How Time-Blocking can help you better manage your time (method + applications)

Greg Taieb · · 2 min read

We're not going to lie, this re-confinement is as painful as it is necessary. I don't know about you but this change of pace made me lose some bearings last March.

Longer days, shorter breaks and less socializing. In short, all the ingredients for a one-way ticket to burn-out.
One of the good habits that I have adopted to avoid being passive in the face of this unusual pace is to quantify the time spent on my tasks.

Without going so far as to measure every minute, having a broad idea of where my time is going has allowed me to organize it differently from a distance and... Take the blame off your shoulders.

For this I relied on 1 technique and 2 applications.

But actually, what is Time Blocking?

The technique isTime Blocking which consists of blocking a period of time to carry out a task. Materializing an action in your diary means saving time that will not be taken up by other things like emails, calls or meetings.
I like this sentence:

“If it’s not in your diary it doesn’t exist and it will never happen”.

Sorted: a task manager designed for Time Blocking

To block these periods to move forward on my projects I use the application Sorted on iPhone. It's a task management application like dozens of others but Sorted has something more...

It has a function that I love the automatic programming. By activating it, it will automatically position your tasks in the free slots of your calendar.

Toggl: the simple and multi-platform timer

The 2nd application is Toggl, a timer available on all platforms including your browser to easily categorize the time you spend on a project.

Very practical when you work intermittently on a subject and want to have an overall view of the time spent. Everything can of course be synchronized with your calendar because the time spent in meetings is also time spent on a project.

Here are my few tips for saving time.

In summary:

  1. Use time-blocking to reserve time for your tasks
  2. Do not leave any task off your calendar
  3. Measure the time you spend on your projects to know where you are wasting time and better estimate your future tasks