How time blocking will change your life
Part Four of my simple and practical guide to making time for the things that matter most.
(If you missed Part One of this guide — in which I introduce time blocking as a practice, not a tool, and share a visualisation exercise — you can catch up with it here: How can I find time for what matters?. Part Two - in which I take you step-by-step through time blocking your next week - is here: Start time blocking in six simple steps. And Part Three - in which we tackle common challenges - is here: Making time blocking work for you.)
So here we are, Part Four. Why have I spent time (a loooooong time 🤣) writing this guide? Why do I think you should read it?
Because time blocking isn’t just another ‘time management’ tool…it can help you change your life. Which is a bold claim, and one I have evidence to back up.
I’ve helped many inspiring people to re-craft their lives into something more fulfilling, more full of joy, more…. alive. Each person’s journey has been as individual as they are, of course — yet there are common elements that every person has needed to work on:
getting real about where you are now
dreaming big about where you want to be
making a (first, loose) plan to bridge the gap between the two
uncovering hidden expectations and beliefs
creating space for the new, by saying no and letting go
Time blocking underpins every single one of these elements. It grounds us in reality instead of that alternate, fantasy dimension in which we love to live (see Part Two). It gives us the information we need to take action. And it give us a tangible measure of success (how we’re spending our time is not the only measure of ‘re-crafting-your-life’ success, of course — but it is an accessible, tangible one).
Time blocking grounds us in reality, gives us the information we need to take action and provides us with a tangible measure of success.
Let me show you.
Defining where you are now, where you want to be, and how you might bridge the gap
When I start working with a client, we embark on a journey of discovery. What’s life like now? What’s your biggest, truest dream for yourself? What’s important to you? What are your deepest values? At some point I ask them to draw a circle, representing their time in an average week. They divide it roughly into slices, showing where they currently spend their time. Often, they struggle to fit everything into the circle (they’re trying to depict what they wish was true, rather than what is true. Hello again, fantasy dimension…). Once their circle is complete, there is always a silence.
An uncomfortable one.
That uncomfortable silence is the sound of someone realising that how they spend their time in no way reflects what they’ve just stated is important to them. How they spend their time is misaligned with their deepest values. How they spend their time is never going to lead to their biggest, truest dream for themselves.
It’s always a powerful, and pivotal, moment.
Time blocking takes this moment, multiplies it by ten, and gives you specific, actionable information so you can do something about it. It provides you the motivation and the means to make changes in your life.
Practice
As you continue to time block, check back regularly to the dream you wrote down in Part One (and, of course, keep dreaming! Dreams grow with us). Is how you’re spending your time moving you towards your dream, or away from it? What could you change to move one step closer to your dream?
Is how you’re spending your time moving you towards your dream, or away from it?
Uncovering hidden expectations and beliefs
Time blocking isn’t the most obvious tool to use for this, but my personal experience is that it winkles out some very deep, unconscious beliefs. Let me give you an example.
I’ve been time blocking for three years now, so I’ve reached that stage where I think I know it all and am feeling smug about it. Obviously, this is the exact stage at which the Universe smacks you round the chops with a wet fish, and you learn (usually painfully) that you still have no clue 🤣.
At the beginning of this year, I started layering another strategy — The Ideal Week (message me if you want to hear more about this) — over my time-blocked calendar. I carefully allocated time for all the things I needed to do in the week, and all the things I aspired to do. My weekly plan was looking pretty sweet, let me tell you. And it worked pretty well too.
Except when it didn’t.
When less-than-ideal things happened — for example, I got sick, I had surprise childcare responsibilities, things took longer than I expected (yup, still happens, three years in!) — I had to switch things around. So far, so good. Time blocking, and The Ideal Week, never work out quite as you plan, because….well, life. No biggie.
It took me a while to notice.
(I’m embarrassed to say how long).
Slowly, slowly, it became apparent that whenever time needed to be found, I ALWAYS took it from the time I’d set aside for myself. For rest. For creativity. For health and wellbeing. For learning. For connection.
Not sometimes.
Always.
And I realised, that despite telling clients almost every day that rest is a requirement, not a reward; that creativity and joy and connection and learning and all the rest of it are what makes life worth living (in fact, I even told you that in Part Two!); despite helping clients to reframe old beliefs that were preventing themselves from prioritising their own needs….
….I was falling into exactly the same traps myself. Ones I thought I’d left behind long ago. And underneath it all was an old belief that it’s selfish to prioritise myself. (You know that one too? What a coincidence! It’s almost like we’re conditioned to believe it…)
Do I believe that it’s selfish to prioritise myself?
I hadn’t left this belief behind at all. I’d just hidden it from myself even more skilfully. And the only reason I’d uncovered it again is because time blocking had shown me, in black and white, the real world impact that belief was having.
I wonder what beliefs time blocking is going to uncover for you?
Practice
Continue blocking out time for weekly reflection (it’s easy to convince yourself to skip this when you’re feeling time-poor — don’t!). As you reflect on what worked, and what didn’t in the previous week, see if any patterns are emerging. If you see a pattern, ask yourself, ‘what belief/s lie beneath my behaviour?’. And ‘where else in my life is this pattern showing up?’.
Saying no and letting go
In Part One, I wrote that over 80% of us report feeling ‘time-poor’, ‘the chronic feeling of having too many things to do and not enough time to do them’. I have yet to meet someone who isn’t trying to stuff too much into their calendar. And as I’m very fond of saying to clients, simple ‘time maths’ means that if you want to make space for something new in your life, you have to let go of something.
Simple ‘time maths’ means that if you want to make space for something new in your life, you have to let go of something.
But even though my clients are smart, successful professionals, they find this incredibly hard to do. It’s hard to let things go, especially when we’re operating under certain beliefs and expectations. It’s hard to let things go when some of those things are things we like to do (yup, sadly, it’s not all about letting go of the bad stuff). And it can be so hard to say ‘no’, especially when we’re strongly conditioned to say ‘yes’.
Here’s another favourite saying of mine…
Because honestly, that’s what it comes down to. Every time you spend your time, you’re making a choice. (And, by-the-way, not making a choice is a choice in itself).
Every time you spend your time, you’re making a choice. (And, by-the-way, not making a choice is a choice in itself).
One of my clients (a high-flying anaesthetist) said they had zero problem saying ‘no’ to a request if it clashed with something in their diary. But as soon as that request came up against empty diary-space…they felt obliged to say ‘yes’ to it, because there was “no good reason to say no”.
I’ll give you a good reason.
Hell, I’ll give you ten.
That ‘blank space’ was potential. That ‘blank space’ was for you. That ‘blank space’ was rest, date night with your partner, playing football with your kid, playing a musical instrument, getting out in nature, learning something new, catching up with an old friend, taking pleasure in time spent cooking a nutritious meal…
If you’ve blocked your time out, you will be deeply aware of what you’re saying ‘no’ to, when you choose to say ‘yes’ to something else. Because it’s right there, in black and white, on the paper or screen in front of you.
And as someone who has had to work very hard at setting boundaries (yup, recovering people-pleaser here!), let me tell you that having a time blocked calendar makes it so much easier. Now I can look at my calendar, see what I’ll be missing out on if I say ‘yes’ to this new request, and make a balanced decision about whether I want to do it. My calendar gives me the courage to say ‘no’ — and it’s a great co-conspirator for those of us who find ourselves stammering, and over-explaining and over-apologising when we say ‘no’ to things. Now we can simply say ‘I’m sorry, I have another commitment then’, or ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have space in my calendar for that’. And we are absolutely telling the truth.
We have taken control of our time.
And it feels good.
Practice
Train yourself to respond to every new request for your time with, ‘let me check my calendar and get back to you.’
Then do just that.
This week’s practice
If you’ve already started your time blocking practice…
Keep going. Plan. Reflect. Adjust. Repeat. And enjoy what you create for yourself!
If you’ve been reading the guide but haven’t started your practice yet…
I was chatting to one of our community members and they said, “I’m enjoying this email series….but still need to really dig into it!” And I thought….oh shit. Of course…
I get it. It feels like a big effort. And I’ve give you a lot of information! If this is you too, here’s my best advice.
Don’t overthink it. As I may have mentioned once or twice throughout the guide (!), your first (and second, and tenth, and…) attempt at time blocking will go ‘wrong’. Probably instantly! So don’t spend loads of time on something that’s going to go ‘wrong’ — take messy action and get going.
It’s in the going ‘wrong’ that you learn and make change happen.
Taking it further
If you’re raring to go but struggling to make it happen, have a look at my Time Block Party! Workshop Series.
In this hands-on series, we tackle time blocking step by step, solve challenges like the ones you might be facing, and create a personalised plan that works for you. You’ll leave with clarity, confidence, and maybe even a little excitement for your calendar (yes, really!).
Because that dream you visualised in Part One? Isn’t that dream worth a bit of effort and messy action?
