How I Time Block
Okay, so first things first:
- I dislike time management, time blocking, and anything that requires excessive planning.
- Details make me a little crazy.
- I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants. #blue
- I’d rather throw everything into a suitcase at the last minute and hope for the best than to pour over every detail of packing.
- Having a strict schedule feels restricting and gives me feelings of slight anxiety.
All of these confessions are a little odd to be coming from someone with a site devoted to the encouragement of time management!
But the truth is, despite my tendency to let it all go and live on love, that type of living won’t raise children and it won’t move the dial on dreams.
If you already love to plan, you have a leg up on all of us who are wanting to just float through life carefree!
So, it is with great purpose and intentionality that I’ve accepted the fact that in order to win at life, I must first win at managing my time well.
This can look different for everyone, but I”ll show you what it looks like for me right now (subject to change at any time)!
For starters, I like to look at an overview – this printable is a 5-Day Overview (because 7 days won’t fit well on a single sheet of paper and likely things will shift and change if we plan too far out anyway!)
So, I like to look at the upcoming 5 days (typically Monday through Friday) in an overview and map out the “knowns”. These are blocks of time that are recurring or fairly concrete. What I’m looking for here is to get a good feel for where I’m going to consistently show up for myself, for the kids and for the side hustle, but not stress of the details (yet).
Each major area of life gets a different color:
- Blue: Personal (includes self care, investing in marriage, meal/school planning, workout, etc.)
- Orange: Kids (includes our homeschool time, meals, activities/outings where I will be present with them)
- Green: Work (includes work related events and work times at home for focusing totally on the side hustle)
I encourage you to NOT get overly detailed with a lot of additional colors or categories in this 5-Day Overview – this is going to be your general script and you can map things out in more detail once you get to the daily version. If you have some major projects to focus on or things that you want to make sure you do in a Jam Session, you can jot those things down here, too.
Now that you’ve got your 5-Day Overview mapped out, how do you feel? You likely have some white spaces that are flexible and haven’t been assigned yet – this is good! You can either fill those in or leave them white for now and decide how to you them once you get closer to that day. If you don’t have any white space at all, you might consider what you could do to give yourself a bit of margin – because life needs wiggle room! You may need that time to spend extra time snuggling or reading with the kids or you may need some white space to devote to an extra work project as you get closer to that day.
Or you may need the white space to fold some laundry. *sigh*
Okay, so you’ve got your Overview. Time to get a bit more detailed.
In my dreamworld, the night before or early the morning of, I’ll look at the day ahead and fill in specifics on the Daily Time Blocker sheet. This is where you take the general blocks of time and get more detailed with how you want to spend them. This is where you make dreams reality by getting detailed with the activities and tasks that will actually be accomplished during this day.
Now it’s time to get cracking on your day!
It’s also time to give yourself grace when the day doesn’t go as planned.
Be willing to evaluate and regroup when the baby doesn’t nap, your meeting runs over or the kids come home sick. Check in with your Script and rearrange mid-day if needed. At least know where you’re needing to focus and give yourself permission to be “all there” with wherever that is!
Remember, consistency creates momentum – if you will show up consistently for your family and for your side hustle, you’ll see progress with both! Celebrate even the small wins for this day and if things are left undone, move them over to tomorrow and start again!
What are some of YOUR favorite ways to time block or manage your time?!
