Designing Your Day: The Benefits of Time Blocking

'Time-Blocking' is something I can confirm as being a turning point for me in how I approached a design project, both personally and professionally.

It's something I've implemented for a long time now and helps me get the most important stuff done in a shorter time frame and avoid being busy for busy sake.

Let's talk about the blocking of time...

Busy is just busy. It ain't really getting s**t done

I always assumed that just being busy, I was getting things done.

If I cram in 12-hour days, I’m somehow getting all the essential stuff that needs to be done, done.

That wasn’t the case.

When I looked back and noted what I had done in that time frame, I saw that at least a third, if not half, of it, had been taken up by unwelcome distractions (you know the ones).

So my assumption of ‘Well, if I’m working 12 hours a day, I must be getting more work done than the person who works 6-8 hours a day’ was complete bulls**t, and I was fooling myself.

Say 'No' to that Twitter Feed!

Avoid those distractions as much as humanly possible for this period, and yes, that means that sneaky quick refresh of your Twitter feed, checking those emails for the hundredth time, and watching that unimportant 'can wait till later' video on YouTube.

Get your important stuff done in a Block

With Time-Blocking, I like to get the most important work I need done first thing in the morning, for example, from 9 am to 1 pm.

That’s when a good portion of us are at our peak before the creative fatigue starts to kick in in the afternoon, and our focus starts to slip away.

Even though you may spend fewer hours in the day working, you're super focused on the task at hand and can produce your best work, your most important work.

Just focus entirely on the important task at hand for that day, in that period you’ve set aside, and I assure you you will get more s**t done, the important s**t done.

See you next week,
Marc.

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