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Time Blocking for People Who Hate Being Boxed In

Time Blocking for People Who Hate Being Boxed In

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 Peter Drucker once said “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else” How is your management of time? Links: Email Me | Twitter | Fac ebook | Website | Linkedin The Time-Based Productivity Course Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl’s YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 403 Hello, and welcome to episode 403 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. Are you in danger of boxing yourself in with too many processes and too much structure? Now, it’s important to stress that having some structure to your day is important. But too much can lead to boxing yourself in and losing flexibility. Let me give you an example I often come across. Protecting time for doing your focused work. Having this protected on your calendar so the time cannot be stolen by others is important. If you protected 2 hours and finished in 90 minutes, that doesn’t mean you have to continue for another 30 minutes. Take a break. You’re done. But this works the other way, too. If you have two hours protected for a project task but cannot finish it in that time. It’s okay. You turned up. You did the work, but you miscalculated how long it would take. This happens to all of us. Some days we’re on fire and can plough through a lot of work. Other days, a lot less so. The problem is that when you begin your day, you really don’t know what kind of day you’re going to have. There are too many variables. How you slept, whether you’re catching a cold or simply something else is on your mind. Your life is not measured by what you do in one day; everyone has bad days. So, with that said, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question. This week’s question comes from Alex. Alex asks, hi Carl, this year I’m trying to be better at time blocking, but I am really struggling to stay consistent with my blocks. What advice do you have to help stay true to your calendar? Hi Alex, thank you for your question. Something I have always taught is that of all your productivity tools, one of them needs to be sacred. One of your tools must be the “truth” about what you are going to do that day. Task managers are generally not good at this because we throw a lot of things into them. That’s a good thing. Yet, the issue is that most people never curate what they throw in. This creates overwhelming lists of low-value, ill-thought-out items that will never get done. They just cripple your task manager’s effectiveness. The best tool for acting as your sacred base is your calendar. It’s never going to lie to you. It shows you the 24 hours you have each day and where you need to be, with whom, and when. You cannot overload yourself without it being plainly obvious that you are trying to do too much. And let’s be perfectly clear, an agreed appointment with someone will always take priority over an email or proposal you need to write. If not, you cancel the appointment. I hope, at a basic, civilised human being level, you get that. I’ve called off face-to-face meetings in the past if the person I am meeting cannot put their phones down and actually talk to me. It is rude, disrespectful, and no person with an ounce of integrity would ever do that. One of the striking things I’ve noticed about the highly successful people I work with is that they never have a phone. Tablet or laptop near them when they are in meetings. A notebook and a pen are all they have. That’s focus, professionalism, and demonstrates to the person you are meeting that you are focused on them in that moment. When you make your calendar your primary productivity tool, you gain clarity about how much time you have available for the things you want to do. It’s visual, it’s staring at you, and there’s no escape from reality. If you work 9 hours a day and today you have 7 hours of meetings, you only have 2 hours to do solo work. That’s it. If you need three hours to get your critical, must-do work done, then you have two choices. You either cancel a meeting or you accept that you will need to work an extra hour. It’s strange how so many people waste so much time trying find other solutions. That’s time they could have spent on getting started on the work. The solution is to time-block slots for doing the work that matters. The best salespeople block time every day to prospect and follow up with their customers. That’s why they are the top salespeople.The best CEOs block time every day for working on their top priority task. That’s why they are the best at what they do.Best-selling authors ...
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