hello swedish potatoes let's talk
calendar blocking not just your
run-of-the-mill calendar blocking where
you're stacking your schedule with
back-to-back-to-back schedules i don't
know let's keep it simple let's keep it
intentional and if done right we'll only
have to do this once yes
just once in this definitive guide i'll
be sharing my personal system that has
allowed me to live much lighter and far
less stress as i mentioned in my slow
productivity video and will include an
in-depth tutorial on how to build your
very own gorgeous block calendar
from the ground up thank you so much to
shopify for sponsoring this video more
on this in a little to start why
even calendar block the whole premise of
calendar blocking and productivity is to
work smarter not harder is to get more
done in less time it's all about
efficiency and to be clear you're
getting your work done quicker not so
you can work more you're getting your
work done quicker so that you can spend
more time with the people you love doing
the things that are the most important
to you let's make that very very clear
and according to cal newport author of
deep work a 40-hour time block work week
i estimate produces the same amount of
output as a 60 plus hour work week
pursued without structure and i feel
like structure is a key word here
structure is very important but it can
also be a double edged sword without
structure your life is kind of messy
it's kind of chaotic with too much
structure it can also be a trap and this
is my biggest gripe with task batching
time blocking or calendar blocking done
the traditional way it is not the most
flexible and you can get too caught up
in the planning versus the doing you can
get so caught up on not sticking to the
plan
that you are ridden with guilt and
anxiety and that just cripples you from
actually doing anything which kind of
defeats the whole purpose of all of this
so i took inspiration from those who
came before me and created my very own
system for calendar blocking that i'm so
excited to share with you guys
introducing how to calendar block
potato style we're going to break this
section down into two parts part one is
intentionally setting up your calendar
blocks think high level one and done in
theory you just have to do this once and
you can leave it until you feel like you
need to revisit update or change it
hence potato because you just do it once
and it runs on its own working smarter
not harder right and part two will be
how to use your calendar once it is
blocked this is where daily to do's and
tasks come into play yes we still need
to plan but weekly maintenance will be
significantly easier once we set the
calendar blocks are you ready let's get
started with the blank canvas a blank
calendar to start i broke my calendar
down into three main layers and created
separate calendars for each the first
one is non-negotiables which i named
daily we'll get into what all of these
mean in a second the second is play
which you see is down here and up here
and the last one is work and i separated
into three different ones because i'm
juggling a couple projects so the reason
why i created separate calendars for all
of this is so that you can really batch
all of your similar tasks together and i
also like thinking about these different
calendars as labels for tasks that you
need to do so for the three layers you
guys can name it whatever you want to
name it but the general framework is one
is for non-negotiables two is for play
or just something you want to prioritize
that's not within your like nine to five
job and then the last one is your nine
to five work job and to create these
calendars go into settings you click add
calendar create a new calendar play and
then if you go back
it'll pop up here and then you can also
change the name of existing calendar so
this i'll make non-negotiables
and once you click back to your calendar
it will be right here and here with the
three dots is where you can customize
your colors for the color coding aspect
you can either use the default colors
which i personally am not the biggest
fan of because it's super saturated or
you can go in and pick your own and for
my palette as you guys can see it is a
very very pastel and if you guys are
interested in getting the hex codes for
this which is here you can just like
copy and paste it in i'll include a
little notion with all of my colors in
the description box if you want to check
it out now that we have the basics down
let's get to
blauken all right starting with the
first priority which is non-negotiables
when it comes to non-negotiables take a
step back as always and think about
what's most important to you what would
you like to do
more of i don't think any of us would
like to work more so in non-negotiables
there will be no work non-negotiables is
all about your personal life it's all
about your heart your soul your mind and
your body whatever it is that you know
you need to do to help you operate at
your best block that in bestie because
we need to take care of ourselves so the
questions that i ask myself is basically
what fuels my soul and what gives me the
most energy be very very honest with
yourself because there's a lot of things
that we may want to do we may want to do
other things as it pertains to self-care
but there's only a few things that we
need to do like the bare minimum like if
we can do this i will be good so for me
to operate at my best i need to meditate
i need to exercise qigong i need to be
spiritually aligned which includes
reading my spiritual texts those three
were the very first things i scheduled
into my personal calendar so let's say i
want to meditate every morning from
let's just say seven to eight for an
hour i will put this under
non-negotiables and i would want to do
it every single day from monday to
friday then i usually exercise qigong at
work for 30 minutes and then
here is fall study so these were my
initial non-negotiables and then i
continued to think what is something
that i want to work on i would like to
wake up earlier in order to wake up
earlier i should have a wind down
routine so that i can have a morning
routine and the next thing i like to
work on is sometimes when i'm working
too hard or working too much like today
i forget to eat so i add in here as well
that i want to have lunch and it's
blocked on my calendar because it's a
non-negotiable and i should eat at a
regular normal time every single day
this is basically thinking about what
are the things that are most important
to you what are the things that you're
trying to work on what are the habits
that you're trying to implement put that
in your calendar it can be you want to
wake up earlier and do morning pages it
can be you on a journal more so set a
time for you to journal in your calendar
it can be you want to work out three
times a week it can be calling your
parents more it can be wanting to work
on your hobby it can be making time to
talk to your significant other if you're
doing long distance relationships i
don't know why i'm running out of breath
whatever it is that's most important to
you add it in the calendar first because
this way you're proactively scheduling
your non-negotiables first and then
scheduling your work around it rather
than what i think most of us usually do
and this is definitely what i did in the
past where i would put everything down
for work first and then trying to find
time for my personal life this is very
very very important moving on to the
second layer which is
play now when i say play i don't mean
scheduling every single social event and
plan you have for the rest of the year
into your calendar play is basically
blocking off time for yourself or
blocking off time to spend with loved
ones it's an open-ended general block of
time where you can do whatever it is
that you want that you know can fuel
your soul if you want to be specific you
definitely can but for me i left mine as
row time and row days this basically to
me means i'm not going to be working i'm
signaling to myself whenever i'm looking
at my calendar if i happen to still be
working at seven i'll be like oh right i
should be going home to decompress and
take care of myself and my mental health
and to do things that are completely
unrelated to work so whether i actually
do it or not i don't really think that's
the point i think this is kind of like
where the flexibility comes in is that
it is here as a visual cue but what you
choose to do ultimately depends on you
and your schedule for the week which is
why i think blocking your calendar like
this is great now what can you do during
this time for me i use this time to
schedule meals with friends to do arts
and crafts to pick up that instrument
that has been collecting dust this isn't
for me i don't play instruments anymore
but it could be for you it is to do that
hobby it is to maybe start that side
hustle i know side hustle is technically
work but if it falls out of your nine to
five or more like regular work it could
be in this category whether this second
layer is play or not for you it's
basically whatever you're prioritizing
in your life we all have 24 hours in our
day let's say we spent eight hours
sleeping eight hours working there's
still eight hours for us to do whatever
it is that we want to do so i'll give
another example let's say you want to
work on your side hustle if you really
want to do that think about how many
hours every week are you willing to
commit to yourself on this side project
do you want to do an hour every week do
you want to do a full day on saturday or
sundays whatever it is pencil it into
your calendar so it's like a personal
agreement you set with yourself and it
can help keep you accountable because
it's on your calendar and your calendar
is something you look at every week and
also daily as you're planning which
we'll get more into that in a little and
if you happen to be looking for a side
hustle shopify is a great platform to
check out they're an all-in-one commerce
platform for anyone regardless if you're
tech savvy and experienced or not it's
super easy to navigate and get a store
up and running if you guys remember in
this video i was listening to tim
ferriss's podcast interviewing the
president of shopify and i remember
being so inspired and so moved by how
much heart and thought went into
building this now like multi-billion
dollar company i think and how invested
they are in democratizing
entrepreneurship which i think is
amazing and they also created this
business blueprint for anyone and
everyone to use it's basically a 101
worksheet template questionnaire how to
for how to start your business it is
also what beauty within a skincare and
lifestyle channel i'm also a host and
producer on uses we use it for our
online shop where we curate some of our
favorite skincare as well as lifestyle
products you can use shopify to sell
online in person as well as on all major
social platforms so if you want to check
them out you can sign up for a 14 day
free trial at
shopify.com slash rowena tsai on to
our last layer which is work
oh dear work all right so remember guys
we're still
high level this isn't the tasks that you
need to do on a daily or weekly basis
you're taking a step back thinking about
your weekly schedule asking yourself
when in the day are you usually the most
energized when is the best time for you
to block off time to do deep work and
really scheduling your days around that
so for example before i
traveled this summer i was on a very
good schedule where i was able to block
all of my calls on either mondays or
fridays so that tuesday wednesdays and
thursdays i can either film or just
really really really engage in deep work
whether it's scripting whether it's
editing i've also found that i do my
best work in the afternoon starting from
four
five onwards from seven to ten i'm like
on it which is not the best because
seven to nine i want to be relaxing for
the most part i think it comes from me
procrastinating and knowing that as we
get later and later in the day there's
not more for me to procrastinate that is
why my deep work is scheduled in the
afternoon and i have my team calls or my
team meetings mostly in the mornings
just because i'm juggling a few things i
have beauty within the skincare channel
i have my own youtube things that is all
under team potato and there's also voice
hugs my podcast so i have three
different calendars you can really
honestly have as many or as few
calendars as you need this just really
helps me prioritize if let's say i don't
want to see one calendar it's not there
if i don't want to see another calendar
it's not there so in summary for the
first part the first thing you want to
put down on your calendar is your
non-negotiables the second thing
is play the third thing
is
work this is what i mean by once you
create this once you can leave it this
is basically a system for you to fall
back on if you need because i quote this
all the time and i absolutely love it
from james claire you don't rise to the
level of your goals you fall to the
levels of your systems and this is an
amazing system to fall back on
and that was part one okay how are you
feeling do we need to get some water i
definitely need to get some water
a little lighting change because it's
getting to the time of day where the sun
has set and rowena is still trying to
film okay moving on to part two of how
to actually use this in practice so now
that everything is set up beautifully
you can just leave it step away from it
and just don't think about it for a
second so the very first thing i do is
to capture all my to-do's whether i
write it somewhere whether it's in an
apple note whether it's directly in
sensama i make sure wherever i have it
it eventually all comes into one place
and that is in my sensama once you
capture everything it's all in here you
start looking at your task you start
moving things around that you don't need
to do today these are just things that
you must do today that's kind of how i
think of like my daily tasks on my daily
to do once i put everything in place
this is basically the order in which i'm
going to get my work done the cool thing
about sensama is that if you say you
want to work on this filming for two
hours and you want to put it in your
calendar it will automatically pop up on
your google calendar which is absolutely
amazing and you can do this for
everything that you need to do and in
the ideal world you're not scheduling
anything during your non-negotiables for
example here here and here but sometimes
life happens you need to be adaptive you
need to be flexible which is why i
personally think this system has worked
so well for me because it's not shackles
tying you down to this thing that you
must do more so it's general guidelines
and systems for you to fall back on all
that to say i hope this video has been
helpful i'll be dedicating a whole video
similar to this one like a very in-depth
tutorial walkthrough of how i use
sensama to organize my life and how that
integrates into my google calendar and
how all of this just beautifully works
together as a true productivity nerd i
know it may sound like a lot but it
really isn't these just so happen to be
the things that have worked for me and
are continuing to work for me so with
that i hope you guys enjoyed today's
video i'll see you in next week's video
bye