5 Common time blocking mistakes that you can start fixing today
The average person uses 13 tools, apps, tips, or tricks to help them manage their time.
What if you just needed one, main tool to help you spend your time the way you want?
There is. Time blocking.
Except, only 17% of people time block.
That’s because we’ve been taught lots of things about time blocking that feel terrible to our minds, bodies, and spirits.
When I start working with new clients, they often feel like they’ve tried everything and nothing works. This leaves them feeling overwhelmed and stressed out regularly.
If you’re feeling frustrated because you can’t figure out how to time block, you might be making these 5 common mistakes.
I want you to know, they’re not your fault. And there are many things you can do differently.
If you’re ready to check off to-do’s with less stress, feel less overwhelmed, take better care of yourself, and enjoy your time more thoroughly, keep reading.
What is time blocking, and how can it help me?
Time blocking, also known as calendar blocking, is a planning strategy where you proactively dedicate certain tasks to a certain time frame. It’s also an execution and accountability strategy. Calendar blocking can help you feel in control of your time, have space for distraction-free deep work, and experience greater levels of follow-through, flow, focus, self-accountability, and time awareness.
What are the 5 common time-blocking mistakes?
We aren’t taught time blocking in a compassionate, intuitive, and holistic way. We’re taught to add appointments and events that concern other people, add work tasks around events, and then cross our fingers for some crumbs of free time for ourselves. If that’s you, know it’s not your fault!
By fixing these time-blocking mistakes (taught to us!), you can start making the most of your time, more sustainably and effectively accomplish your goals, all while maintaining your well-being.
Overcommitting
Scheduling too many tasks in one day is a common time-blocking mistake that I see. I often hear from clients that they’ve been taught to time block their entire day, from the moment they want to wake up to when they want to go to sleep. It’s also really challenging for many to know their capacity in a tangible way and say no when they’ve hit their max.
Overcommitment leads to stress from constantly feeling behind and being unable to keep up with their jam-packed schedule. When we live in an overcommitted state, we tend to neglect self-care, rush through the day, and have trouble prioritizing because everything feels urgent and important.
Tend to be in the overcommitted boat? Here’s a quick time-blocking hack: Create a max for the number of meetings or tasks you can add to your day. You can also do this with goals, projects, or priorities.
Neglecting rest and joy
Second most common mistake? Not scheduling any, or enough breaks throughout the day and week. If you’re feeling physically exhausted, regularly stressed or anxious, or have low focus and motivation neglecting rest and joy might be your time blocking snafu.
Neglecting time off of work or experiencing true joy also impacts our relationship with ourselves and others. It leads to burnout and a lack of fulfillment. But who taught us growing up and throughout our lives to prioritize rest and joy? Not many people. It’s only now becoming more and more common to talk about, thank the universe!
Scheduling rest and joy might feel a little counterproductive, but if you find your calendar packed… this is one of the most important things to schedule! Start small by adding an amount of rest that feels safe and accesible in your calendar. It can be just a lunch break at first, a day, or a weekend. As your capacity for rest grows, you can use your human design, menstrual cycle, life responsibilities, and energy levels to get a stronger idea of just how much rest you need.
Time Block like a human.
Get things done easier, and quicker.
Failing to prioritize (authentically!)
Not prioritizing tasks in your calendar is a biggie for our health and success. When we prioritize everyone and everything else, besides our most important and meaningful activities… we’re headed for trouble. When people think about prioritization, we’re taught to prioritize based on its importance and urgency. I don’t think those reference points are all that helpful. I don’t want to live in an urgent state all the time, I don’t think you do either!
Using your core values or what’s most important to you is how I teach my clients to authentically prioritize. If you seem to be missing deadlines, spending the majority of your time doing busy-work, or feeling behind or burned out, this time hack is for you:
Look at your current goals and tasks on your calendar. Ask yourself, “Do these tasks I’m regularly working on for sure help me achieve my goals?” This question takes radical honesty. If you don’t have tasks in your calendar, think about how you regularly spend your time. If yes, way to go. If no, there are some things you may need to change.
Rigid mindset
Every mistake I share, I’m like this is the biggest one. But for real, a rigid mindset is actually the biggest time-blocking mistake people make. Connected to being overcommitted, when people time block their whole day from start to finish, they think they have to perfectly follow it. And if they can’t/don’t, then it’s their fault. No, no, no, no. Don’t internalize this trash!
While we’re taught all-or-nothing thinking when it comes to planning, but the point of time blocking isn’t to perfectly follow it. When we think that, our creativity is stifled, we miss opportunities to be spontaneous and free, and decreases our adaptability and joy. If you want to time block successfully, having a flexible mindset is key.
My best tip? Since this is a mindset, it’s important to use a mindset solution. First, you create your schedule and you are in control of it throughout the day, not the other way around. You CAN get things done when you move them around, in fact, you’re more likely to get things done when you’re flexible and compassionate with yourself. To strike a balance between structure and flexibility, the best way is to use your intuition in time blocking.
Underestimating time needed
Last but not least, underestimating the real time needed to complete a task is a time-blocking no-no. If you find yourself stressing out around deadline time, rushing through tasks, and neglecting yourself underestimating is may just be your kryptonite.
Many people underestimate due to time over-optimism, being unfamiliar with the work involved in a task, underestimating the complexity, getting distracted, or feeling pressured and stressed out while working on a task. Fear not, time blocking can help!
A hack to help you not constantly feel behind? Overestimate the time you give a task. My rule of thumb is to overestimate my tasks by at least 1.5 or 2x times. Then if it takes less time, I go in and shorten that event and use that extra time to either rest or start on the next thing (most of the time, I rest now!)
Time tips and hacks only go so far
While the tips I shared with you will definitely help, identifying the root cause of these mistakes and healing them will be much more impactful than any hack can ever be. Often, there are many deeper underlying reasons you might be having trouble saying no, not prioritizing yourself and your goals, experiencing a rigid mindset, or underestimating the time something takes.
The way I approach time blocking in a uniquely strategic way and address the underlying root causes has made a huge difference in my life and my client’s lives. One of them, Sam, said that she was able to now fit in ALL of the important stuff in her life and accomplished more in her business over the course of two months than she had in the previous year and a half while nursing a newborn!
Effectively addressing the deeper things is key to finding long-lasting balance, manageability, and peace at work and in your life. This healing paired with a schedule aligned with your unique rhythms, goals, and capacity can make a big difference for you, your business, your relationships, and your health.