Hey Reader,

Welcome to February, or what I like to call the “second new year.”

You probably have a better handle now on what is possible (and realistic) for the year ahead than you did a month ago. Use what you learned in January to recalibrate and move forward.

Remember, if you’re planning effectively, you’ll always be changing your plans.

One of the challenges that make up the air sandwich we talked about last month is too few resources. Since time is one of the most precious and limited resources we have, I want to spend this month focusing on how we use that time.

Understanding Time Blocking

​Time blocking is a game-changing way to think about and organize your day. Rather than thinking about time in an open, unstructured way, I approach time blocking by figuring out a coherent daily structure with four different kinds of blocks based on the type of activity done in those blocks.

This makes things much easier when it comes to planning and scheduling parts of the day — because a lot of the decision work about where things go is solved for me. Here’s more on those four basic blocks:

🔎 Focus blocks: 90–120 minute blocks where you’re especially creative, inspired, and able to do high-level work that requires focus.

🗃️ Admin blocks: Ideally 30–60 minute lower-energy blocks of time where you’re not in the zone to do the work that requires heavy lifting, but there are still other types of work you can do effectively.

👋 Social blocks: 90–120 minute blocks where you’re primed and energetically in the right space to meet with other people.

🧘‍♂ Recovery blocks: Variable-length blocks of time you use for exercise, meditation, and self-care.

Applying these categories to your schedule allows you to visualize your time and the types of activities you’ll spend your time engaged in. Here’s what my weekly block schedule looks like:

How to Organize Your Time Blocks

We’ll cover how to build out a schedule that works for you below. But first, you’ll need to determine what blocks are needed to move your projects forward.

1. Look back to plan forward. What did you spend your time on in January? Take a look at your schedule over the last few weeks and make a list of your activities and approximately how long they took you. What type of time block (focus, admin, social, or recovery) would they fit in?
2. Find your focus. What projects need dedicated focus blocks in February? Identify what activities will require time for creative, deep work that needs extended focus.
3. Complete the picture. What other types of blocks do you need to help move your projects forward? Identify where you might need admin, social, and recovery blocks.

If you come across activities that fall into more than one type of block choose the one that feels right to you right now and keep going. It takes time and experimentation to find the right combination.

How to Use the Weekly Block Blueprint to Start Time Blocking

Now that you know the types of blocks you’ll need, it’s time to arrange them in your schedule. Download our Weekly Block Blueprint worksheet to plot your blocks over the course of a typical week.

While I can’t say exactly where your blocks should go without knowing more about your personal daily rhythm and work structure, here are some best practices to consider:

1. Three focus blocks per week give a project momentum.
2. Some types of work seem like admin, but they require focus blocks — consider the type of energy required vs. the specific activity.
3. Social blocks make great bookends to other blocks because most of us honor commitments to other people more than we honor commitments to ourselves.
4. Sandwiching an admin block between two social blocks can create a coherent flow because there’s often some type of admin work that follows social blocks.
5. As a general rule, plan on a recovery block for every two focus or social blocks.

A block schedule shows you when certain activities need to be done, not what specific thing needs to be done during that time.

The Weekly Block Blueprint is not a place to keep your projects, goals, action items, and so on — for this, you’ll want to use the Momentum Planners or the Momentum app.

Test out your new block schedule over the course of the next week. See what works, and what doesn’t.

Make Time Blocking a Team Habit

To answer the question (or more likely the objection) some of you may have at this point, yes, time blocking can be done at the team level. And no, you don’t have to wait for “someone else” to set things in motion.

Time blocking, no matter your circumstances, requires communication and negotiation with the people you spend the most time with — whether that’s family members or team members.

And applying time blocking on teams can make the difference between having a team stuck in neutral and one moving projects to done.

The process is much like the one I described above:

1. Identify your team’s time blocks. Where has the team been spending their time? Have the team do an audit of their schedules over the last few weeks to identify how much time each week is being spent on focus, admin, social, or recovery activities.
2. Find your team’s focus. How many focus blocks are needed to make progress on team goals? If you’re like most teams I’ve worked with, you’ll probably notice the team is over-indexed on social blocks (meetings) and admin blocks (email and maintenance tasks) but low on time to do the work.
3. Recalibrate for focus. What shifts can be made to increase the number of focus blocks your team gets each week? Admin, social, and recovery blocks should support the work not distract from it.

You can learn more about using focus blocks to get real about your team’s capacity and prioritization in my upcoming book, Team Habits, out this August.

Next week we’ll get into how you can fit your time blocks into your schedule where they make the most sense for your energy levels, work, and schedule.

Stand tall,

Charlie

Other News and Features

🎙️ Join me today, February 7, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. PST when I’lll be hosting a Fishbowl Live event, “Good Team Habits Make Great Teams.” Fishbowl is an app where professionals go to connect — think of it as a virtual water cooler. You can RSVP or download the Fishbowl app here.

🐺 Last week I joined Eric Zimmer on his award-winning podcast, The One You Feed, based on an old parable about two wolves at battle within us. He and I talked about why it’s important to align our inner and outer stories to create the changes we want and why we need to give ourselves permission to dream and see what’s possible. You can listen to the full episode, “How to Focus on the Most Important Things,” here.

📖 For more tips, best practices, and exercises to help you become a powerhouse at time blocking check out the workbook companion to Start Finishing, the Start Finishing Field Guide. In it you’ll find a ton of how-tos, scenarios, and tools to help you go from idea to done. Available in paperback or as a downloadable ebook (PDF) on our site.

📝 We’ve joined the ConvertKit Sponsor Network! As a part of this move, we’re conducting a reader survey so they can better pair us up with relevant sponsors. We’ve been needing to do a survey for a while now anyway, so it’s a win-win. You can fill out the survey here — it will take you less than 2 minutes and is anonymous. Your support will help us fund continued content here in the Pulse and beyond. Thanks for the support and solidarity!