Are you able to define your perfect day? Perhaps it’s like this…you found your flow state, powered through all distractions, and possibly even shut down your computer before 6 PM with a sense of accomplishment. In fact, you’ve successfully written your to-do’s for the next day, you’ve knocked out a major project plus your administrative duties. You come home (or shut down if you’re remote) and power through your evening routines, and family time, enjoy a little bit of Netflix or a good book followed by a solid amount of sleep. You’re ready to rinse and repeat for the next day. Then tomorrow happens!
If you feel like you have experienced a perfect day, guess what, wait until tomorrow!
Unless you are a hermit, something will always go against your plan, someone will always need something from you. Kids, spouse, colleagues, alerts from social, last-minute projects or opportunities, friends in need, pets, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and other never-ending chores. Then you open your phone or computer and see there is a last-minute business opportunity or fire drill, an important email that needs to go out, or a project that needs another revision. …all of sudden, you are dealing with a lot more balls than you had anticipated juggling and it’s only 8 AM. This is the chaos of the world we all live in…full of constant noise, demands, and hurry.
Well, let me be the first to say that there is a better way to manage the not-so-perfect day (i.e. every day) and it’s called time blocking! Time blocking is pretty simple and definitely not a new technique by any means. However, most people fail to implement it correctly. Time blocking in its simplest form is scheduling time on your calendar for your priorities!
Time blocking allows space to not only tend to the demands or distractions of others, but allows space for you to recharge, be creative, and possibly be a bit more productive.
If you have never time blocked or have gotten out of this habit, here are some recommendations on how to start:
Weekly Planning Day
You should schedule at least 4 hours at the end or start of your work week to spend with your calendar, goals, and to-dos. I highly recommend Fridays which sets you up for a strong finish to the week and a powerful start to your Monday! These 4 hours shouldn’t have anything else scheduled in them, because guess what, you will be distracted at some point. This is the most critical time block to put on your calendar throughout the week…without it, your weeks will continue to be out of control.
Bookend the Start and the Finish of Everyday
If you are in a meeting-heavy work culture or business that will not allow a meeting free Friday or Monday, then you should time block to ease in and ease out of each work day. Because we live in a world that goes 24-7, reserving the first 30 to 60 minutes for you to start or end the day allows time to review the to-do’s, finish a project, clean out the inbox, or just spend some time in thought/meditation. Don’t underestimate the time of silence, it is imperative for creativity! Having this flexible time will help when emergencies come up and give you a better opportunity to shift other meetings or tasks.
Assess your strengths, tasks, and energy levels
As you play with the jigsaw puzzle of your calendar. Make it personal and get to know your energy levels and when you are at your best. For example, if you are a morning person and part of your job is writing…block time in the morning to write, not to be in a meeting. If you find yourself to be more creative and you work with a team of other creatives, then schedule your brainstorms for late in the afternoon. If you are a producer of content of any sort, time block 90-minute windows on a daily basis for any deep work that needs to get done. Pending your workload and the type of work you’re doing, you may need a larger block of time reserved. I highly recommend the book “WHEN” by Daniel H. Pink which dives deeper into the science of the best time to live, work and succeed.
1-Week Out Rule
This sounds a bit ridiculous to most people, but I have a 1-week rule regarding meetings. What this means is that I take a position of authority on my calendar and anyone that wants any of my time will have to be scheduled at least a week out. This serves as a boundary for me as well as I need this space to make sure I have enough margin in each of my days/weeks to be prepared for the unexpected. This method isn’t foolproof by any means, but it really helps to filter what is urgent versus what can wait. Don’t let someone else’s urgency become yours, especially if it is NOT important for your objectives or the organization’s goals.
Email in 2 Minutes
I can’t talk about the calendar without speaking by email. Even with Slack, Asana, Teams, or Workplace, and other platforms that allow for better efficiency…email is still the number one distraction to the 9-5 desk worker. Only you know what your inbox looks like, but you will want to time block daily to address your emails. Here are a few tips for time blocking and emails!
- First, use your bookend times to address email.
- If you are receiving more than 100 emails a day, then look to build additional time blocks to get a hold of this influx.
- For outgoing messages, keep your messages to 5 sentences or less and/or spend no more than 2 minutes on your messages. Be thoughtful about who is copied or not copied. There is nothing worse than being copied on something for a string of emails that do not pertain to you. If you are that person, turn on “Conversation Mode” so you can easily filter out the old messages without attachments.
- For incoming messages, turn off the alerts while you are in a state of flow. This means your smartwatch, your phone, and even the ghost pop-ups on your computer. This is a hard habit to break, but powerful once you get the hang of it!
Permission to Shift
Life happens! The unexpected happens. Tomorrow happens for those of us that are alive. So once you have time-blocked your calendar for the next week, you now have the permission to shift in real-time and to be more available for the demands and distractions that are flying your way. But instead of calling it a distraction, call it an opportunity! This is an opportunity to shift your mindset and to shift your calendar. This newfound time on your calendar is an opportunity for you to connect with someone, show love and compassion, and serve. By changing the perspective of an interruption, you can now serve with gratitude which is far more fulfilling than checking something that may not be as urgent off the to-do list.
One important note as you think about your plans…here is what the bible says about what our approach should be – James 4:13-15 – “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” –yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that“.
We can’t predict what will happen tomorrow…or next week. We also know that our days are never guaranteed or go according to plan. But Lord Willing, consider this tongue-twisting philosophy in your planning: