My Time Blocking Productivity System for Focusing Attention & Getting Things Done

Hi everyone, my name is Matt, and welcome back to another Bullet Journal productivity video. In this episode, we're going to be revisiting one of my most popular videos, and that is the 10 Block Method. Everything about time blocking for me started with the 10 Block Method, so I'm going to break it down for you a little bit and tell you about the basics of this method and this framework that you can use to make sure you're spending the right amount of time on the people, projects, and and purpose that matter the most to you. But if you want to see the full OG video, make sure you click right up here in the top and you can see the entire video. I want to give a shout out to the sponsor of this video. It is the new Post-it app and Trello integration, a really cool way to convert Post-it notes into cards on a Trello board. I'll show you exactly how later in the video, but right now let's get back to time blocking. For me, everything started with those 10 blocks, and the way that I thought through those just to give you the basics of it, is that I thought about the normal 40-hour work week, and then I broke that down into 10 4-hour blocks. Now, you can do the math any way that you want. Like I said, I was approaching this more from a work perspective, and so 10 4-hour blocks made the most sense to me. But there are a lot of ways that you could do this, and you could do the math any way that you wanted to. If you want to think of it in terms of like side hustle time, and you know that you can give yourself 6 hours a week, then maybe you're thinking about like, if I have 6 hour-long blocks, what do I need to do in those 6 hour-long blocks? So that's more of the strategy that we're going to be talking about today, is this time blocking strategy of making sure that you give the right amount of time to the people, the projects, and the purpose that matter the most to you as you look at your day and as you look at your week.

One really good way of seeing a big picture view of what you want to be spending your time on is to use Post-it notes. Let's use the 10 blocks method as an example. Each Post-it note represents one of the 10 4-hour blocks. So what do I need to do for each one? Well, I know that one will be used up in meetings and meeting prep. One is for planning and reviewing the tests we run in the business. Two are for emails and messages with customers. Two more are for the actual conversations with customers, whether that's video calls phone calls, whatever it might be, sending videos. 2 more are for working on the new tests and experiences that come from my research and conversations. And 1 is for the miscellaneous tasks and 1 for documenting my work. Those are the 10 blocks for a normal 40-ish hour week at Podia. What I love about Post-it notes is they allow me to quickly write, review, and move my time blocks around and see which days they fit best in. I've been using Post-it notes for years, which is why I'm really excited and grateful that they're sponsoring this video. Even better, the Post-it app is integrating with Trello, a visual project management tool, so you can transfer ideas from paper to digital and keep the momentum going long after you're done brainstorming.

Remember, you can do whatever math you want to define the times that you block off for the work that you have or for the projects or the new hobbies that you want to pursue, but realize that no matter how much time you have, or how much you control your schedule. I know there are some variations on that for every person. Time blocking is a really effective strategy for making sure that you're spending the right amount of time on the right projects as your days and weeks go on.

So I want to be clear that I'm not only working 4-hour blocks throughout the week. There are lots of other times where I work on something for only an hour or two, or sometimes 30 minutes, 3 hours, whatever. This is why I have the visual gauge of the 10 blocks in my Bullet Journal. Each block that you see here represents 4 hours. So when I spend 2 hours working on a project, I'll fill in 2 of the 4 hours for that corresponding block. This helps me keep on track with time blocking and ensures that I'm not spending too much time on any given task or time block. At the end of each week, I assess how I use my blocks and if they need to change for the upcoming week. I think of time blocking as how I'm able to focus my time and attention on these videos in the midst of a very busy job and family life. Every day I have about 1 to 2 hours blocked for working on a new video, the Themes for Thinkers email newsletter, or my upcoming course, which you'll hear a little bit more about in a minute. Because when I look at the day's plan, I can see where I've blocked those times and I just stay consistent with it. This allows me to be fully present and engaged with making videos while also doing the same for time I have blocked for work family, my wife, and exercise. So if you were to look at my daily schedule, it's often completely filled, not always with meetings, but reminders about what projects and which people I've blocked off for that amount of time. And since I know many of you are wondering, yes, I do use a digital calendar also, but it's mostly just to get the reminders on my watch about what I need to do for that block.

One of the underappreciated and maybe overlooked things about time blocking that I really love is the— literally, for me, the freedom that it gives me to focus on the project that I have in front of me or the person that I'm with, because I've literally blocked time out for that. And the reason that I can be present and focused and give that person or that project my full attention is because I know that I've blocked out other time for other projects and other people as the week goes on. And so in that way, that boundary for me gives me a lot of freedom in the moment. So let's talk about what happens when I'm in a certain block of time and how I'm planning for what I'm doing with it, how I'm doing some brainstorming. And one project that has been taking up a lot of my personal blocks over the last few months is this new course that I'm working on called The 25-Hour Day. It's all about how to find that extra hidden hour of your day and then what you do with it after you've captured it. But when I started thinking about this course and the things that I want to talk about, the lessons that I wanted to share, the first thing that I did literally was open up a new fresh pack of Post-it notes and go to the bonus room just outside here.

Every time I had an idea for a lesson, no matter how big or small, I'd write it down on a Post-it note and stick it to the wall in our bonus room. What I love about Post-it notes in the brainstorm and planning process is how easy it is to rearrange and organize ideas, thoughts, and concepts into lesson frameworks. I've talked a lot about analog and digital productivity, how we balance the two, but also how we connect them. And one app that has helped me immensely through the process of planning my course is the Post-it app. In the past, migrating all these ideas on Post-it notes would have been tedious work. But with the Post-it app, I can just take a picture. It's awesome. And many great ideas and innovations start out just as thoughts jotted down on Post-it notes during brainstorms, meetings, or in between tasks. I know I keep a stack of them on my desk for any time that I have a little spark of an idea. You can use the Post-it app to take a photo of up to 200 Post-it notes and upload to Trello. Each Post-it note will then be transformed into separate cards on a Trello board, which can be accessed on Trello's web, desktop, or mobile apps. The Post-it app recognizes all square Post-it notes from the standard 3x3 that we're all used to, to Post-it Big notes. Make sure you check out the links in the description for more information about the new Post-it app and Trello integration. And please let me know how you're using it.

Like I said, I've been using it a ton, and I think you will like it as well.

So I'm really interested to hear your feedback.

So as you plan the upcoming week, I want to recommend that you time block in two ways. The first one is to proactively look at your schedule for the day and for the week ahead and block out the times that you have, whether it's errands or school or work or whatever it is, but go ahead and put those time blocks in. And that leads into the second part of this, which is to look at your committed time blocks and try and find just one, try and find one free block that you can put into your schedule to spend more time on something that you want to do. That could be writing, that could be making videos. That's what it is for me a lot of times. It could be exercising, it could be a new hobby, it could be a new habit that you're trying to develop, it could just be reading or whatever. It could be with a person that you want to spend more time with, but try and find that one free block, block it out, commit to it, stay consistent with it, and whatever you're trying to do, I think you will see incredible results. Just from time blocking. And one of the wonderful things about it, again, going back to that freedom piece, is I hope you feel free to do that, that you feel a clarity and confidence because you already know that you've blocked out all the other things that you have time for throughout the rest of your day and week. Thank you so much for watching this video. I loved putting it together, and I'd really like to hear how time blocking has worked for you in the past if you've done it,, and if you're interested in doing it in the future after watching this video. If you have time blocked in the past, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Please let us know your experiences. I know we would all benefit from hearing from you about the pros and cons of time blocking, and especially how you stay flexible with it when things might come up, come up during the week. Again, I find time blocking to be a great strategy for staying focused on the people and projects that I have right in front of me at the time, because I have already blocked out other times for other people, for other projects, and allows me to stay really focused and give 100% of my attention to what's right in front of me. So thanks again for watching this video. Hope you enjoyed it. If you're new here, go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you enjoyed it. And if you're watching here at the end, you probably enjoyed it. You should subscribe. There's, there's going to be more like this. But I hope everyone enjoyed it. I'd love to hear from you in the comments, and I can't wait to see in the next video. Thanks, have a great day. Bye.