now this is where that flex Comes in the flexibility and the intention. Because every week does not look the same for me. Different things are coming up in life, right? Different things are coming up for work. I may not have a content block every single week. So what I do is on Friday I've got space because I have my regular meetings that are already blocked. I have client meetings that are already blocked as well in advance. So there are some anchors in the calendar. The other key thing is that my no working time is already blocked. And I have a unique approach to my no working time. But what I recommend is that you block, as I said, that no working time first so that you really identify. All right, if this is what I need to get done, this is the space and time that I'm going to do it within again, we might hit manual override if needed. So in that Friday session I look, these are the things I need to get done. This is the amount of time I have available for work next week. When will those things get done? And for those priority work activities on the Friday before the week ahead, that's when I block my calendar and my schedule. If I'm going to be recording videos or recording a podcast, I will make sure that time is blocked on my calendar. If I need to create a training for my clients or my team, I make sure that time is blocked on my calendar. If I need to write, make sure that time is blocked. If I need to have an admin session, I make sure that time is blocked. Now, I mentioned that I block my working hours and I block my no working hours. The point in time that I am sitting here talking to you right now, I actually am recording this video and what are my no working hours hours. So this is an example of a time where I made an adjustment because of what was going on throughout the week. Very specifically, I volunteer for an organization here in Abidjan and we had some unexpected things come up this week at last that took more time than I expected and they rolled into my typical working time. So with that in mind, I had marginal I can move some things around and I created space face so that I could still get the things I needed to get done. But I'm getting it done at a time that I didn't originally plan. But that planning session happens again Monday and Friday. So I'm regularly checking in. I'm usually not surprised. I'm usually not scrambling. In fact, when I sat down today and did my weekend session, I noticed that next week I am double booked on something. So. So I quickly made an adjustment to that in that Friday session. So when the moment arrives, I am not panicking, but I've already planned ahead so that I can clear that space and I don't have to arrive at that double booking time on Tuesday of next week. Panicked, oh my gosh, I'm double booked. What am I gonna do? No, it's already taken care of. I took care of that today when I looked ahead to next week. So in summary, when I do time blocking, flexibility meets focus and intention. And there are four key things that I incorporate into that process. Number one, I block my no working time first. Number two, I plan one productivity week per month from now until the end of the calendar. Number three, I identify those set meetings up front. Those are in my calendar, and I usually do do not move them, even if they turn into a quicker meeting, because we don't have a lot to talk about. I think it's so important to honor those commitments, especially with our teams, so that they can continue doing the work that they need to do as well. And number four, I make weekly adjustments and weekly blocks in that Monday and that Friday CEO time. So time blocking for me isn't about filling every hour. It's about creating space for what matters most. Okay, so what are some of the differences that we've just walked through with traditional time blocking versus my approach? And I'm so curious what you think of this. So definitely let me know in the comments here or on Instagram. I'm at Amber McHugh. If this is resonating with you or if you struggle with traditional time blocking or if you've got a different approach that you use as well, we definitely want to know. So here, traditional time blocking, you're pre blocking in advance, very specific things that you are going to do, and it creates a fullness in your calendar so that every minute has a job. Instead, I do things a little bit differently and I like to have that spaciousness instead. My method focuses on flexibility and prioritization of what matters most to you in the season that you are in. By making those weekly adjustments with the constraints and the boundaries that you have set up for yourself well in advance. This allows you to prioritize and make adjustments proactively, but not so far ahead that you're stuck yourself into a structure that doesn't apply in two, three, six months. For now, because life has changed or business priorities have changed, this maximizes opportunities for deep work. It leaves room for spontaneity in shifting your priorities, and it reduces fatigue and decision making because you're focusing on those weekly adjustments in a proactive way before you get to the actual moments when you sit down to work, you know, I got a plan, here's what we're going to do, and you've set yourself up for success. Doing some sort of proactive scheduling and management of your calendar is, is really important because you need to carve out time for deep work away from the pings and the dings and the phone calls and the text messages. Studies show that carving out time for deep work, uninterrupted focus time, is five times more productive than multitasking. By creating this space, you're leveraging the brain's natural ability to focus intensely for a short amount of time of time. The flexible time blocking approach gives you the opportunity to adjust and prioritize without sacrificing your freedom to adapt. Now, I'm talking about larger blocks of time and the overall concept of time blocking at a macro level. But I don't want to sleep on how micro increments and blocks of time can also boost your productivity, get you momentum, and get the things that you need to get done in a short amount of time. Maybe you've heard of Parkinson's law. In Parkinson's law, the work will expand to fill the amount of time you give yourself to get the work done. This is something that I realized I was doing. I was working, actually doing productive work for 18 to 24 hours every week. And I find myself to be a highly productive person. I can get a lot done when I move through those focus times. So I realized, man, okay, I'm getting a lot done. I don't need to cram my day with to do's and all of the things, But I was spreading out that work activity, meaning I was doing 18 to 24 hours of work. But it was a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit here and a little bit there. And in between, I was having team meetings and I was trying to do some life stuff and it was kind of all over the place. And I wondered how it might work if instead of doing a little bit there and a little bit here and having meetings in the morning and in the afternoon, if I compressed everything and had my work blocks in a dedicated period of time for me. I live in Abidjan Kotegar, so most of my clients, most of my team is still sleeping in my morning. So I begin my day in the early afternoon and I work until the early morning, evening. So I've blocked off 24 hours a week in this window. Of time for me to take all the deep work, all of the things that I was doing here and there, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I compressed it into this afternoon block. So this really enabled me to get leverage to get focus, to be much more intentional about my time. In addition, in the mornings now, I am typically volunteering, getting movement in, journaling, meditating, running errands, going to doctor's appointments, scheduling things for the kids, running their errands. So I've compressed this. So instead of trying to squeeze that between this meeting and that meeting, I have flipped the script on my schedule. And still even then, there are micro blocks that become available. For example, I get a meeting wraps up early, I have 15 minutes to get something done. I finish some work early, I have 30 minutes to get something done. So in those cases, you know, I've got a whole list of other to do's that I will pull from very quickly to make sure I'm optimizing and doing the best I can within the space that I have allotted for work. So if I've got a 15 minute block that pops up, I'm like, oh, I've got 15 minutes free. No. You know that there are some times when I'm just gonna go get myself a cup of coffee, right? Or I'm going to walk outside and I'm going to stretch my legs, or I'm going to catch up with my family in a text message thread. Yes, that absolutely happens too. But in addition, I've got my to do list of all of the things and I look at the top. My to do list is prioritized. So I go to the top and I look at the most important thing that I need to do next and I think, do I have the energy for this? Can I get this done the next 15 minutes that I have? Let's go. So I take this concept of Parkinson's law. Work will expand to the amount of time that you have given that you have available. I've compressed it and I've also compressed it and I look at those microblocks now. Oftentimes, even in the house for cleaning, even in the house, when I have laundry to put away and I don't want to do it or in business, I will oftentimes just set a 15 minute timer. Even if I have 30 minutes or a full hour available for work, if I am struggling to get momentum, I'll take that micro block and I'll set myself a timer for just those 15 minutes and I'll see how much I can get done in 15 minutes. And what I find is that I am able to find a lot of momentum and I'm able to get a lot done in just a short amount of time. And if I have more time, that kicks me into a flow state and gives me momentum to keep going, or if I have just 15 minutes, that timer goes off and I move on to the next activity. So small, unexpected or intentional blocks of time can really result in great productivity and our momentum builders. So I want to invite you to take action on some of the things today so that future you celebrates the steps that you took today in a very big way. First up, ask yourself, do you have time that you want to set aside as no working hours? Now you may not be able to step into this right away. It may take some adjustments. You may have some things that you need to weed out on your calendar over time. But if you think in this way and you start to make these adjustments today, you could be in a really good place in as short as four weeks from now or, or as long as three months from now. And three months is going to be here before you know it. So give yourself this opportunity to say, hey, what do I want as no working time? And let me block that on my calendar now. Second, do you want to try and dedicate one week per month to a productivity week? If so, identify what the best week for you will be. Maybe it's the last Sunday of every month for the week like it is for me, so that I'll certainly sometimes carry over into the next month. And I gotta say, I think you should just try this. I think you should just try this. Put this on your calendar now until infinity. You can always delete it, you can always change it, but it might be really cool to arrive one month from now and realized, wait a second, I have all of this stuff, space and time to get this work done. And you will hear the angels say next. Consider using weekly CEO time to give yourself a proactive opportunity to be flexible and focused and intentional and adaptable in your days and in your weeks. This also is a great checkpoint to make sure that day to day, week to week, you are taking action action. And you're creating space that aligns with the bigger vision and where you actually want to be taking your company and your life. And then lastly, don't sleep on the microblocks, get yourself a cup of coffee, rehydrate, step outside for a walk, or take a peek at your to do list and get the next most important thing done. I hope that you got some great strategies in here. I hope that this was helpful for you and I cannot wait to see what you implement from this and how it benefits you in your day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, stepping into your goals and bringing your vision to life. Like I know you are. You are absolutely right on time.