Maximize Your Time: Start Time Blocking

For most of us, our to-do list is far longer than our hours in a day. But stop to think about some of the non-negotiables in your life: feeding your kids, going to the doctor, getting to work or school on time. What makes these different? It’s simple: you prioritize them AND you have a designated time to do them.

What is Time Blocking?

Time Blocking is the act of scheduling your day. It’s taking your traditional “to-do” list but assigning specific, and limited, times to complete each task. It should be written down, and you should treat each item as a non-negotiable item.

What items should be blocked on my schedule?

For time blocking to be effective, you should map out EVERYTHING! This includes:

• Meetings
• Appointments
• Sleep
• Travel Time
• Work Time
• Family Time
• Meal Prep
• Eating
• Laundry
• Relaxation
• etc.

Have you ever had a day where you have back to back meetings with NO BREAK? It doesn’t work, does it? At some point during the day you have to allow yourself time to eat, to use the restroom, to sleep. And if you don’t plan time for these things, they’re going to happen at the expense of something else!

What does an example of a Time-Blocked day look like?

Here’s an example of what a “typical” work day looks like for me. It includes time for work, personal activities, and my Color Street business. I have a planner that I love to use that has an hour by hour schedule, but you don’t need anything fancy. A piece of paper and a pencil works just fine!

Time	Activity	Complete?
4:45 am	Wake up, drive to gym
5:00 – 5:30 am	Workout
5:30 – 5:45 am	Drive home
5:45 – 6:30 am	Shower, get dressed, dry hair
6:30 – 7:30 am	Color Street – Create & Schedule Content
7:30 – 8:00 am	Breakfast, Empty Dishwasher
8:00 – 11:00 am	Work (this is usually broken out by specific meetings)
11:00 – 11:30 am	Lunch
11:30 am – 2:30 pm	Work
2:30 – 2:45 pm	Break
2:45 – 5:30 pm	Work
5:30 – 6:30 pm	Afternoon walk/phone calls
6:30 – 8:00 pm	Dinner & family time
8:00 – 9:00 pm	Color Street (team time, 1:1 follow up, parties, etc.)
9:00 – 9:30 pm	Wind Down
9:30 pm	Bedtime

Within each of these large sections, I block even more. So for example, my 8:00 – 9:00 pm Color Street time might be blocked as follows:

Time	Activity	Complete?
8:00 – 8:15 pm	Check in with 5 members of current team
8:15 – 8:30 pm	Talk to 2 prospective teammates
8:30 – 8:45	Prepare party hosts – send day 3 coaching
8:45 – 9:00	Talk to 2 prospective party hosts for next month

You can even break down your hour into what we call “Power Hours” in 5-10 minute increments, but that will be a post all of it’s own later!

Why Time Blocking?

Besides being a simple and efficient way to plan your day, think about the qualities of “SMART” goals:

• Specific: You are listing out specific things that you need to accomplish
• Measurable: If you notice in my Color Street hour, I added very measurable goals. So for example, if I only checked in with 4 members of my team, then the next day I would try to do six instead of five…
• Attainable: You only have 24 hours in a day; this helps to ensure you don’t over commit!
• Realistic: I used to be TERRIBLE about not allowing for travel time. I’ve always wanted the ability to teleport, but until that can happen, this method makes sure that my schedule is realistic!
• Time Bound: This is the real differentiator here. Time Blocking makes your task list time-bound, so you’re far less likely to procrastinate. It sets a limit so your unpleasant tasks don’t go on indefinitely, and it saves us from that bad habit of doing what we enjoy for much longer than is necessary or productive!

Call to Action:

Give it a try! Time block a day in your schedule and drop it in the comments below! I’d love to hear how it works for you!