I got my most important tasks done first. I neglected to mention last week that the 12 Week Year recommends scheduling the strategic block during the first part of the week so it’s likely to get done. I did my 3-hour stint on Monday and couldn’t have been more excited about making progress on work that I’d been neglecting so I could attend to day-to-day tasks.
Pre-planned activities made the time go on and on. I didn’t just use time blocking to “work on homeschool planning” or “start my book.” Having used the 12 Week Year program to set three goals for the next 12 weeks and weekly benchmarks that had to be achieved for each, I knew exactly what to do with my 3-hour strategic block. I took no breaks, choosing instead to switch goals when I needed a change of pace. I’m almost a week ahead and couldn’t be more thrilled with what I’ve gotten done.
Having guilt-free relaxation time made me more productive. Trying to mix work and play and family can be pretty frustrating. Knowing that I had a 3-hour block of time to do absolutely anything (I read and watched TV) helped motivate me to return to work. I wasn’t interrupted, but in the future I would like to make sure everyone knows that Mom is on a mini-vacation during this time.
Motivated me to finish the rest of my work. After finishing my 3-hour time block on the big stuff, the rest seemed easy to knock out, regardless of how I approached it.
How Time Blocking Made Me Crazy This Week
Buffer blocks don’t work in the summer. I think having buffer blocks twice during the day to field the kids’ homework questions and my husband’s requests will work great during the school year. When my husband isn’t working as much (he sells library books to schools) and the kids are jumping from one fun activity to the next, they couldn’t be less interested in whether or not I have a “Buffer Block.” I didn’t find it necessary for handling other work because I already have a routine.
Did Time Blocking Help Me Get Things Done?
A very enthusiastic YES! What I’m most pleased with is the fact that I made serious progress on goals that would otherwise have been neglected. What’s more is the fact that I had peace of mind both in knowing I’d gotten the important work done and had reserved free time, too. I will be continuing to use the time blocks as part of the 12-Week Year and will give a full review of the approach in September (as it’s impossible to test in a week).
**UPDATE**
I still love time blocking and scheduling. By taking time blocks seriously and making them a habit, I have been able to accomplish my goals.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 22
This week I’ll be testing a morning ritual. I have a morning ritual–most people do. But I could benefit from an improved one. The change I am most interested in making this week (because I already exercise and have a time of prayer and Bible reading) is not reading email right away.
The concept. Curt Mercadante encouraged me to give up my habit of checking email first thing in the morning, attesting to the benefits on productivity.
A morning ritual can be used much like stretching for an athlete. The activity we engage in first can set the tone for the whole day and can be used to increase our productivity and improve our mood.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read Curt’s article. Decide which activity will best prepare you for a productive day and plan to do it first. I will not be checking email first from now on when I roll out of bed. Exercise is my best first activity (after the necessaries ;-)).
Click here to see how my week testing a morning ritual went.
This week I tested Getting Things Done. {affiliate link} I put all my tasks into a trusted system and labeled them according to priority, context, time, and energy required. Many of them were associated with a project as well. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post to see my plan.
How Getting Things Done Saved My Sanity This Week
Writing everything down gave me peace of mind. I was at a place where I had a lot of things rolling around in my head and it really was a relief to write them all down and then process them.
A weekly review gave me added peace of mind. For the first time, I looked at IQTell‘s Weekly Review option which has checkboxes for all aspects of it, including considering higher level goals. When I tried GTD many years ago, this was the piece that I was missing.
Working by context streamlined my work. I was in a low-energy state with iPhone in hand, so I looked up tasks I could do with my phone. Turns out something I dreaded (cleaning up my mangled address book) was easy and enjoyable. I also had lots of tasks that needed doing in our outside office. I realized I was putting those off because I didn’t want to interrupt my flow to go out there. Once I had a nice list of things to accomplish there, I was ready to get to work.
Made me think about limiting my work to just each project’s next action. As a blogger, I have dozens of ways to improve my blog on my task list. I realized I was trying to work on them all at once instead of focusing on the one with the most impact before moving on to the others.
How Getting Things Done Made Me Crazy This Week
Didn’t give me a short list of things to do today. Only things you absolutely must do on a certain day are supposed to go on a calendar. For that reason, I didn’t date a task unless it was vitally time sensitive. Within just a few days, I couldn’t stand wading through a long list of tasks, even within priorities or contexts. I have developed a habit of dating tasks I want to at least consider doing on a given day. I started dating them and was fine.
The mind like water didn’t last. If I write down absolutely everything I want or need to do, I eventually become more stressed. I feel (and rightly so) that there is no way I will ever get to it all (GTD or not). Before I wouldn’t write things down that I knew I didn’t need to attend to any time soon or that I would be reminded of naturally. I think this may be the difference in me using GTD at home versus in a traditional work environment. GTD also offers no simple test for determining that you’re taking too much on. The notion is that sometime, you’ll get it all done. If you can’t do it now, just put it in Someday/Maybe. Just label it and you’ll get to it. I think that’s my problem anyway, so GTD didn’t help.
No routines. GTD doesn’t talk about the importance of routines. At first, I kept up my routines as usual because they work for me. But soon I found myself thinking I should get right to my next actions and maybe I could skip the routines. Of course, that didn’t work! Then I had other problems.
Did Getting Things Done Really Help Me Get More Done?
In a limited sense, yes. Specifically, I was able to get more of my context-specific tasks done and they were things I had procrastinated on. I noticed that I don’t think about tasks this way much. I didn’t use energy or time as a way of working on tasks at all, for example. That’s a matter of not having the habit and also giving GTD such a short test. Some readers have pointed out that I can’t possibly assess the full value of an approach in one week’s time. I think that’s a valid concern with several approaches, GTD being one of them. However, I have begun to identify key factors in enabling me to be the most productive and in this case, I recognize that not having a short list of tasks to work from each day does not work for me. If it works for you, please continue using it. I will continue assigning some contexts to my tasks and doing a weekly review.
**UPDATE**
I don’t use contexts at all in my work. I also schedule everything in opposition to David Allen’s advice and it works beautifully for me.
The concept. Stephanie Vozza of Entrepreneur calls time blocking a productivity power tool.
Rather than trying to tackle tasks in a willy-nilly fashion, time is set aside to ensure that you address the work you rarely get to–the work that will take your business, your career, or your life to the next level. The 12 Week Year calls these Strategic Blocks. They are “a three-hour block of uninterrupted time that is scheduled into each week. During this block you accept no phone calls, no faxes, no emails, not visitors, no anything. Instead, you focus all of your energy on preplanned tasks–your strategic and money-making activities.”
Rather than lose time recovering from interruptions, time is set aside to deal with those timely, but not urgent requests and issues. The 12 Week Year calls these Buffer Blocks designed to deal with low-value activities. “For some, one 30-minute buffer block a day is sufficient, while for others, two separate one-hour blocks may be necessary. The power of buffer blocks comes from grouping together activities that tend to be unproductive so that you can increase your efficiency in dealing with them and take greater control over the rest of your day.” The people who need your attention can know they will have it during buffer time. I plan to have “office hours” twice a day so my family can have my full attention.
Finally, time is also carved out for leisure. The 12 Week Year calls these Breakout Blocks. “An effective breakout block is at least three-hours long and spent on things other than work. It is time scheduled away from your business during normal business hours that you will use to refresh and reinvigorate your mind, so that when you return to work, you can engage with more focus and energy.” I think “normal business hours” could be interpreted loosely or you could be fired! The point is to have guilt-free time to do anything you want to do to be refreshed.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read this article on time blocking. Decide what strategic activities you will work on for the week and schedule a three-hour block to address it. Determine how to eliminate interruptions. Then schedule one to two buffer blocks per day. Finally, schedule your Breakout Block of three hours for the week. Use it to do things you’d like to do guilt free. The rest of the time can be spent doing work as usual.
Click here to see how my week of time blocking went.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
{affiliate link}. I scheduled a 3-hour Strategic block, a 3-hour Breakout block, and two daily Buffer blocks (click for explanation). Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for more details.
