Hey everyone!
Jason here, digital marketing consultant.
And in this time blocking guide, you're going to learn seven actionable tips to apply to
your time blocking and your planner.
So make sure you check out those timestamps below, along with some other helpful videos
to finally make time blocking an ingrained productivity habit.
So with that, let's go ahead and jump right in.
The very first tip is going to set us up for the most important tip, which is tip number
two.
But the first thing you need to do, when it comes to time blocking, is actually make sure
that when you go to your calendar, whether you're using iCalendar, Google calendar, you're
writing things down, you put all of the appointments and obligations you have, that you don't have
control over.
So this is particularly important.
If you're currently inside hustle mode with your business and you still have a part time
or full time job, all time blocking is, is taking all those obligations and actually
putting them on your calendar.
And so these are obligations, you've made to yourself, which we'll get to in a moment.
And these are also obligations, that you didn't exactly make to yourself or other people have
already made for you.
Right?
So what I recommend doing is, setting stones in your calendar, right?
So when you're looking at your week and your days, you want to schedule out all those things
that have already been decided, or have already been decided for you, right?
And you'll also want to set up when you're going to wake up, go to sleep as well as when
you're actually going to work out, if that's a part of your schedule.
And so when you're just getting started with time blocking, I think this is one of the
most important things you can do, right after this next one.
Tip number two.
So tip number two is going to be scheduling your builder time.
So when it comes to time blocking, the whole point of doing all this, is to make time for
your most important tasks.
And as a business owner, entrepreneur or creator, your most important task, is going to be some
sort of building activity.
Whether that's creating content, whether that's reaching out to potential clients or you're
working on current client work.
Whatever that is, there's something that you, as the entrepreneur, as the founder need to
do, in order to push your business forward and you need to make time for this, this needs
to be priority number one.
So if you're inside hustle mode, that your goal here should be, to schedule two hours
every single day, where you are focused on deep uninterrupted work.
If you're full time, then your goal would be four hours.
And so this doesn't necessarily have to be in the morning, if you're not a morning person,
that's okay, put it in the evening.
But when it comes to applying time blocking to your planner, and as you figure out your
schedule as a entrepreneur, you need to put your most important tasks first.
And so that's why you want to build their time.
Because at the end of the day, we actually need to do, real good deep creative work,
in order to push our businesses forward.
So that's tip number two.
Now you may be wondering, “Okay, if I'm dedicating so much time to not talking to
anyone, when do I actually get to talk to someone?”
Well, that's tip number three.
And that is to plan your communication times.
Now there's three different ways you can do this.
Way number one is, you can just set specific times throughout your day, where you open
yourself up to the world.
It's pretty much like a window, where you're checking your email, your Facebook, your Instagram,
your text messages and messages from your team in your project management app.
So that's the everything method.
And you can do that three to four times per day.
And the length of time is just dependent upon you and your business.
The second method is you can actually use different times throughout the day, for different
communication.
So for example, what I like doing is in the morning, I will check in on Basecamp, which
is our project management app.
And I'm not looking at email.
I'm not looking at YouTube comments.
I'm not looking at my text messages.
I'm not looking at anything else.
I just go and look at team things.
And then the next window, I'll actually start looking at YouTube comments.
I'll start looking at emails.
And then my final one, maybe I'm just replying to a bunch of clients, right?
So this is segmenting your communication windows based upon the type of communication and the
priority.
Because after all, it's more important that I reply to clients or team members first thing
in the morning, versus replying to a random YouTube comment or some random email that's
coming.
Those can wait till later in the day.
And so the third method is, if you have a lot of clients, is to actually set up office
hours.
So this is something that I did, when I was still a solopreneur.
So I would set up a four to five hour chunk in the afternoon, where I would be available
for calls.
And I used an app called “Book like a boss.”
You can use Calendly or just do back and forth email.
And so clients knew that I wasn't available in the morning, because that's where my builder
time was.
I was busy optimizing their ads accounts, but in the afternoon, I could be available
for a phone call or actually replying to emails.
And you'd be surprised how appreciative clients actually are, because you are clearly communicating
that, Hey, in the morning, I'm giving you my best hours of the day.
So I will get to your questions at the end of the day.
And I only had one or two clients that really had an issue with that.
And so those are some strategies you can follow, for your communication blocks.
And of course, you're going to run into people and family, friends, coworkers, sometimes
even bosses that get in the way of the time blocking.
And that is a reality, we all have to face.
So when you start getting pushback back sometimes, just know that you're not alone, but if you
stick to it and commit to it, those in your life who actually respect you, will begin
to respect your time blocks as well.
So tip number four is going to be addressing the energy problem, right?
Because we're not a robot.
We can't just go full speed all day.
And sometimes, our tasks will actually lower our energy.
So as an example, when I was first getting started, when it came to sales calls, I absolutely
dreaded them.
Now I still get pretty nervous when I have them to this day, but my first year in business,
it would just totally kill my productivity for the day, because I wouldn't be able to
focus because I'm so nervous about the call that's coming up at two or three o'clock in
the afternoon, or maybe I had the call in the morning, and then it went really poorly.
And I just keep replaying it, over and over and over again in my head throughout the rest
of the day, right?
So you're going and have tasks, that are really hard or nerve-racking.
And that's just part of growing a business, right?
We're doing things that we're not used to.
And so when you have those stressful activities, you want to make sure that you don't schedule
something that's really important right after that activity or try to do something that's
really important right before it.
So something that I came up with, is I wound up just taking my sales calls days to Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
That way I had Monday, that way I had Friday through Monday, where I could be in my little
cave, work on my builder time and work on all the ad accounts and everything else.
And I wouldn't have that nervousness, that was just the butterflies coming up, right.
I'm thinking, “Oh my gosh, how's the sales call gonna go” like, is this person going
to yell at me or are they going to be happy and actually want to do business with me?
Right.
So you're going to have of those nerve-racking types of things.
And another thing you can do, is just plan administrative time or give yourself downtime
after those stressful events.
But those events are going to be stressful.
They're just part of growing a business.
And you might find that they become less stressful over time, or they might become stressful
for the rest of the time, just because it really is nerve-racking.
But however it winds up being you wanna make sure, that you are cognizant and you plan
for times, where you're doing a really high stress task and you're not going to be able
to perform very well, the rest of the day.
And speaking of the rest of the day, that comes to tip number five.
So I've actually only talked about three different things, you should be time blocking when you're
just getting you started.
Number one is all of those stones, those obligations, that are already in the way.
Number two is your maker time, two hours in side hustle mode, four hours and full time
mode.
And then your communication time, which is probably another two to three hours.
And the rest of your day should probably be left open.
So I like using a padding and buffer technique, to make sure that I can actually stay on top
of my time blocks.
Because one of the hardest things to do with time blocking, is actually estimating how
long something's going to take.
Right?
You'd be surprised how often say, “Yeah, that'll take like an hour or two”, right?
And then four hours later, you're going, “Oh my gosh, how is this not done?
My entire week is ruined”, right?
So what you want to do, is have padding in your time block.
So if you think something’s only gonna take an hour, give yourself at least 90 minutes,
if not two hours or more.
When I first got started, I would double the amount of time.
It's always better to have more time, than less time at the end of the day.
And number two, don't pack your schedule, especially when you're just getting started.
We talked about the three things you should time block and then leave buffers throughout
the rest of your time.
So that it's very easy for you to catch up on things that fell through the cracks, deal
with fires as they pop up.
And of course be able to commit to your time blocks.
And this is really gonna help you make time blocking a habit.
Because you're actually going to be able to stick to it as opposed to something that sounds
really good.
And then by the end Monday, you know, your entire week is shot because one thing, little
thing went wrong.
So tip number six here, is to make sure you have a big picture understanding of everything
that you are scheduling and time blocking.
So what this means is, you don't want to time block without goals, time blocking without
goals is like trying to run a marathon blindfolded, right?
You're running, but you might not be running in the right direction and you're going to
trip and fall a lot.
So you want to make sure, that you have clear goals, so that you know, that when you are
working throughout your day, what you're working on, is directly contributing to your goals
and your visions.
So if you don't have goals yet, go ahead and check out the link in the cards and the description
to a full blown video, that walks you through how to actually create your business goals
and then take those goals and apply them to your day to day schedule.
But you really want to make sure, that as you go into time blocking, you're not just
working for the sake of working, you're working in the right direction, because it's so easy
to just feel like you're making a bunch of progress when really you're just treading
water, being busy, as opposed to being focused on what really matters.
Now, tip number seven is going to be a little weird.
So bear with me here, but this deals with switching, right?
Because as great as it would be for our productivity, if we were able to just time block one project
for the entire day.
So we don't have to worry about switching and losing 20% of our processing capacity,
speaking of processing capacity, and that is, using music as a trigger.
So something that I've been using for years now, is I will create specific playlists for
specific types of tasks, AKA specific types of time blocks.
So the type of music I listened to, when I'm supposed to be writing content and recording
videos, is very different than the type of music I listened to, when it comes to writing
sales copy or working on client ad accounts.
Because I'm using different parts of my brain, and they are different activities.
And so something that you can do, to help you get over that initial hump, because you
know how it goes, you sit down, you've just finished something and you're supposed to
start something new.
And you know that once you get in to it, you're going to have plenty of energy.
You're going to be rocking and rolling.
Right.
But that initial 5 to 10 minutes of just, “Uh, trying to get started”, right.
Trying to get that momentum going can be really rough.
And so if you use playlists, so that, each time you're working on a specific task, you
have a specific set of music or specific playlists, that you listened to, it's going to be a little
easier to snap into that zone and go straight into work.
And it's really, really helpful and instrumental, I guess, pun intent ended, right?
Instrumental.
That was terrible.
It's been really helpful.
That's a better way to say.
It’s been really helpful, in terms of making sure that I can easily go between tasks without
having that huge amount of brain drain, trying to switch and get that momentum going.
So thank you so much for watching.
Sincerely hope you got some value out of this video.
Most importantly, you are a lot more confident in getting ready to apply time blocking to
your own planner and schedule.
So make sure you check out the timestamps below, along with some deeper dive videos,
that show you exactly how I apply time blocking to Google calendar, as well as how to set
your business goals.
So hit that like button, subscribe for more deep dive productivity videos, just like this
one.
And until the next, keep building the business you love.