Schedule your day into themed blocks & behave according to those themes.
The King of productivity hacks - dedicate your time
Definition
Time Blocking, also known as “Block Scheduling”, is a productivity and time-management technique wherein you schedule your day into pre-allotted chunks, assigning an activity, project, or theme to each. During the block, you should work on the block’s associated member of the Action→Task→Project→Area Hierarchy. That is, you can set aside a block to work on a given task, or project, or more generally spend time thinking about or attending to a given area. Take time to do a mental refresh before going into the block so you’re head is in the right space (Mental Time Blocking). Include blocks for Scheduled Breaks. Don’t worry about Planned Wasted Time, because time you planned to waste cannot be wasted.
Techniques
- Day Theming (least strict)
- Task Batching
- Timeboxing (most strict)
There can also be different Types of Time Blocks. All kinds can be enhanced when you Treat Work Sessions like the Cinema.
Pros and Cons
Benefits
- Assuring that the landscape of your day aligns with your priorities (and not Majoring in Minor Work)
- Proper balance between P and PC work (see: P-PC Balance)
- Helps you Know Your Immediate Task
- Always having clarity on what your immediate task is in alignment with, long-term (see Antifragile Planning Method)
- Enables Deep Work, avoiding the costs of using the Attentional Switch and Context Loading
- Counteracting procrastination and perfectionism - if you assign tasks to dedicated timeframes, you are less likely to avoid work, and more likely to find “good enough” (see: Timeboxing, and Fix Time, Flex Scope)
- Ensuring you don’t overload your plate - by forcing tasks and Projects to have their own allocation of time, you can see in a very literal sense whether you have “room” to take on something new (see: Less, but Better)
- Acts as a Foundational Habits, wherein you can stack on other practices, such as Eat the Frog, 3 Goals a Day, Or Ivy Lee Method
Drawbacks
- It requires (perhaps a lot of) pre-planning
- It requires a lot of re-planning when something prevents you from sticking to your block schedule, or Planning Fallacy strikes and something takes longer than you expect
- It will be uncomfortable when you don’t “feel” like doing what you’ve blocked off time to do, and if you fail to make Traction you will have essentially not time blocked at all.