Blocking Your Time (for Overly Committed, Perfectionist, Somewhat Structured Creatives) - When I Grow Up

Blocking Your Time (for Overly Committed, Perfectionist, Somewhat Structured Creatives) - When I Grow Up The 8 Days a Week Planner can be purchased from Bobs Your Uncle. So from my prior time management posts, youve come to expect my talking talking talking followed by a distorted print screen (I dont try to give you a distorted print screen I just dont know how to fix it!). But this is gonna be different: this is an interactive exercise. Yeah yeah, I realize that a blog cant be interactive, but what you can do is print out this post fill it in, or email me for a Word document that you can work within. I hope to offer this as a free exercise on my website sometime within, oh, the next 5 years. Or months. OK, months. So now youve managed your to do list and your weekly task lisk. But now how do you actually find the time to do everything you need to? Easy. By Blocking Yo Time Before You Lose Yo Mind. Yes, Im consistent with my silly names. Lets get started. First step of Time Blocks: Dont talk about Time Blocks. Take your tasks write them down. Use the left hand column of the chart below to put each task on its own line. Second step of Time Blocks: Assign each task a category. Sample categories include: Business Direct Revenue Business Indirect Revenue Personal Obligatory Personal Social Personal Health Personal Creative Use the right hand column in the chart below to assign a category to each task. TASK CATEGORY Third step of Time Blocks: List the categories you came up with assign each one a priority number (1 is Super Top Priority, with the numbers going up as the priority goes down). Whats most important: performing in a local show (Personal Creative) or building a website for your business (Business Indirect Revenue)? Try to throw out the shoulds focus instead on your wants/needs. And dont think that just because a category has a high number that itll be forced off your calendar you can make time for everything that you want! CATEGORY PRIORITY Fourth step of Time Blocks: Heres where youre going to be blocking your time by category. Yes, its excitingly scary. But if you do this and follow through (theres always a catch, aint there?), you will become more focused and therefore will achieve all of your hopes and dreams, complete with rainbows and kittens and sparkles. Or something more manly, if you prefer. For example, here is what my Saturday looks like: 11a-12:30p: Personal Social 12:30-1p: Personal Obligatory 1-2p: Personal Home 2-4:30p: Personal Health 4:30-6p: Work Indirect Revenue 6p-12a: Personal -Social Now, for me, I know that Personal Obligatory means cleaning my house myself. I know Personal Home is any home-related tasks like buying small baskets to display my toiletries in the bathroom or cleaning my kitchen. I know that Work Indirect Revenue is anything having to do with building When I Grow Up Personal Social could be talking on the phone to a friend or watching TV with my man. It might seem very strict, but it enables you to do what you want within those Blocks. And by blocking your time like that every day, youve been in the time you want to devote to running, or journaling, or making out with your significant other. I have to be honest in saying that, when I first made a schedule like this, I had trouble sticking to it. I liked the idea of saying, Wednesday nights from 8-10p is Personal Creative time but in reality I know its not that easy. Life happens! Invites happen! Commitments happen! And some of them, like going out for dinner for your spouse’s birthday, just can’t be moved to a non-Personal â€" Creative night. So when Life happens, you dont reject the invite. Instead, you just flip-flop for that week: swap Personal â€" Creative time with Personal â€" Social time you’re good to go. As long as you dont get caught in the trap of moving things around so much that they keep getting delayed ( delayed delayed), you should be good. Because I spoiled ya with those beautiful, expensive, detailed charts, I created one for each day of the week! You can thank me later: MONDAY TIME CATEGORY TUESDAY TIME CATEGORY WEDNESDAY TIME CATEGORY THURSDAY TIME CATEGORY FRIDAY TIME CATEGORY SATURDAY TIME CATEGORY SUNDAY TIME CATEGORY Having trouble? What it really boils down to is that you need to be honest with yourself and figure out whats really your #1 priority and how much time you really need to devote to that goal. Really and truly. For me, I thought hanging with my friends was the same as completing my schoolwork was the same as building my business was the same as watching TV, which is when I started to get that gasping-for-air feeling. Its actually very scary to Grow Up and say, Right now, I need to concentrate on graduating from school in time not being rushed with my requirements. I am not going to miss class for a happy our, or delay writing my research paper because I want that time to veg in front of the TV. And while I still dont like disappointing my friends with nos to their invites, it actually feels good reinforcing my #1 goal. Also, I know that Ive blocked Fri Sat nights for social time I can always see them then so its not like Im ditching my friends or holing myself up in my apartment e very waking moment. Fifth final step of Time Blocks: Follow it. This, my loyal trusted reader, is the hardest part by far. If a week-long commitment is too much, do a one day commitment. And then if that wasnt painful, do another. And another. Be true to your schedule above and see what happens. And if Life Happens, flip-flop. Another little known rule of Fight Club. SUPER EXTRA TOP SECRET BONUS TIP!!! Its been proven that 45 minutes is the optimal time for uni-tasking: its not too long, its not too short, and its the perfect amount of time to trick yourself that youll only do a task for 45 minutes so it wont hurt too bad. If youre not looking forward to a task or category, but you know its gotta get done (cleaning the bathroom, anyone?), take a deep breath, set a timer for 45 minutes, and go. No stopping until the timer goes off. At that point you can either walk away from the task (My face looks gorgeous in that toibowl!) or take a bathroom/wine break and reset for another 45 (Im on a roll! Shower scum, here I come!) I guarantee results or your money back.* *Please note that this super extra top secret bonus tip is free.