Hi guys. Max here, today I wanted to share about one experiment I’ve been doing these days. It’s about managing our calendar and how you can make it work for you, not against you.
If you haven’t checked my yesterday issue about the power of 1%, you can do it here.
🧱 The power of blocks
When we speak about productivity and calendars, the first and most famous technique which comes to mind is time blocking.
The logic behind it is pretty simple – it requires creating a block on your calendar to mark the “borders” of any activity.
For example: when you plan to focus on something, you set a time block for this period of time. It gives you couple of advantages at the same time:
- It lets you estimate and measure the allocated time in your time
- It prevents you from distracting on some other activity
📏 Measure the size of blocks first
My biggest problem in the past was starting to use time blocks. I understand the benefits of this technique, and it makes total sense to me “limit” your time and allocate it for some activity.
However, it was always challenging for me to actually start doing this. What kind of activities should I block my time for? How big should my “blocks” be?
To answer these questions and start using this framework, I decided to run a simple experiment. I just started tracking my daily activity in blocks.
☀️ How to measure your day
The idea is fairly simple: I mark what I do on my Google Calendar. Doing this for a few days in a row provides me with multiple benefits:
- I track my time allocation (and gives me idea whether I spend it well or not)
- I discover: what kinds of activities I can block time for later on
(Here is an example of how one of the days I tracked looks like)
🧐 How to set blocks
I was running this experiment for one week. What I did next – based on results of my measurements – was scheduling time blocks ahead (using recurring option in Google Calendar).
⚡️ Result
What I have now is the grid of events scheduled for every day. The provide me clear idea of what my time allocation during the day looks like, as well as it let me adjust my schedule (if needed). It provides a better way to estimate time costs too, providing visualization on calendar view.
Time blocks is definitely a powerful tool which can be used for your personal organization. If you haven’t tried this yet – I encourage you to check it out and see if it works for your schedule.
For now I decided to use it, since it reduces procrastination and makes me organized better. That was it for today. Thank you for reading.
I started this blog as an attempt to improve my writing skills and to establish a proper writing routine. I share notes and tips about productivity, products and routines. I believe that this blog will keep me accountable and (hopefully) will help someone else too.