Speaker 1: You're listening to I'm Mom with mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to biz Your Work Life Sorted. I'm
Speaker 2: m Vernon and today we're diving into something I've personally
Speaker 2: struggled with, time blocking. So you know that feeling when
Speaker 2: you look at your to do list and it feels
Speaker 2: completely overwhelming, or when you're trying to focus on deep
Speaker 2: work but keep getting distracted by Slack messages or emails.
Speaker 2: I have been there so many times, and I'm actually
Speaker 2: supposed to be deep into writing an article right now,
Speaker 2: but here I am instead talking to you, So please
Speaker 2: don't tell my boss. So all of these chaotic habits
Speaker 2: of mine have made me realize that I should probably
Speaker 2: give this time blocking thing another shot and find out
Speaker 2: if I'm actually doing it properly. Today Missions SOF are
Speaker 2: breaking down everything you need to know about time blocking,
Speaker 2: what it actually is, and how to do it without
Speaker 2: feeling like a productivity robot, and most importantly, how to
Speaker 2: make it work for your.
Speaker 1: Life, life and schedule.
Speaker 2: Plus they are joined by productivity expert and artist Debo,
Speaker 2: who completely changed my perspective on how we think about
Speaker 2: organizing our time. Trust me, if you've ever felt like
Speaker 2: you're drowning in tasks or struggling to find focus time.
Speaker 2: This episode is for you, Michelle.
Speaker 1: What's your vibe on time blocking.
Speaker 3: I've heard of it and I felt like maybe it's
Speaker 3: something I should be doing, you know. I feel like
Speaker 3: maybe it's something we felt like we all need to try,
Speaker 3: or like we're missing out on something if we're not
Speaker 3: doing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of with you.
Speaker 4: Actually, I had heard about it for a long time
Speaker 4: because a lot of the engineers at Google did it,
Speaker 4: and I was always like, yeah, I'm not a productivity person. Like, honestly,
Speaker 4: the word productivity gives me anxiety, Like I hate it.
Speaker 1: I'm actually I'm a really slow operator.
Speaker 4: So I'm that person where someone's standing over your shoulder
Speaker 4: and they're like by your computer and they're like he
Speaker 4: will just pull it up and do it now, just
Speaker 4: like go to the folder and do the thing, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, don't watch me. I'm really slow. So like,
Speaker 4: I'm not a productivity person. But I did notice this
Speaker 4: change that happened where I just did one thing, and
Speaker 4: that was I started spending more time in my calendar
Speaker 4: than I started spending in my inbox, and there was
Speaker 4: just a massive change to how I operated at work,
Speaker 4: and really it came down to I started time blocking,
Speaker 4: but I will say it took me a few gos
Speaker 4: and I still don't think I actually do it right.
Speaker 4: I don't even know if there is a right or
Speaker 4: wrong way. I guess that's what this episode is about
Speaker 4: a little bit. What do other people think? Like you
Speaker 4: went out on social and ask people, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was curious about this because I would put myself
Speaker 3: in the camp of I've tried it and I couldn't
Speaker 3: commit to it, like it seemed a bit too hard
Speaker 3: to me, or like I needed to spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time sitting down and planning things, yeah, and do
Speaker 3: that over and over, which is just not something I
Speaker 3: can maintain.
Speaker 1: So I asked on my socials if.
Speaker 3: You've tried time blocking, and it's yes, I lived by it,
Speaker 3: tried it, couldn't commit, never tried it, don't know what
Speaker 3: it is. And the winner here was thirty eight percent
Speaker 3: of people said tried it and couldn't commit yeah, and
Speaker 3: then live by it was second with twenty six percent,
Speaker 3: never tried it, twenty one percent and fifteen percent don't
Speaker 3: know what it is.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I think this episode will.
Speaker 4: Be yeah, I am that personal the majority, So yeah,
Speaker 4: definitely tried it felt like it didn't work me. I
Speaker 4: actually tried it several times before I was able to
Speaker 4: get it to stick. But I still was thinking that
Speaker 4: I'm not doing it right and there's something that I'm missing.
Speaker 4: So it's kind of why we wanted to do this
Speaker 4: episode and why we wanted to go out and speak
Speaker 4: to an expert. So I went out and spoke to
Speaker 4: Deb Hoe, and she is an artist and a productivity expert,
Speaker 4: which I think sounds like an oxymoron, like how can
Speaker 4: you be both those things? Creative and organized? But she
Speaker 4: breaks down exactly what time blocking is. And the interesting
Speaker 4: part I thought about this interview Michelle that we're going
Speaker 4: to play in a second. She actually thinks about time
Speaker 4: blocking not just about how it helps you with work,
Speaker 4: but how it helps you with your whole life, which
Speaker 4: I thought was really interesting. And then we're going to
Speaker 4: come back at the end and I'm going to give
Speaker 4: my five really practical tips for how I was able
Speaker 4: to actually get it to stick for me.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 3: Can't wait.
Speaker 4: So Deb, there's two camps of people when it comes
Speaker 4: to time blocking. The people who, like I've heard of it,
Speaker 4: but I actually have no idea what it is. And
Speaker 4: then the second camp of people who have heard of
Speaker 4: it and think they're doing it but maybe don't feel
Speaker 4: like they're doing it properly. And I feel like I'm
Speaker 4: in that second camp.
Speaker 1: So to just kind of clear.
Speaker 4: Up the first question, what is time blocking and why
Speaker 4: should we even be doing it?
Speaker 5: Time blocking is a really simple method where you just
Speaker 5: assign tasks to a timeslot during the day. So, for example,
Speaker 5: instead of writing your basic to do list like reading, writing,
Speaker 5: doing the dishes, you actually assign those tasks to a
Speaker 5: specific time, so you would do like nine am is
Speaker 5: your reading time, and then ten am is your writing time,
Speaker 5: and washing the dishes is at five pm.
Speaker 6: Or something like that.
Speaker 5: So it really is just adding a time slot to
Speaker 5: those specific tasks.
Speaker 4: How do you actually decide what tasks you're doing when
Speaker 4: you know, is there a best practice we're meant to
Speaker 4: be following in terms of where we're putting tasks?
Speaker 5: I think it really comes down to like trial and error,
Speaker 5: to be honest, Like, unfortunately a lot of people don't
Speaker 5: find time blocking that useful because they're just like, oh,
Speaker 5: a whole block of the days just work and that's it.
Speaker 5: But generally, I find that it really comes down to
Speaker 5: what you do personally. For example, like I can't exercise
Speaker 5: at night, so I will always put it in the morning.
Speaker 5: And I don't read after like nine am. I only
Speaker 5: read in the morning, so I always put it in
Speaker 5: the morning as well.
Speaker 6: So it really comes down.
Speaker 5: To like what works with your personal lifestyle. Even if
Speaker 5: people say wake up at four am, Like, that's just
Speaker 5: not really viable for everyone. So it's something that really
Speaker 5: comes down to trial and error. You'll pull a few
Speaker 5: things that will be your dream life, but then you'll
Speaker 5: realize really quickly that your life gets in the way,
Speaker 5: and then you have to like kind of move things
Speaker 5: around and test it.
Speaker 4: Okay, So, because this is the kind of trap that
Speaker 4: I have been in before, I wanted to try time blocking,
Speaker 4: and then I tried it, and then I was like,
Speaker 4: it doesn't actually work for me. Then I had this
Speaker 4: sort of moment where I stopped and thought about what
Speaker 4: are the tasks that I'm doing and when is the
Speaker 4: best time of my day to do those tasks.
Speaker 1: So that was a big light bulb moment for me.
Speaker 4: For the listener at home who's never done this before,
Speaker 4: and maybe tried it and it didn't work. How do
Speaker 4: you actually get started in terms of deciding what are
Speaker 4: the better times of day to do certain things.
Speaker 1: Is there any kind of tips that you have for that.
Speaker 5: My main tip is to number one, be very forgiving,
Speaker 5: because it'll be a process, and I think it really
Speaker 5: is based on your energy levels, so you would naturally
Speaker 5: do things that are harder at the beginning of the day.
Speaker 5: Like for me, cleaning through my personal email is like
Speaker 5: very very easy, So I tend to do it at
Speaker 5: night when I'm watching TV because I can kind of
Speaker 5: like splice it with like low energy activities. But if
Speaker 5: something takes a little bit more effort, push it earlier
Speaker 5: to the morning. I would also consider like your work
Speaker 5: day as well. Like some people can go to the
Speaker 5: gym at like eleven am, which is I think crazy
Speaker 5: because it's in the middle of work day and you
Speaker 5: have like meetings and stuff. But like some people really
Speaker 5: can do like an early lunch and do their gym
Speaker 5: routine then and then go straight into any.
Speaker 6: Kind of meeting afterwards.
Speaker 5: So I think it really depends on your own temperament
Speaker 5: and whether or not this is something that you can handle.
Speaker 5: The thing is always just start really really easy and
Speaker 5: slot it in, try it for like a couple of
Speaker 5: weeks and test it to see how viabod is in
Speaker 5: your life. Just keep adding things very slowly. I wouldn't
Speaker 5: rush into anything that sounds good.
Speaker 1: I remember.
Speaker 4: The big aha for me was when I realized that
Speaker 4: my brain is different in the morning to the evening,
Speaker 4: and I can't actually concentrate on deep work in the afternoon.
Speaker 4: So where I used to put all my meetings in
Speaker 4: the morning and then I'd be kind of left to
Speaker 4: work in the afternoon, I completely flipped it and I
Speaker 4: started blocking out my mornings for actual work and time
Speaker 4: blocking all my meeting.
Speaker 1: In the afternoon.
Speaker 4: And that kind of kept my brain engaging anyway because
Speaker 4: I was talking to someone.
Speaker 1: So that was a really big lab on mover for
Speaker 1: me in terms of planning out those blocks.
Speaker 4: So deb someone who's just getting started, they have an
Speaker 4: open calendar, or maybe they've got a few things that
Speaker 4: they're already in that calendar in terms of assigned work
Speaker 4: meetings and things like that, can you actually break down
Speaker 4: the step by step process someone should go through to
Speaker 4: time block their week.
Speaker 5: Generally I would either go digital or paper. I personally
Speaker 5: like writing things down, so I would just take a
Speaker 5: simple piece of paper, blank piece of paper, or you.
Speaker 6: Can use a diary or anything like that.
Speaker 5: What I would generally do is write major tasks that
Speaker 5: you want to get done during the day all the
Speaker 5: week as a list. So first start with a regular
Speaker 5: to do list, which I think a lot of people have,
Speaker 5: and then kind of consider what your priorities are for
Speaker 5: the week. So generally I pick three maximum.
Speaker 6: I try to do.
Speaker 5: Two because I don't want to like overwhelm myself, but
Speaker 5: it's maximum three. Once you kind of consider that, either
Speaker 5: in your calendar or on the paper, you kind of
Speaker 5: write down if you're doing the day. You write down
Speaker 5: time slots from top to bottom, so like when your
Speaker 5: day starts, which some people they want to start from
Speaker 5: nine am, so nine am, ten am, eleven am, twelve pm,
Speaker 5: one pm, all the way down to whenever you want
Speaker 5: to stop your day. And if it's a week thing,
Speaker 5: then you would just do Monday to Friday across the top,
Speaker 5: and then do like morning, afternoon, night slots going down,
Speaker 5: so it's more like a table, and then at that
Speaker 5: point you sort of have like almost like a grid
Speaker 5: of these time slots that you want to put tasks into.
Speaker 5: You just consider how long things will take. So like
Speaker 5: washing the dishes would probably take half an hour, so
Speaker 5: you can give yourself a half an hour time slot
Speaker 5: at like five pm or like after you've eaten, so
Speaker 5: eight pm. Then you assign times like writing might take
Speaker 5: two hours, so you put that task at like eleven am,
Speaker 5: and then you just fill out the time and make
Speaker 5: sure you put breaks in between as well, make sure
Speaker 5: you like slot in lunch and then have all the
Speaker 5: other like things.
Speaker 6: You got to do during the day as well.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 4: So if you kind of step back and you look
Speaker 4: at your your full day or your full week, should
Speaker 4: every slot of time actually be scheduled?
Speaker 6: I would recommend not to.
Speaker 5: I would just guarantee like certain slots to be put
Speaker 5: in because you need time to be kind of flexy.
Speaker 5: And then as you move through the week or move
Speaker 5: through the day, you realize that like things will change,
Speaker 5: like things will pop up, and if everything's like super rigid,
Speaker 5: you can't really move anything around, and I think that
Speaker 5: causes more stress than what the purpose of it is
Speaker 5: to like alleviate anxiety about tasks. So I would keep
Speaker 5: as much open as possible, and also give yourself off the.
Speaker 6: Time as well.
Speaker 5: You actually realize when you time block that there's so
Speaker 5: much time when you're not like stressing about when to
Speaker 5: do things. If you just say you'll do it, there's
Speaker 5: actually so much time to do things.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's been a very long time since
Speaker 4: I've heard someone say there's so much time to do things.
Speaker 1: I love that. Thank you.
Speaker 4: I already feel more calm talking to you. How about
Speaker 4: the traps people get into? So who think they've tried
Speaker 4: this and they're like, it didn't actually work for me.
Speaker 4: What are some of the things that people actually get wrong.
Speaker 5: The main thing that people get wrong about time blocking
Speaker 5: is just getting too stressed about making everything perfect and
Speaker 5: creating this really rigid schedule. And I myself am such
Speaker 5: a big perfectionist and I want things to go exactly
Speaker 5: as I plan them, but obviously that never happens, and
Speaker 5: you kind of realize that with age, you're like, you.
Speaker 6: Can't control everything.
Speaker 5: The biggest mistake really is that people don't do something
Speaker 5: and then they feel like they're failure off for not
Speaker 5: doing it, And I.
Speaker 6: Think that's totally not the case. I think it's a
Speaker 6: trial and.
Speaker 5: Error, as I said a bit earlier, and I think
Speaker 5: generally people do have to also assess whether or not
Speaker 5: the task that they want to do is important to them.
Speaker 5: Like two years ago, I tried to put reading in
Speaker 5: my time block for the longest time, and I.
Speaker 6: Never did it.
Speaker 5: I'd always be like, I've got other things to do,
Speaker 5: it's not important. Then I feel guilty about skipping it.
Speaker 5: But then I realized that reading was just not important
Speaker 5: for me at that time, and I just let go
Speaker 5: of that, and I was like, I'll go back to
Speaker 5: it when I have the time to do it. And
Speaker 5: now I read like almost every day because I've I
Speaker 5: want to do it. Personally, I think people try to
Speaker 5: force things that they want to do in the day
Speaker 5: when actually it goes against their values or it goes
Speaker 5: against their lifestyle. And that's more of a deeper thing
Speaker 5: than just like time blocking as a method. It really
Speaker 5: is like you have to look within yourself. That sounds
Speaker 5: so cheesy, but like there are things that people gravitate
Speaker 5: towards because they want to do it, and there's things
Speaker 5: that they procrastinate for years and years because they actually
Speaker 5: shouldn't be doing it. Like exercising is like a really
Speaker 5: good example, like people say I need to go to
Speaker 5: the gym, but they never do for me. I don't
Speaker 5: go to the gym because I do swimming, I do tennis,
Speaker 5: I walk every day and that's the easiest way for
Speaker 5: me to exercise.
Speaker 6: And it really is less.
Speaker 5: About the time blocking and more about what you have
Speaker 5: the motivation to do in general outside of time blocking.
Speaker 1: That's a really important point.
Speaker 4: I think it's not actually going to work to get
Speaker 4: you to do something by just putting it in your
Speaker 4: calendar and having a reminder set up, So it's really
Speaker 4: about time blocking is actually stopping and thinking and deciding
Speaker 4: what do I want to do on my day, allocating
Speaker 4: a realistic amount of time to do those things, and
Speaker 4: then trying to reduce some of the friction. So one
Speaker 4: thing I think is really important for people to think
Speaker 4: about when they're doing their time block planning is reducing
Speaker 4: the context switching time. How do you actually order and
Speaker 4: group some of your tasks together to remove some friction
Speaker 4: and deb can you tell us what context switching is?
Speaker 5: Context switching really is just moving from a different task
Speaker 5: to another that is so significantly different it takes your brain.
Speaker 6: Like I think I read somewhere.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if it's accurate, but about twenty three
Speaker 5: minutes of your time to really emotionally move from one
Speaker 5: task to the other. For me, once I figured that out,
Speaker 5: or like when someone told me that, that really blew
Speaker 5: my mind because you kind of waste that time easing
Speaker 5: into the next task. So generally, it's best to group
Speaker 5: similar tasks together. So you want to have all your
Speaker 5: meanings kind of in the morning or in the afternoon,
Speaker 5: so that you have focused time in writing or like
Speaker 5: doing emails all in one go. Generally, like emails and
Speaker 5: admin is like one kind of group of tasks, and
Speaker 5: then like writing all like creative work is like one
Speaker 5: type of task as well, So you want to group
Speaker 5: those altogether so your energy levels are kind of similar
Speaker 5: for that type of task. Personally, I find it really
Speaker 5: important to smush everything together to make sure that everything
Speaker 5: is kind of flowing with each other, and then I
Speaker 5: have a break and then I move on to a
Speaker 5: different type of task.
Speaker 4: For the people listening, this is it right, This is why,
Speaker 4: because you know, you might think I can plan some
Speaker 4: stuff in a calendar that's not really going to change
Speaker 4: my life. But the point is that because if you
Speaker 4: don't plan things, you're actually wasting so much time as
Speaker 4: you switch between different projects and context and tasks. And
Speaker 4: if you are able to do a little bit of
Speaker 4: forward planning, you can actually reduce that context switching time
Speaker 4: and you can get a lot of time back in
Speaker 4: your day and also just helps your brain work better.
Speaker 4: A lot of people listening work in a sort of
Speaker 4: office corporate environment, and you know, say you're working on
Speaker 4: three different projects. I've seen a lot of leaders try
Speaker 4: to have specific days for different projects, and so your
Speaker 4: head's just really in this one project in that day,
Speaker 4: and then as much as possible you can try and
Speaker 4: work on the other project and book the meetings around
Speaker 4: for that next day as well.
Speaker 1: One trap that a lot of us getting.
Speaker 4: To is that if you work in an office, your
Speaker 4: time's not necessarily your own. There's people putting meetings in,
Speaker 4: there's people hanging you on Slack and they're like, can
Speaker 4: you do this thing? Do you have any any tips
Speaker 4: for how people can protect their blocks of time that
Speaker 4: they've actually scheduled.
Speaker 5: It really is like setting probably a no meeting Friday, which.
Speaker 6: We do at work, which is pretty.
Speaker 5: Good, and everyone really honors that and we kind of
Speaker 5: make sure everything is like in my Thursday, I think
Speaker 5: setting a time during the week or even like an afternoon.
Speaker 5: A lot of my workmates they put in that do
Speaker 5: not schedule time period, which like really cannot budge unless
Speaker 5: it's like so important, and I think everyone really respects that.
Speaker 5: I think it's really like having conversations with the people
Speaker 5: around you and also having like more understanding across the
Speaker 5: whole team that the afternoon or a certain time of
Speaker 5: date is protected for, just like quiet time.
Speaker 4: The other thing is just making sure you're putting in
Speaker 4: your certain end times in your calendar, so like at
Speaker 4: this time I'm commuting, I don't take calls or respond
Speaker 4: to messages, and then also including some of your boundaries
Speaker 4: in your signature as well.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people will say.
Speaker 4: You know, I only check emails twice a day, and
Speaker 4: they'll even block those in their calendar that says, you know,
Speaker 4: this is the time I'm checking emails and responding to
Speaker 4: slack messages. These times do not disturb. Yeah, it's about
Speaker 4: having boundaries and trying to be consistent, but then having
Speaker 4: a little bit of flexibility as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because there'll be times when like things are like
Speaker 5: have to be moved around, and it'll be good like
Speaker 5: to have that flexibility. But in general, I think, like
Speaker 5: across the whole team, it's generally very like much agreed
Speaker 5: that there are certain times that like cannot be touched.
Speaker 5: Having that freedom in general, like across the whole workplace,
Speaker 5: just makes people want to be flexible when the time
Speaker 5: requires it.
Speaker 4: So I will just say everyone's jobs are different, right,
Speaker 4: and we are not saying that time blocking is going
Speaker 4: to work for everyone, And a lot of people have
Speaker 4: the type of job where their day is just not
Speaker 4: their own. If you don't plan your day, other people's
Speaker 4: priorities will plan your day for you. So it's just
Speaker 4: about getting on the front foot with your time, which
Speaker 4: is so precious. So if you can just do a
Speaker 4: little bit of planning, you can get on the front foot.
Speaker 4: And it's actually I've found very anxiety reducing to know
Speaker 4: that you're getting through things. I'll share some tips in
Speaker 4: a minute, but I've actually found the whole process. It
Speaker 4: feels like more work, but it actually can if you
Speaker 4: stick with it, reduce your anxiety about time and work.
Speaker 3: I think what I kind of like about this is
Speaker 3: I don't think i'm the kind of person that will
Speaker 3: ever actually time block, but I like what it stands for.
Speaker 3: I think sprinkling a bit the foundations of time blocking
Speaker 3: into how you do your job if you're not the
Speaker 3: kind of person who's going to time block is a
Speaker 3: good way to approach just being focused and intentioned about
Speaker 3: your day.
Speaker 4: Totally, because I think for a lot of us the
Speaker 4: idea of time blocking every minute of your day just
Speaker 4: sounds awful, Like when is the time for impromptu conversations
Speaker 4: and having fun things like that?
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, definitely with you on that.
Speaker 3: One thing I loved when you were talking was around
Speaker 3: fitting things into your lifestyle, and I think you touched
Speaker 3: John like when is the best time of.
Speaker 1: Day to do certain tasks?
Speaker 3: And I think if you're maybe more in my camp,
Speaker 3: which might be the light touch time blocking camp. Two
Speaker 3: questions that I think could be good for people to
Speaker 3: ask themselves when working out, like when does your brain
Speaker 3: work best? Is asking yourself when do you procrastinate the hardest?
Speaker 3: Like when do tasks feel hard? And that really shouldn't
Speaker 3: be the time of day that you're trying to do
Speaker 3: deep work or really get into the weeds of certain things.
Speaker 3: And then when do things feel effortless, and that should
Speaker 3: really be a clue for your prime time. Like I
Speaker 3: know I'm a morning person because things just feel easier
Speaker 3: for me. I know, my brain completely bombs out at
Speaker 3: three pm, like I'm done, my day's done.
Speaker 1: The same, oh my god.
Speaker 4: Same. But some people that's when they're picking up My
Speaker 4: boss at Google, that's exactly when his primetime was kind
Speaker 4: of thing. Yeah, yeah, that's actually my first tip. So
Speaker 4: know what time of day works best for you, and
Speaker 4: also days of the week as well. So that's a
Speaker 4: really big thing, like know when your deep work is
Speaker 4: best and make sure you're blocking that. So I actually
Speaker 4: connected this idea of know what time of day is
Speaker 4: where you focus best. I've connected that to an idea
Speaker 4: that you shared in our productivity episode, and it's actually
Speaker 4: I don't always know the exact task that I'm going
Speaker 4: to be doing, but I have a focus block as
Speaker 4: much as possible. I try to have focus blocks in
Speaker 4: the morning, and then I will sit there and ask
Speaker 4: myself what's making me feel most uncomfortable today, and that
Speaker 4: will be the thing that I actually go and then
Speaker 4: do in that time. Also days of the week, if
Speaker 4: you are going into the office on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Speaker 4: For example, I'm working from home Monday Friday. You're going
Speaker 4: to be doing different things in the office versus at home,
Speaker 4: so you want to prioritize a lot more in person
Speaker 4: time and meetings and deep work is probably going to
Speaker 4: be more on the Monday and Friday.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The second thing that really changed it for me was this.
Speaker 4: If someone asked you to do something, like someone says, hey,
Speaker 4: can you present in the team meeting next week, instead
Speaker 4: of just adding it to a to do list, I
Speaker 4: would instantly open up my calendar and say, I think
Speaker 4: that's going to take me like three forty five minute
Speaker 4: blocks to do, and I would just instantly block the
Speaker 4: time up until that presentation next week, and then I
Speaker 4: would dump any kind of initial thoughts that I had
Speaker 4: into the first calendar block. It just reduced the anxiety
Speaker 4: for me because then I know if I just stick
Speaker 4: to these blocks, I know I'm going to get it done.
Speaker 4: Once you feel the positive feelings of like, oh hey,
Speaker 4: that actually works, it helps you stick with the time blocking.
Speaker 1: You're selling it to me, I love it. These are
Speaker 1: three little, really quick ones. You're gonna hate this one.
Speaker 1: You do need a block to plan your blocks.
Speaker 4: So like I do have a little block on a
Speaker 4: Friday where I actually try to plan out the blocks
Speaker 4: for the wak ahead. Honestly, sometimes I skip it. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm having a margarita and I'm not doing that, But
Speaker 4: then I kind of, yeah, I do have to do
Speaker 4: it the next week. So yeah, if you are going
Speaker 4: to get this to work for it you, it does
Speaker 4: help if you actually have some planning time.
Speaker 1: My favorite one out of all.
Speaker 4: Of the tips is my task pebbles block. So this
Speaker 4: is just where I have two of them a week,
Speaker 4: and I just have a calendar block that says task pebbles,
Speaker 4: and as things come up throughout the week, those little
Speaker 4: things that you don't have time for, I just drop
Speaker 4: them into the description and save it and then when
Speaker 4: I've got time, I'll jump in. Sometimes if I've got
Speaker 4: spare time in between meetings, I'll jump in and pull
Speaker 4: a task pebble, or other times I'll just make sure
Speaker 4: I'm smashing those out all in one go. Such a
Speaker 4: good tip, and then the last point is just to
Speaker 4: trust the process a little bit. So it did take
Speaker 4: me quite a few gos. It actually so helps sometimes
Speaker 4: to have an end point to something too, so like
Speaker 4: you can maybe work on for two or three hours,
Speaker 4: but it's not actually healthy for your brain, So be
Speaker 4: like I'm going to do forty five minutes on that
Speaker 4: tuk and then I'm going to stop. That sense of
Speaker 4: progress that you get from being like okay, that is
Speaker 4: now complete, and I can go and do something else,
Speaker 4: or I can.
Speaker 1: Have a break. It just makes you feel pretty good.
Speaker 3: You're kind of like setting yourself up for failure if
Speaker 3: you start and you're time blocking and popping things in
Speaker 3: that actually aren't really a priority to you, or aren't
Speaker 3: things that you truly care about and want to do,
Speaker 3: like Deb's example of reading and then not doing exactly Okay,
Speaker 3: So how someone could start this tomorrow? They need to
Speaker 3: take away from your book and plan to plan, and
Speaker 3: do that at a time when you feel most motivated.
Speaker 3: So for me, it would probably be a Monday morning.
Speaker 3: And then I think it's best for people to start
Speaker 3: broad like maybe you have your deep work zone, maybe
Speaker 3: you've got a shallow work zone which is like your
Speaker 3: task pebbles. Maybe you've got a personal zone, and that's
Speaker 3: just how you begin, and once you nail that can
Speaker 3: start to get more granular, but use those three buckets
Speaker 3: to begin with as your to do lists. Stop putting
Speaker 3: you to do list in the notes section of your
Speaker 3: phone or on a sticky note on your laptop, and
Speaker 3: get them into those calendar invites.
Speaker 4: Get it into your calendar and get it into your calendar.
Speaker 4: Make it sound so easy, exactly, Yes, love it done.
Speaker 2: So Dare hit us with some hard facts, especially when
Speaker 2: she said there's actually so much time to do things
Speaker 2: when you're not stressing about when to do them. As
Speaker 2: someone who's attempted time blocking multiple times and failed, hearing
Speaker 2: that was honestly revolutionary to me. If you're feeling inspired
Speaker 2: to give time blocking a try, head to our bus
Speaker 2: newsletter this week, We've created a super simple template to
Speaker 2: help get you started, and don't forget to follow us
Speaker 2: on Instagram at biz by Mama Mia, where we'll be
Speaker 2: sharing some practical tips throughout the entire week. Remember it's
Speaker 2: not about being perfect, it's about finding what works for you.
Speaker 2: I'll catch you in Thursday's biz Inbox episode, where we'll
Speaker 2: be answering all of your career questions.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 2: Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on