Time Blocking: A valuable time management tool for small business owners
In the hustle of small business ownership, time is both a precious commodity and a constant challenge. Enter Sarah Stewart, a local time management expert, here to share insights on a game-changing technique: Time Blocking.
Read on as Sarah unveils the secrets of reclaiming control over your day. Time Blocking isn't just about managing your schedule, it's a powerful tool for small business owners to enhance productivity and find balance. Dive into Sarah's expert advice and discover how Time Blocking can transform the way you approach your daily tasks.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is a time management technique that involves breaking your day into distinct blocks of time, and assigning specific tasks or activities to each block.
By allocating time in advance, you can create a structure for your day and ensure that your most important tasks are given the attention they deserve.
How does time blocking differ from time mapping?
Time blocking tends to be a ‘high level’ plan; it is blocking out your schedule with a preliminary plan. Whereas time mapping is more detailed. It’s the creation of a plan for the block.
For example, I have a recurring appointment in my calendar that blocks out a Tuesday evening for self care. This is time blocking. Then, at the end of each week when I’m doing my reflection and planning I will decide what I am going to do with that block of time - which is time mapping.
There are also other schedule management approaches such as time boxing, where you would block out time for a specific task, and you limit yourself to that period of time. Parkinson’s law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion, so this approach can help negate that.
Time batching is another tool, whereby you tackle similar tasks at the same time which avoids context switching.
In my mind - there’s overlap with all of these time blocking, mapping, boxing strategies. Break it down, and they are all basically planning our time dressed up in some fancy terminology.
The key thing, to me, is that (i) we are planning our weeks ahead of time and (ii) we schedule the time to plan.
The tool that we use to facilitate this I don’t see as important - choose what works best for you.
What are the benefits of time blocking?
Small business owners will typically wear multiple hats and juggle a variety of responsibilities. Time blocking can help you to focus on one task at a time (multi-tasking is a myth!) and minimise distractions.
As small business owners, it can be easy to spend your time reacting to the needs of others and ignore the strategic tasks that will help your business grow. Time blocking can force you to assess your priorities, and help ensure that the important but not urgent tasks get done.
I also time block my personal time, and by doing so I have been able to intentionally create a healthier work-life balance. A lot of people don’t plan their personal time or their evenings after work… but because they don’t think about this time, it can feel like it doesn’t exist.
People who feel they have enough time, are intentional with their time and they know where their time goes. Time blocking can help us achieve this.
How to get started with time blocking?
Values
Gaining clarity on my core values and my future vision have been important in then determining how I want to be spending my time.
When we think about core values - these are essentially your guiding principles. And a typical coaching exercise is to look at a list of values and see what resonates most with you.
However, the scientist in me likes to look for the evidence - grab your detective hat…
Firstly, if you have a smartphone, take a look through your photos app. What are you predominately taking photographs of? My photos are mainly of the art I have created, my children and lots of pictures of nature. Knowing my values include family, nature and creativity - these themes from my photos won't come as a surprise.
Secondly, take a look at your bank balance. I have regular direct debits for charities that are close to my heart. As a business I am registered with Ecologi, and I plant a tree with every website purchase; so there is a monthly DD for this also. I make a conscious effort to purchase from certified BCorps. I regularly purchase books from World of Books (a BCorp), and love learning.
Lastly - if you do keep a calendar, have a look at how you are spending your time. If you have lots of activities scheduled with family, this might be one of your values. If you’re regularly at the gym, it might be that Health is a value.
Align with your goals
In addition to core values, getting clarity on our future vision, and the goals that will support this vision, is crucial. We need to set specific, meaningful and achievable goals that align with our values and aspirations. These goals then act as the foundation upon which we build our schedule and we can use our values and vision to make intentional decisions and prioritise our actions.
Work with your energy
The ups and downs of your energy can have a profound impact on your effectiveness at tackling your to-do list. When you recognise your natural energy sources and cycles, you can begin to work with your energy rather than against it.
There will be lots of different things that impact your energy levels. I’ve got a chronic condition, Crohn’s Disease, so perhaps like me, it might be your health.
But it could also be nutrition, dehydration, caffeine, sleep deprivation (the early years with my children were tough!), medication, too much screen-time, long days, jet lag…and so on.
It's valuable to have an awareness of your energy cycles so you can tackle your challenging tasks when you're feeling buoyant and do your less demanding tasks when your energy is flagging.
Trying to force yourself to complete a task when you’re not feeling it is just not efficient, and in all likelihood you’ll end up taking double the time to finish it.
So consider when your energy is at its best?
Mornings are the best time for me to…. and the worst time for me to…
Afternoons are the best time for me to… and the worst time for me to…
Evenings are the best time for me to… and the worst time for me to…
I know that I work best in the morning, and so this is typically when I will block out time for deep work [https://www.sarahstewart.co.uk/blog/ritual-for-deep-work] in my calendar.
It can be helpful to understand what activities pick you back up when your energy is dipping. For instance, it might be to play some upbeat music or drink a glass of water. Or perhaps it's taking 5 minutes to call a friend. Moving your body, if you can, is always a good idea.
Choose a calendar
I encourage my clients to start on paper if they are new to time management strategies. If my plan or to-do list is stuck to my fridge, then I’m more likely to remember it as it’s literally in my face!
That said, having an electronic calendar is very useful as it makes it easier to move your time blocks around; a bit like a game of tetris where you try and fit everything in!
An electronic calendar also means that you can leverage the systems, for instance, you can use the recurring function to schedule blocks of time for activities that you do regularly.
It’s also easier to colour code your blocks in an electronic tool. I have a few different colours for work, family, self care, exercise etc. At a quick glance at my week to view I can see if I have enough time for each area of my life. This can help with work/life balance.
You can also schedule repeating tasks that take up headspace… the annual car MOT & service, insurance renewal dates, and regular health check-ups etc. Think about when these are best scheduled… for example, for my campervan service I put the reminder in my calendar around a month before it's due to give me time to call the garage and get it booked in.
The importance of time estimation
If you’re going to be blocking your time, you need to know how long to block out. We want to be realistic with what we can accomplish in a day. Most people overestimate what they can achieve, and they underestimate how long tasks will take to complete.
Be mindful of how long things actually take. For instance, a 60 minute gym class actually requires me to block out 2.5 hours of time - 30 min to drive to the gym, the class itself, 30 min to drive home and 30 min to shower & dress afterwards.
Tracking your time closely for a week will help garner some useful information on how long it takes you to do things.
Whitespace
I don’t take it to the extreme where my full day is blocked… I do leave some whitespace.
Having some space, to think, really is impactful. I also like the whitespace as it allows for some flexibility, for instance, if an opportunity were to arise it means I can juggle things to accommodate it. Or if an issue cropped up, then I’d likely be able to deal with it too.
How to stick to the plan
A common theme with some of my clients is that they struggle with the discipline to stick with their plan. People tend to throw the plan out the window the moment they go off track. Know that it's ok to go off track… our plans shouldn't be set in stone. We want some fluidity there to allow us to jump on opportunities at short notice, and to allow us to deal with any issues that may crop up. Just because we have a set-back and the plan goes off track, does not mean that the plan was bad or that planning itself is a waste of time. It’s having the discipline to stick with it.
The more we practice, the more robust our plans will become. People tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a day, and underestimate how long things will take to execute. The more we plan, the better we get at cultivating the skill of time estimation.
Each week when you create your plan, take a moment to reflect on the prior week. What insights can you take - what went well and what could have been better? What lessons can you take, and what adjustments might you make moving forward? Are you trying to fill your days with too many tasks? Have you got enough time to relax and re-energise? Do you have some whitespace or buffer in your schedule?
It is possible to create new habits and rewire the neural pathways in your brain (it’s a property of the brain called neuroplasticity), but it takes time and repetition.
What are the next steps?
Create your time blocked plan for the week, but then also track your time to see if you stuck with it.
Then have a think about these questions -
What do you like about your current schedule?
What would you like to spend more time doing?
What would you like to spend less time doing?
How can you make that happen?
Are there any steps you can take right now, to nudge you closer to your ideal?
And if you’d like some support with this, I have a variety of ways that you can work with me.
📖 (FREE) Grab my latest e-book, Get More Time for Small Business Owners
✨ Join the waitlist for “Project Manage Your Life”, my signature group coaching program (we start in January 2024).
⏳ Book a Time Audit. You'll be amazed at what we can achieve in 60 minutes!
You’ll find all of these and more at www.sarahstewart.co.uk/links
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👋 Hi! I’m Sarah, Glasgow-based conscious time management coach.
🐶 I’m a single mum of two: my nearly 14 year old gaming-obsessed son and my sassy 12 year old daughter. We also share our home with Evie, our 3 year old cavachon.
🏢 I’m an ex-pharmacist, and even have a PhD in pharmaceutical science! I worked for 14 years in project management roles in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as Senior Director of Global Program Management.
🤍 People and organisations work with me as they want to feel more in control of their time, to procrastinate less, to be more organised on a daily basis and more present to fully focus whilst at work (and at play). Through my workshops and individual support I have now helped hundreds of people improve their relationship with time.
🕰️ My passion for making the best use of our time and for being present in each moment comes from losing my mum to cancer as a teenager; I have an acute awareness that our limited time is precious - both at work and at home.
🚐 I use the time I have gained outside of work to have adventures in my campervan and to volunteer at the local hospice where I run mindfulness meditations for the out-patient visitors.
Photo by Anna Laska
