Optimize Your To Do List With Time Blocking

Ok ladies, how many planners or calendars did you start the new year with? How did last year go? If you’re like me, you bought all of the cute planners and to-do pads, but by March the pages turnt blank and you just went through life winging it. Last year I had a come to Jesus moment, and realized that life just ain’t for me! 

While talking with my therapist (yes, my calendars were traumatizing me), she suggested I start time blocking. You want me to plan out my ENTIRE day? She looked at me with a straight face and replied, YES. Through time blocking, I discovered I was putting things on my to-do list, with not enough hours in the day to even complete them. My to do list was great at reminding me of what I needed to do, but it failed to show me how I was going to get it all done.

What is time blocking? It allows you to designate specific time “blocks” to a task. Doing so has helped me become more productive and eliminates me wasting too much time on a task. It has also allowed me to sleep better at night, because (almost) every task has a designated day/time on my calendar. 

My main source of truth is my Outlook calendar for work, which is why I don’t time block my calendar until the evening before or morning of. It’s unlikely (though possible) that a work meeting would end up on my calendar the day of, so this allows me to fill in the available slots with other tasks I need to get complete (respond to e-mails, presentations, research etc.). After my day is planned out on paper, I transfer it to my Outlook calendar, since it’s digital and goes with me everywhere. 

Now I know this sounds like a super long drawn out process, but I assure you it can be done in 15 minutes our less. You do have to allow for some flexibility, in case…ya know life happens!

I am the biggest procrastinator, so what I love about time blocking is that it kind of forces me to tackle those projects I’ve been putting on the back burner. Exhibit A…this long overdue blog post! Sometimes all we need to do is get more organized, so that we have room to get shit done! 

If you aren’t using a planner that’s already time blocked (I love the Passion Planner), download the Millennial Mamma What Am I Doing? daily sheets for free, and begin incorporating time blocking into your life. I promise you, it’s a game changer!

Download here.