Effective time management can be a big challenge for a lot of us. With multiple responsibilities for each area of our lives, we can easily get overwhelmed with how to manage it all. In an attempt to get things under control, we may try different techniques, like time blocking, for example.
If you haven’t heard of it before, time blocking is a time management strategy that involves designating specific “blocks” or segments of time in your schedule to the completion of a task. In theory, it sounds great, but there can be several challenges that arise when time blocking is done ineffectively. There are also some important strategies that can be incorporated with time blocking to make it actually work for you. The goal of this post is to help you get closer to accomplishing your goals by learning to time block effectively, and to also share some general tips to managing your long term goals with your regular day-to-day responsibilities.
First, let’s get into the challenges that tend to arise when time blocking.
- Overbooking: Since time blocking centers around assigning time in our schedule to tasks, it is very easy to look at all the things we need or want to do and try to cram them all into the schedule. The issue with this is that we can easily become overwhelmed or lose time focusing on doing things that do not actually produce the results that we want.
- Distractions: Inefficient time blocking can lead to spending more time being distracted. If you have overbooked yourself with different types of tasks, you can wind up taking more time to refocus your attention on the new task at hand every hour or at the beginning of each new time block. It will also be easier to feel as though you are being distracted by other pre-existing responsibilities if you have not accounted for them in your time blocking.
- Lack of energy: If you have overbooked yourself with your time blocks, you have likely failed to incorporate breaks into your schedule. This could lead to lack of energy or mental clarity when trying to accomplish tasks. Low energy or the inability to focus can leave you feeling discouraged and unproductive.
Here are some tips that will help you time block in a way that will actually work for you
- Properly prioritize: Before attempting to create time blocks for your tasks, you will want to make sure you actually know what tasks are the most important. So often, we create long to-do lists for ourselves with things that feel important, and then we feel guilty when they don’t get done. Instead of focusing on our feelings, it’s best if we identify which tasks are truly the most relevant to our goals, as well as which tasks will have the highest impact on our ability to achieve the results we are looking for.
- Create blocks that batch similar tasks: By creating time blocks in your schedule that follow a particular theme, you eliminate the need to refocus your attention on different types of tasks in short periods of time. Instead of writing for 30 minutes then making calls for 30 minutes, you can set a goal to get all the writing related tasks done today and time block accordingly.
- Factor in energy cycles and peak performance hours: When scheduling time for tasks, you want to take into consideration the amount of focus and energy that is required to complete each task and when during the day you will have that energy. For example, if you are a morning person, with your peak performance hours being at the start of your day, that is when you will want to get your focused tasks done. That is also when you will want to do things that require high energy. If you find that you struggle to focus at night, that is when you will want to do more mechanical tasks that require less thinking.
Though time blocking can be helpful if done correctly, sometimes it can feel like it is not enough. Setting aside time to focus on our highest priority tasks is a must, but how do we know what to focus on when we have big long term goals and things that need to get done today? How do we manage our big dreams and our day-to-day responsibilities?
First, let me say that you are not alone. I, too, am constantly trying to learn new ways to be productive, and motivated to work on my big goals for my future while managing life as it is now. It can be difficult to manage to get things done, either because we can’t find the motivation or because of the volume of our responsibilities. Adding the long term goals that we hope will actually make a difference in our lives, could add another level of frustration and even disappointment.
Here are some tips you could use to take control of your days by managing your responsibilities while keeping your big long term goals at the front of your mind:
- Break your long term goals down: The first thing you want to do to manage your long term goals with daily responsibilities is figure out what you will need to do on a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis in order to reach your long term goals. If you do not know what you are expecting yourself to do on a daily basis, it will be very difficult to manage and prioritize your responsibilities and action items appropriately. Take some time and identify the milestones, projects, and key recurring action items that will make your long term goals a reality.
- Factor in time for your responsibilities when scheduling and planning: This might seem obvious, but it is really easy not to do. Once you realize you have big goals and dreams, and you’ve identified all the things that will need to be done in order to make them happen, you will want to flood your schedule with all the tasks related to your goals and/ or work/ professional life. This makes sense, these things are important, right? Right! But they are not necessarily more important than other aspects of your life or your responsibilities today. If you are like me, your professional and long term goals actually serve the purpose of allowing you to be more effective in other areas of your life. For example, it’s likely that you are working toward goals that will allow you to support or contribute to your family or to fuel other personal goals. That being said, you will want to treat your daily and personal responsibilities with the same level of importance as your long term goals. (We’re not working toward our future just because we don’t like or value the way our life is now.) When creating your schedule or planning what it is you will need to do for the week, make sure you set aside time to ensure your personal, familial, household and other responsibilities are still being taken care of. Even if you have to delegate some of it, get it done.
- Figure out what tasks and activities will make others easier if done first: Sometimes we prioritize things just because they seem to be more important, rather than taking into account what tasks will actually help you get other things done. Maybe you need to accomplish a short term personal goal in order to make working on your long term or professional goals a possibility for you. For example, if you are just moving into your new home or apartment and your office space is not set up or organized, you may find it difficult to be productive in business or your work life. Taking time to prioritize your personal goal of organizing your work space could be the start of the productivity streak you’ve been longing for. This could also relate to things that will fuel you energetically. If you need to exercise to give you a boost of energy, do so before looking to work on your long term or professional goals. If you need to have your food prepared ahead of time so you have more time to focus on your long term goals, prioritize meal prepping on your off days. Ask yourself, “What short term goal or task could actually help me accomplish my long term goals if done first?”
- Categorize your tasks based on when and how they can be done: If you have long term goals with multiple types of action items, you will likely run into some that can be done in conjunction with something else. For example, if you are learning to build a business or grow in your career, you may need to read books to help you develop leadership skills. Try listening to audiobooks while you take care of your daily personal responsibilities like cleaning the house, or cooking dinner. This will help you work toward your long term goals of building a profitable business while prioritizing the things you need to get done today. After breaking your goals down, take some time to make note of what tasks can be done with something else or be done in a way that will allow you to get other things done at the same time. You will also want to factor in what time of the day your long term goals can get some attention, it may not look how you’ve imagined up to this point.
- Factor in how long tasks take: You will not always have long blocks of time to get things done or work toward your long term goals. To combat this, you will want to take advantage of the small bits of free time that you do get. Whether it be your lunch break from work or while you stand on line in the grocery store, there will be times when you are idle. It may not feel like a lot, but multiple 15 or 30 minute blocks of free time will quickly add up. If you keep track of or are able to accurately estimate how long something will take you, you may be able to work toward your long term goals during an unexpected block of free time. Imagine being able to look at your task list and choose what you will work on based on priority and how much time you have, rather than feeling overwhelmed when you can’t get a 2-hour task done in 15 minutes. The same thing goes for projects. If you can identify which action items actually have multiple parts, you are more likely to accurately estimate how long things will take you and therefore make better decisions about when and how to get some work done toward those long term goals.
Managing your long term goals with your daily responsibilities can be hard, but it is definitely necessary and possible. If you take into consideration some of these tips, you will be well on your way to making those long term and professional goals a reality. Remember, the things that need to get done for today can be just as important as the things that need to get done for your future. You have the ability and the resources to thrive now and later.
To your long term and short term success,
Adina
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