What is Time Blocking? Check Out This Popular Time Management Strategy
Are you looking for new ways to boost your productivity and save time? That’s what time blocking and batching can help you with. That’s what we are focusing on today.
This past week of this month’s challenge we’ve been focusing on time management and productivity. I’ve shared what I’ve done that works but I’m always trying to be more productive so I also wanted to share what new method I’m trying out now.
The Pomedoro method has been something I’ve been doing for awhile now. The Pomedoro method is a version of task batching which is super important for productivity
What is Task Batching?
Most people try to multitask in an attempt to get more done. The problem is that multitasking is actually super bad for your productivity. It’s because switching from one task to a different task reduces your productivity by 40% and it makes it 3 times more likely that you will make mistakes.
So now you know that you should not be multitasking but you want to get more done and be more productive. So what should you do? It’s time to task batch.
Task batching is focusing on one task at a time for a period of time so that you can get into the flow with it and accomplish a big amount of work.
You choose one task or similar type of task to focus on and do that for a period of hours or time. For blogging that could be writing blog posts, making Social Media images and scheduling my pins for Pinterest.
By focusing on one of these tasks for an hour I can accomplish more than if I tried to work on all three and was bouncing back from task to task for the hour.
You can also batch tasks for things around the home to be more productive. Tasks to batch could be cleaning and laundry or cooking. Why not cook for a few hours and have all your dinners for the week ready to go in the freezer?
Pomodoro’s have you focus on doing one thing for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. This task/break is one Pomodoro.
Though I like the Pomodoro method I know that I could be more productive so I’m learning how to time block in addition to batching.
What is time Blocking?
Time blocking is literally planning out every hour of your day. You take the time and assign purpose to each hour of your day. Even if it is something simple like ” 6-6:30 Take the dog on a walk.” You have then assigned that 30 minutes to a specific task and you aren’t scrambling to find time to take your dog out.
It’s possible to combine batch working with time blocking. Which is what I’m working on doing. Batch working is combining similar tasks into blocks of time. When you actually write out what each hour of your day is used for you will be surprised at what you can do with your time. The key to being successful with time blocking is actually sticking to it and being committed to your schedule.
I found this really great google spreadsheet from Selfcare Overload that I’m going to begin using. I’m hoping to see an improvement in how much I am able to get done and accomplished. You can also time block on paper in a journal. A great person to learn this from is Kalyn Brooke.