Has this ever happened to you...
You get to the end of the day and while you feel like you haven't had a moment to breathe, you also haven't gotten anything done?
You look at your list of uncrossed-off tasks, and you think to yourself- wait a minute, I was productive today. How is this possible?
While I cannot claim that I can solve this problem for you in one blog post, what I can do is help you identify the possible problem. You're working off of two categories of things to do each day, and the issue stems from the fact that you're treating them differently.
Most of us, when we plan out our days, we have two types of responsibilities. We have time commitments, and tasks. Unfortunately, for many of us, we list these in two completely different areas of our planners, or worse, we list our time commitments (meetings, appointments, etc) on a type of calendar, and our tasks somewhere completely different (think the smattering of sticky-notes you have around your house or office. Or maybe, when it comes to tasks, you're leaving it completely to memory.)
I'm actually working on an entire series of posts to help you choose the planner that's best for you. I feel like all of the experimentation I've done lends to some sort of expertise. I shop for planners the way most people shop for cars.
In the meantime, today, my hope is to help you by making the case for a method called Time Blocking. Time Blocking is a type of planning where everything you need to do for the day is assigned a time, or a Block, in which to get done.
See, because our schedules often live in a time layout (think, google calendar), and tasks often just exist in a list, our brains don't always consider the fact that tasks take time. So when you look at your calendar for the day, and someone wants to schedule a meeting, it looks like you have plenty of space in your day. What we forget to take into consideration is the list of tasks we also need to get done.
So what happens? We say "yes" to the meeting, then get frustrated when our list of tasks didn't get done. Or worse, we have to stay late to finish the tasks, losing valuable time for ourselves or our families.
How do we fix it?
First, we have to come to terms with the fact that our tasks take time. In our heads, we know this. We know that tasks don't magically get done.
Second, we have to figure out how long our tasks take. This is a process. And you will be wrong a few times. Tasks you could have sworn take only five minutes might take an hour. Tasks you remember taking "forever" could take ten minutes with the right motivation (more on that in another blog). One way to get a realistic idea is for one week, time how long it takes you to do things. You have to do a stack of paperwork each week? Write down your start time, complete the paperwork, then write down the end time. Now you know how long it takes for next time. Like I said, this is a process. If you don't want to do a week of time-recording, you'll need to use a trial and error method. Either way works, just depends on your personality.
Ok, so you have a general idea of how long your tasks take. Now, as much as you can, group like tasks together. Every week, I put together social media posts for the church I work at. Instead of doing it each day, I do them all at once because they require using the same program. Grouping like tasks together is just more efficient.
Then, as you put your to-do list together, write down next to each task (or group of tasks), how long it will take (keeping in mind, this is approximate). As you put your schedule together for the day (whether you do that daily or at the beginning of the week), write those tasks into your schedule as they fit.
For example: If doing the social posts for the week takes me an hour, and I have an hour between two of my meetings, I will write "Social Posts" into my schedule between those two meetings. This way, if I'm looking at my schedule for the day, I can physically see how much time the task will take, and I know it fits into my day, because I have budgeted that time already. This will also help you physically see how much capacity you have for the day.
I know this feels tedious. And it will be at the beginning. But chances are, for most jobs, you're doing a lot of the same tasks each week, and you have a fairly regular schedule. So much of this will end up being repetitive. Also, as you get used to doing this, you'll become a master at knowing how long tasks realistically take. What I'm saying is, this will become fairly automatic after awhile. And this isn't just useful for work. This same method should transfer to personal/home tasks pretty easily.
I hope this method helps! If it does, or you've been using this method, let me know how you've adapted it to work for your life. The Planner Series, P is for Planner will begin on Thursday. If you find yourself overwhelmed or frustrated with planner choices, or you don't know where to start, I hope this series will help set you up for success for 2024.