Time blocking is a strategy that’s been around for a really long time. I didn’t invent it, but the guy that taught it to me was pretty efficient. So, I put it to use and the results I got were amazing!
So now, I want to share with you today, what time blocking is and how you can use time-blocking to block out your week.
Time-blocking is actually pretty simple. It’s coloring out your week based on what you’re going to do. So often, people go from not using a calendar at all, to then you’re like, all right, well, I’ll use it a little bit. Then you’ll be fully integrated into a calendar. Meaning that if I have anything to do, it’s got to be on my calendar.
The next level of that is time blocking. Time blocking really protects your time because it is your most valuable commodity. ( like money doesn’t really matter.) Time is what’s most valuable. And so when you time block, you would say, “Alright, on Mondays I’m only going to do prep work. I’m going to follow up with emails from the weekend. I’m going to call people back, that left me voicemails, and then maybe I’m gonna have internal team meetings and prepare for the next four days. So what you would do is block from 8:00 AM to noon, and you would say internal meetings, all my internal meetings have to happen in this time. Lunches from noon to one. And then one to five in the afternoon is prep and follow up, right? What that does is now that’s blocked out on your time on your calendar and you should only layer in appointments that fit those time blocks. So, if someone wants to meet with you from your 8:00 AM to noon, time block, right? So this is blocked out and they say, “Hey, you know, can I meet with you?” And it’s a client. You say, “No, I’m sorry. Looks like that time block is only for internal meetings.”
Now, the reason why I say put this on your calendar, is because you have to train yourself first. I don’t necessarily have my whole calendar blocked out anymore, but there’s certain times that I place things on certain days. For instance, I don’t take appointments before 10:00 AM ever. I’m just not sharp enough. I prefer to have very important appointments between 10:00 AM and noon. Same thing with internal meetings. I won’t meet internally very often after 2:30, 3 o’clock because I’m just toasted. I can’t be at my peak performance level that my team needs me to be. So on Tuesday, maybe you would have an 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, time block. And that’s an out of office, seeing a client. So you’d have an eight to a nine. And then you have the 10 to 11, 1-2 and then 4-5. And so those are time blocks on your calendar. And then it’s your goal every single week to make sure that someone is in that time block. Think about it like a hair salon…
There might be a hair salon and someone is, you know, “Hey, this is our book and we have these time blocks that the appointments have to fit into.” That’s what I’m talking about. So, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, maybe two morning appointments, two afternoon appointments, maybe Thursday, you’re doing catch-up. And maybe if you’re in charge of writing blog posts or something like that, you do some marketing and heck who knows, maybe Fridays you take off. So your whole Friday’s time is blocked out. Wouldn’t that be nice?!
But nonetheless, it’s totally up to you. You’re the one that gets to decide how you want to time block your calendar. I’m just simply here to teach you the strategy so that it can help make you more efficient, so that you don’t waste time throughout the week.
Here’s to your Success!
