Time management

One of the biggest productivity “hacks” that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is time blocking. Cal Newport has been detailing the benefits of time blocking for years. He even built a planner around it.

If you are not currently managing your busy life with a calendar (any calendar!) then I cannot understand how you manage to stay on top of your commitments. I would argue that you aren’t across everything that you need to do.

“Work” requires us to attend meetings, submit reports, meet deadlines. All these should be clearly defined in your calendar. Yet, I know many people that simply do not do this. These people are not as efficient as they could be.

Aside from the above, blocking out time in your calendar to do something specific is powerful. Your past self (that made the entry) is telling you that this allotted time is for that thing you wanted to do. So, do it. Take the time given to you. Once done, move on.

Known as time blocking, it is self explanatory. If you know that you want to do 1 hour of writing a day, block a 1 hour slot in calendar for it. Every day.

Most of us have good intentions when it comes to doing things like reading for 30 minutes everyday, writing, taking a short time to yourself. Whatever. However, if you block time for it in your calendar your intentions become real. Tangible.

Do it. It works. Thank me (and Cal) later.