Time blocking: the management technique to gain productivity
Do you have to manage several projects and need to organize your time? Today we tell you everything you need to know about time blocking. Keep reading and discover the advantages of this technique and the steps to implement it.
What is time blocking and what is its purpose?
Time blocking is a time management technique that consists of dividing the calendar into blocks of time, grouping similar tasks or those that have some relationship with each other. Some examples could be: answering emails, attending team meetings and organizing ongoing projects. It is worth noting that the grouping of tasks allows you to reduce the amount of time you spend on isolated tasks, because you save the time you lose by returning to the same thing over and over again.
The main goal is to create dedicated time for a number of tasks and effectively focus on high-impact work.
Time blocking or timeboxing?
Time blocking is a technique quite similar to time boxing. The difference between them is that in the first one you block spaces to carry out several similar or related tasks in some way, while in the second one, each block of time is for a single task.
Main advantages of this technique
- It allows you to concentrate on a particular task, eliminating distractions.
- It helps you better manage the time you spend on each type of task.
- Provides better organization. You manage to prioritize the tasks that represent the highest impact for your objectives.
- It helps you eliminate work overloads. Prevents you from exceeding the time dedicated to tasks.
Steps to implement this technique
- Identify and prioritize the individual tasks that you have to perform in the day or week.
- Determine the hours of greatest productivity for the most important or complex tasks.
- Group similar tasks that are generally scattered (for example, meetings*).
- Reserve a space for personal tasks and leisure or rest.
- Program the time blocks taking into account the previous steps.
- Leave spaces for the unexpected, either in a block or in between, but when you are in the middle of an important activity, try to use the do not disturb mode to make the most of the time.
(*) Instead of having meetings scattered throughout the day, try to schedule a block of time for all of them, so that they are one after the other, with some breaks in between to recharge.
Before finishing, we would like to confirm that it is possible to complement the time blocking technique with the Pareto principle. Both are key strategies to optimize time and gain productivity.