How to Save Time with Time Blocking
Do you ever feel scattered while you work? Or do you have trouble knowing what to work on and when? If you want to be more focused and beat overwhelm, you need to be time blocking! Time blocking can save you time, help you stay focused and avoid scatteredness, avoid overwhelm, AND it will help you make sure you have time for everything you need to be doing to run your business and your life.
Along with batch work, time blocking is going to be so helpful when it comes time to create your schedule.
Make a List of Every Type of Work You Do In Your Business
So here’s how you can set up time blocking for your business. First, make a list of every type of work you do in your business. Here’s what mine looks like:
- Emails
- Financials
- Social Media
- Content Planning
- Blog Writing
- Podcast Writing
- Podcast Recording
- Blog posting
- Podcast posting
- Editing
- Automation admin
- Trello admin
- Invoicing
- Lesson planning
- Make slides
- Lesson recording
- Blog graphics
- Podcast graphics
Whew! That’s A LOT!!!! Do you see how easy it can be to be overwhelmed if you try to think about everything at once and everything that you have to do? A better way is to group your tasks into blocks.
Group Your Tasks Together
Here’s how it looks when I group my tasks together.
- Admin (includes financials, invoicing)
- Content planning
- Content writing
- Post blogs
- Podcast recording
- Lesson recording
- Editing
- Graphics
- Social Media
- Emails
Add a Time Limit to Your Groups
Next, you want to estimate how much time it takes you realistically to do these things. I also recommend dividing the blocks into “focused time” (what needs more concentration) and “relaxed time” (what you can do without thinking) or you can think projects vs actions, or think about when you are more productive/less productive in the day, or what you enjoy more vs. what you enjoy less.
I recommend doing what you enjoy the least when you are more productive in the day. For me, I’m more productive in the mornings, so I do the tasks that I enjoy the least in the mornings.
Now that we have these blocks of time written out, you can make your schedule and fit them in. Putting them on your schedule will help you make sure you never forget to do anything in your business.
So, I want you to make a list of the tasks in your business and think about where you can block time. If you’re more of a visual person, it may help you to go ahead and plan it out on your schedule. So click on over to the next lesson to hear about how to plan your weekly schedule!