When I assign my blocks like this, it goes a long way to explaining why I struggle to get much productive work done. The time blocks shown don’t include actually cooking the breakfast, lunch and dinner, planning those meals or buying the food. They don’t incl 12:39 ude dropping kids off to school or picking them up. Or commuting. And what about laundry or home maintenance? By the time I’ve added all my other areas of responsibility (and perhaps a little leisure time too?), there is very little left for focus time. Of course, everyone’s situation is different. But a pitfall of neat, large blocks of time like this is that they don’t account for the “real life” things that can easily eat into our neat blocks. Another important thing to factor in is transition time. We often have to either move physically from one location to another, or mentally switch from one mode to another and that takes time too. So rather than “time management” I’d view this as a “reality check” tool and a useful way of prioritising what we do with our time.
Hi Joanna, absolutely. Everyone has different priorities and roles, and it would be impossible to put together a video to cover all those different roles. If you are dropping off and picking up your kids, how much time do you need for that? That needs scheduling. I need 90 minutes each week for grocery shopping, and I always cook my dinner, so in my real life, I've allocated 90 minutes for cooking each day. You need to develop your own. The one thing that will never change is the 24 hours you have. So all you need to decide is what will you do in those 24 hours?
Great video! I realized that my time is very poorly spent, im a 3rd year undergrad and I felt like Im not really keeping up. Waking up tired, feeling rushed and stressed.... I started planning my time better and I put a lot more accent on being well rested and exercising. After 4-5pm I dont do anything university related or work related. I do my house chores and hit the gym, maybe read a book. Also I avoid "resting" by being on social media, email, youtube or watching short videos. Better watch a film or an episode from my favorite serial. I also read Deepwork by Cal Newport, he goes into greater detail explaining how time is taken away from us.
1:22 & 1:32 - YES YES YES!! This is the sneaky villain and creator of our modern stress life. I told my wife the other day... What in the world are we all doing to ourselves?? I long for simplicity, but seem to major in complication. An interesting paradox. I don't believe I am alone.
... but Carl, train timetables in the US were rare until after the civil war, but the UK had Bradshaw from October 1839... i.e. multiple providers being covered in one map guide and timetable... Korea, no idea. See; Bradshaw's Guide - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradshaw%27s_Guide
This is a good approach to think about at the beginning before you start reserving blocks in the calendar. But not everyone can cope with time blocking. Matt D'Avella also tested it for a month and then discarded it because it didn't bring him any benefit.
Yeah, I've seen people struggle with time-blocking before. Most of the time, they are trying to micro-manage their time, and that never works. You need to retain some flexibility.
Yet say Mike Vardy and Darren Hardy swear by it. And expanding on Carl's military start, no plan survives the third cup of coffee. : )))) Block out the first available blocks to do the big stuff - so once the interruptions finally battle through, the bulk of the real benefits of the working day should hopefully be done. Just limit the number of 'big projects' to get slotted into the '2+8' framework and set up the project timetable within its natural deadlines. My high school did a two-week timetable for the lessons - it meant that say Wednesday afternoon wasn't always maths, etc. Having had that as a habit - I have reintroduced that to structure the week... or rather structure the two weeks, gives me enough variation to 'feel' as if I am not tied to the grindstone day in and day out. Add in pomodoro miniblocks to provide sprint focus and you can read or research or write piles of 'stuff' as it is mostly a controlled environment.
Yes, that could be the problem, micro-managing. But many "productivity experts" recommend just that, to plan the whole day, every minute. For me, that doesn't work either, I want it to be as flexible as possible.
Carl, this was really a wise and practical approach of time managing or let's say life-work balance. I would be really a good thing to follow this, I keep on trying but rarely happens. Fos instance, e-mails and instant messages are integral part of my whole day and I cannot put them into a bloc. Almost always there is a thing, a task to do that is not planned ahead and it can destroy your whole afternoon. Or a traffic jan on the way to or from a meeting place can be disastrous.(Thins don't always work out the way they are planned) But I keep trying and following your advice.
If you do find yourself being pulled away from your plan because of other people's urgencies, you may need to look at your own core work and priorities. Making other people's urgencies is never going to be a good strategy unless you are in customer service.
Hi Carl, love your videos! A thought occurred to me - is there not a case of planning results rather than activities? Scheduling activities could end up in a lot of wasted time on low-priority items. At the end of the week/ month, what really matters is progress on solving problems or improving performance. You agree?
this would work well for people who don't have 9-5 job. which most of people do have. requirement to go to/from office on strict hours and to remain in the office for strict hours, regardless how productive/busy the work environment currently - this is breaking the beautiful setup you have come up with for most people. As you noticed every one is different some people are more productive in the morning, some in the evening, some are singles, some have children to take care of yet all business environment assumes we need to be on 9-5 job. Perhaps i am diverging here but this is important drawback of 90% of people watching it. A 9-5, 8hrs workday "template".
Hmm, I think you are looking at it the wrong way around. This is not about the activities. You are absolutely right; these will be different for everyone. Some people have kids to take and pick up from school, while others have dogs to take for walks. Some people rarely have meetings, and others have meetings all day. Either way, that does not matter. What matters (and the way to look at this) is how much time you have each day. If you've contracted to be at a particular place for a given number of hours (employed), then it's relatively easy to manage. You know where you will be Monday to Friday, 9 -5. You still need to allocate your time, though. However, you can always choose to delegate your time to other people and wait for them to tell you what you should be doing and when. Although, I'm not sure that would be a very happy existence.
Hello Carl! Look forward to watch your videos always! In reality the time blocking is a bit harder as for the excerise I need an hour and a bit more plus for changing cloth and showering. Also you need to add the transportation to the schedule. I do sleep only 7 hours and work between 5 to 7 hours but I always feel overwhelmed trying to do so much in my day. I have few hours only at work and meetings can ruin it. Tasks usually take more time than expected when time blocking. It’s always not straight forward what’s the priorities. (Even 1 hour for emails Is not enough). I wish I can find a way to be relaxed and have both personal life and work life organised. Is it okay to have only 3 hours of time (in reality less) after dinner time and before working again next day? (By the way I joined todist and checking your series, I think you missed a comment from me first time ever)
Hi Abdullah, This is the difficult one. As I pointed out in the video, the one side of this equation you cannot change is the time part. The only part you have any control over is activity. You may have little control over your work hours, but you can influence them. You can have conversations with your boss and seek more efficient ways to do your work (repetition generally improves efficiency and speeds things up) This is where you have to take responsibility for your time and decide what is important to you. You can't do everything--time will always prevent that--but you can take control or influence your activity.
I really appreciate all these deeper dives into time management. Super helpful for someone with time blindness. lol
Glad you enjoy them.
When I assign my blocks like this, it goes a long way to explaining why I struggle to get much productive work done. The time blocks shown don’t include actually cooking the breakfast, lunch and dinner, planning those meals or buying the food. They don’t incl 12:39 ude dropping kids off to school or picking them up. Or commuting. And what about laundry or home maintenance? By the time I’ve added all my other areas of responsibility (and perhaps a little leisure time too?), there is very little left for focus time.
Of course, everyone’s situation is different. But a pitfall of neat, large blocks of time like this is that they don’t account for the “real life” things that can easily eat into our neat blocks. Another important thing to factor in is transition time. We often have to either move physically from one location to another, or mentally switch from one mode to another and that takes time too.
So rather than “time management” I’d view this as a “reality check” tool and a useful way of prioritising what we do with our time.
Hi Joanna, absolutely. Everyone has different priorities and roles, and it would be impossible to put together a video to cover all those different roles. If you are dropping off and picking up your kids, how much time do you need for that? That needs scheduling. I need 90 minutes each week for grocery shopping, and I always cook my dinner, so in my real life, I've allocated 90 minutes for cooking each day.
You need to develop your own. The one thing that will never change is the 24 hours you have. So all you need to decide is what will you do in those 24 hours?
Great video! I realized that my time is very poorly spent, im a 3rd year undergrad and I felt like Im not really keeping up.
Waking up tired, feeling rushed and stressed....
I started planning my time better and I put a lot more accent on being well rested and exercising.
After 4-5pm I dont do anything university related or work related. I do my house chores and hit the gym, maybe read a book.
Also I avoid "resting" by being on social media, email, youtube or watching short videos. Better watch a film or an episode from my favorite serial.
I also read Deepwork by Cal Newport, he goes into greater detail explaining how time is taken away from us.
Love that. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
1:22 & 1:32 - YES YES YES!! This is the sneaky villain and creator of our modern stress life. I told my wife the other day... What in the world are we all doing to ourselves?? I long for simplicity, but seem to major in complication. An interesting paradox. I don't believe I am alone.
Yes! I've been wonde3ring that too.
Carl doing a Heraclitus on "defending everywhere" - nicely done. : ))))))
... but Carl, train timetables in the US were rare until after the civil war, but the UK had Bradshaw from October 1839... i.e. multiple providers being covered in one map guide and timetable... Korea, no idea.
See; Bradshaw's Guide - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradshaw%27s_Guide
TNX
This is a good approach to think about at the beginning before you start reserving blocks in the calendar.
But not everyone can cope with time blocking. Matt D'Avella also tested it for a month and then discarded it because it didn't bring him any benefit.
Yeah, I've seen people struggle with time-blocking before. Most of the time, they are trying to micro-manage their time, and that never works. You need to retain some flexibility.
Yet say Mike Vardy and Darren Hardy swear by it.
And expanding on Carl's military start, no plan survives the third cup of coffee. : ))))
Block out the first available blocks to do the big stuff - so once the interruptions finally battle through, the bulk of the real benefits of the working day should hopefully be done.
Just limit the number of 'big projects' to get slotted into the '2+8' framework and set up the project timetable within its natural deadlines. My high school did a two-week timetable for the lessons - it meant that say Wednesday afternoon wasn't always maths, etc. Having had that as a habit - I have reintroduced that to structure the week... or rather structure the two weeks, gives me enough variation to 'feel' as if I am not tied to the grindstone day in and day out.
Add in pomodoro miniblocks to provide sprint focus and you can read or research or write piles of 'stuff' as it is mostly a controlled environment.
Yes, that could be the problem, micro-managing. But many "productivity experts" recommend just that, to plan the whole day, every minute. For me, that doesn't work either, I want it to be as flexible as possible.
@@devarni It starts with knowing what "must" be done and making sure you have the time to get it done. Everything else is up for negotiation.
@@timbushell8640 I'd agree with this. Keep things flexible, make sure you have sufficient gaps between sessions and never ign ore your calendar.
Thank you Carl for the demonstration
You're very welcome.
I recall reading a book, where the author focuses on the 1440 min in 1 day
Then uses blocks of 15 min or 10% to plan their tasks/time.
That daily planning time can save you so much time.
Carl, this was really a wise and practical approach of time managing or let's say life-work balance. I would be really a good thing to follow this, I keep on trying but rarely happens. Fos instance, e-mails and instant messages are integral part of my whole day and I cannot put them into a bloc. Almost always there is a thing, a task to do that is not planned ahead and it can destroy your whole afternoon. Or a traffic jan on the way to or from a meeting place can be disastrous.(Thins don't always work out the way they are planned) But I keep trying and following your advice.
If you do find yourself being pulled away from your plan because of other people's urgencies, you may need to look at your own core work and priorities. Making other people's urgencies is never going to be a good strategy unless you are in customer service.
Same thing here :(
Thats really interesting, so essentially we only have 90 mins to really move the needle each day.
That depends on your day. All of us will be different as we do different jobs and have different responsibilities.
Hi Carl, love your videos! A thought occurred to me - is there not a case of planning results rather than activities? Scheduling activities could end up in a lot of wasted time on low-priority items. At the end of the week/ month, what really matters is progress on solving problems or improving performance. You agree?
I completely agree, David. I'm doing a follow up video to this one this week where I will be adding something quite similar to your thinking.
@@Carl_Pullein look forward to it Carl!
this would work well for people who don't have 9-5 job. which most of people do have. requirement to go to/from office on strict hours and to remain in the office for strict hours, regardless how productive/busy the work environment currently - this is breaking the beautiful setup you have come up with for most people. As you noticed every one is different some people are more productive in the morning, some in the evening, some are singles, some have children to take care of yet all business environment assumes we need to be on 9-5 job. Perhaps i am diverging here but this is important drawback of 90% of people watching it. A 9-5, 8hrs workday "template".
Hmm, I think you are looking at it the wrong way around. This is not about the activities. You are absolutely right; these will be different for everyone. Some people have kids to take and pick up from school, while others have dogs to take for walks. Some people rarely have meetings, and others have meetings all day. Either way, that does not matter.
What matters (and the way to look at this) is how much time you have each day. If you've contracted to be at a particular place for a given number of hours (employed), then it's relatively easy to manage. You know where you will be Monday to Friday, 9 -5. You still need to allocate your time, though.
However, you can always choose to delegate your time to other people and wait for them to tell you what you should be doing and when. Although, I'm not sure that would be a very happy existence.
Hello Carl! Look forward to watch your videos always! In reality the time blocking is a bit harder as for the excerise I need an hour and a bit more plus for changing cloth and showering. Also you need to add the transportation to the schedule. I do sleep only 7 hours and work between 5 to 7 hours but I always feel overwhelmed trying to do so much in my day. I have few hours only at work and meetings can ruin it. Tasks usually take more time than expected when time blocking. It’s always not straight forward what’s the priorities. (Even 1 hour for emails Is not enough). I wish I can find a way to be relaxed and have both personal life and work life organised. Is it okay to have only 3 hours of time (in reality less) after dinner time and before working again next day?
(By the way I joined todist and checking your series, I think you missed a comment from me first time ever)
Hi Abdullah, This is the difficult one. As I pointed out in the video, the one side of this equation you cannot change is the time part. The only part you have any control over is activity. You may have little control over your work hours, but you can influence them. You can have conversations with your boss and seek more efficient ways to do your work (repetition generally improves efficiency and speeds things up)
This is where you have to take responsibility for your time and decide what is important to you. You can't do everything--time will always prevent that--but you can take control or influence your activity.
Bunch of weirdos