There's something so awesome about seeing a capable, intelligent woman calendar blocking her work week for her business while also wearing animal ears. We can be it all everyone
I may do another one of these videos or post on Insta what it looks like when I'm in a busy period! This week looks very different to a usual week because of the podcast transcript/shownotes and Patreon bookmarks!
I do calendar block...on paper! Day of or day before, I write out what I would like my day to look like and in the column next to it, I write the actual. This way I get a sense of why things did or did not get done, what actually happened. Etc etc.
Yes same, I tried to do it digitally for so long but I would just move it around all the time... When it's on paper I cannot move it around and if I REALLY don't manage to do something I can still transfer it somewhere. But I do it on a daily basis, I don't plan an entire week. I'd love to do that but it just never works for me.. (Also I planned it way too detail-oriented when I did it in a digital calendar. I'd have 10 min blocks and stuff... )
I started doing this more and more. I think the biggest way it helps me is that it keeps me realistic with how much time I actually have each day and what is a reasonable number of tasks that I can complete. I set aside time for taking a nap as I realized it was an inevitable part of my day.
Idea for paper people that I don't personally do but have seen others do - have a blank "timetable" and write tasks on small sticky notes that you can then move around!
I’ve done this for years and had no idea there was a name for it! Added bonus if you stick with if for a while is that if you ever need to know what you did on a random day 3 years ago, or figure out when exactly you did a particular task, you have a record of it!
This. Ive tried it before but I just got really angry with myself for never being able to stick to it because things came up or I ran out of time. Tempted to try again, but I know the same will happen. My work is just too random
I don't plan things hourly anymore cause like you I got frustrated. I just put things down for morning, afternoon or evening. It allows for a bit more breathing room.
Same. I split my day into 6 blocks: I split morning, afternoon, and evening into 2 blocks each and then block out a half hour to an hour for meals depending on what else is going on in the day like commuting, actual appointments, etc.
Yep, same, I way over planned throughout my teens and early twenties to give myself a sense of control and now I can’t plan this way or I’ll relapse back into my planning addiction... 😅
I love this. I have found that calendar blocking is one of the best ways to help me pace life with chronic illness - I can schedule in the tasks I have to for work but most importantly I schedule in my rest breaks (and different types) so that I don't overdo it on a day to day basis. I have found, like you, that I get way more done even in 20 scheduled minutes - and it often surprises me how much of the stuff I put off for ages can fit into those blocks of time!
I did calendar-block in my bujo for a while, when I was in uni! I used a double spread and marked out the hours from 7am to midnight (so I could mark waketime and bedtime), and I used a combination of sticky notes (sometimes transparent ones) and pencils, never writing anything in ink. As the week went by, I inked everything in *after* it had happened, so I had a record of how I *actually* spent my time, which was honestly more useful than planning in advance. I didn't know then that I have ADHD, which makes it make sense that actually *sticking* to the plan was nigh on impossible, but it did a lot in terms of teaching me how long things actually take me, which is something people with ADHD generally can't understand intuitively.
It's cool to see your week from your perspective because, as a viewer, I just know you make stuff. But more importantly, this video is a helpful demonstration of calendar blocking. Thanks for sharing!
So I decided to find a way to organise my time (since studying from home is so hard), just decided to write stuff in my diary and colour-coordinate it. Turns out I've been doing calendar blocking for months without realising it was a thing! Has really revolutionised my productivity
All right, you've got me. I've found myself being not so productive at work lately, so I'm going to give it a shot. Planning out my next two days as I am watching this video.
I'm very nosy and love productivity tips so I really enjoyed seeing you planning your week. Funny though that you say this isn't a very busy week but you are still working almost every day until 5 pm and then have events afterwards. D: For me a quiet week is when I can stop working around 4 pm and then just relax for the rest of the day. :D
I use a combination of a bullet journal and my Outlook calendar. Essentially I use the bullet journal for writing out my task list and then at the start of work day/week I slot those items into my work calendar. When they’re done they get checked off in the bullet journal but I have the flexibility to move the time slot around in outlook as needed.
I did my entire bachelor degree witj calender blocking. I was so overwhelmed by To-Do lists, that it was way easier to just work on one thing for an hour and then move to the next one. I work as a project manager now and I still use it for work 😊
I've tried all the calendar options... online, little notebook, wall ccalendar etc. it doesn't work. I don't look at it at all, maybe for 2 weeks and then I'm over my phase of wanting to organise my life. I don't have much going on in my life in general. Just writing my thesis and some weekly hobbies. So I don't feel I need a calendar but sometimes I get this urge to organise my work just to have little daily tasks that I can tick off to feel more empowered. Still doesn't work. This means my work style is highly eclectic. Sometimes I start writing thesis at 9, sometimes 11, sometimes 3 in the afternoon. I sometimes forget really important appointments.... I don't know why I'm writing this, no one really cares. But I'm just trying to say I can't seem to organise my life for the love of god.
I can totally relate! There are days wherein I seem to have a pattern or I seem to manage my time and then I go back to being a mess again then I get overwhelmed again with all my tasks and the cycle goes, again... :/
Well the only thing you really should do is write down those important appointmentes, use anything that will work for you. If you have a phone you use regularly use a digital calander and set an reminder for it (in google calander you can add multiple alarms in one appointment). Make it a habit with every appointment you make to say: let me put that in my calander first. I have those problems too which you are describing, but writing down those appointments is working for me.
Organizing and detailed planning like this isn't for everyone and that's okay! in your case maybe a simple to-do list would suffice, and just because you can't "organize" your life like a lot of people on the internet doesn't mean you can't achieve as much or more, some people really can't do well with detailed planners but can still do great things and have productive day and achieve success, do what's best suited for your need 🙌🙌
I do this with my Google Calendar and also color-code activities!! It's very very helpful in getting things down on paper/calendar so that the tasks don't occupy your brain and overwhelm mental space. Highly highly recommend. I do this in conjunction with handwritten daily to do lists and Todoist. Another option to consider is to put a duration of time next to to-do list items if you handwrite your to-dos!
Try it! I have a massive procrastination tendency but when i calendar block i get so much done in a day i constantly surprise myself 😊 and it makes leisure time feel much more enjoyable and i dont feel guilty because i know it's my designated free time
My job needs too much flexibility for this to work in my office life, but I'm going to try using it for my off-time. My perfectionism-procrastination has gotten so much worse since the pandemic started, so I've been trying to figure out how to make myself Do The Things (without much success so far).
yeah you could absolutely just put in a big block for "at work" and then calendar block your other time! especially useful if you have other responsibilities and hobbies outside of work!
The strict 'give it a timeslot' routine doesn't work for my work life as well. Instead, I use a loose method where I place tasks on specific days during the week - without the time slot but simply to force myself to do them that day. They're essentially deadlines for myself. Perhaps that method could work instead? :)
I’ve done this for years at work. It is amazing. The different colors gives you a quick visual of how the week looks like. 🤗 I also put in ”Lunch” with its own color, otherwise I forget it. 😉😅 My colleges find that very funny, ”WHO forgets about lunch?!”. 😂
I have to do timeblocking as well, to stay organized, but then as I'm doing things I also need to give myself freedom to ignore or reshuffle the planning, even reject stuff, or else the fixedness of my planning will just cause me to freeze and do none of it. Weirdly, by allowing for that, I easily get everything done on time.
I’d really love to see a video where you talk about strategies you use/the struggle with guilt when you have “slower weeks”... I am so sick of feeling bad about myself when I have a chill work week...
I did this once where I even blocked out chores and minute stuff as well, like clean room, grocery shopping, cook dinner, walk to the bus stop, take the bus, have a shower, read a book, do homework, break time from homework, etc lmao it was tedious but it WORKED
been doing my calendar like this for 8+ years, haven't thought that it's "a thing", it just came to me naturally that after all those years in school, where the timetable looks exactly like this it makes some sense to continue on arranging my duties in such a way, good to see Hannah sharing this with others, maybe this'll get some inspired and maybe help people to be more on time and be late less often
Something that totally changed how I do my calendar blocking is integrating my Google calendar with Todoist!! If you add blocks to the todoist calendar that you get after integration, it automatically creates a task in todoist for you! When you cross off the task in todoist, the block gets deleted from the Google calendar, which in my opinion is infinitely more satisfying than just crossing off the task in todoist (but I can see where some people might not like it, esp if you like seeing how much you've accomplished in a day) The only downsides imo are that when making a task using the calendar, you can't use hashtag to add something to a project the way you normally could, and adding the calendar blocks sets the task to have a deadline of when the calendar block starts - so the task is marked as overdue when you're in the process of working on it which is kind of a bummer. Idk if that makes sense but this might be worth looking into for anybody who already loves todoist that wants to try calendar blockinig!!
This video is like a game changer!! Like, i only heard crazy hustle culture junkies talking about calendar blocking, you instead really inspired me to try to do it for work
I like to think my productivity/organisation content is an anti-dote to hustle culture because I'm personally on a quest for balance and not being a workaholic so glad it inspired you!!
I import my todoist to my Google calendar and then use that as a get stuff done calendar. That way it also automatically synchronizes if I make changes to anything either from the calendar or directly in todoist
“Let me know if this video has maybe persuaded you to try it” Me letting this video play on my phone with my whole week planned out on my computer in front of me like 👁👁
i do a similar thing but in a more modified and easy way if having hour by hour things dont work so well for some of us: i keep a blank whiteboard on my wall with sunday-saturday on it, and just allocate the tasks by day so i can do them when i feel ready to. i cam move things around easier, and it still feels like an event that i have to attend. it works well for me because my anxiety around doing things at specific times is really bad, hope this helps someone too
This is a really interesting perspective! I usually use calendar blocking in my job when I know something urgent HAS to be done on that day - mainly to hold the time to stop people booking meetings in that time. I really like the idea of using it during less busy periods as that’s when I struggle most with focus/motivation- defo going to try this!! I do also have the daily lunch break reminder - again more to stop people booking back to back meetings in that time as otherwise I will get hangry 😂
I'm doing something similar but less detailed in my bullet journal: Every week I have a calendar for weekly events where I put down my classes and meetings outside of class and on the other side I have weekly tasks where I write down my tasks/homework for the week and put a dot for the day where I want to do the task (I have an allocated time in my day for school work and I usually only have one or two tasks per day so it works on this larger scale). I can then check the task off after I've done them or move them to the next day if I didn't do it or didn't complete it. It also helps me with visualising the deadline. It is definitely more effective for me than a simple to do list because it is more structured but also allows for flexibility. (I saw AmandaRachLee do this maybe it becomes more clear how it works in her videos)
I don't calendar block, but I am very intentional with routines and when I work and stop working. Last year was my first year at a boarding school and I decided that on Friday afternoons once I left the building where classes were, I was done doing homework for the day. If I had something I needed to do, I would do it there, but that was really nice to know that I had time to relax.
YES i literally started blocking out my calendar for the week this week & its helped SOOOO much. it just makes my brain rest when i dont have something planned and its AMAZING. def gonna keep doing it.
By the way, you mentioned in the beginning that you don't think this would work if you're using a bullet journal, but I think it totally can! You just have to make a page spread that looks like the blank week, and then use sticky notes for each task being put in! I'll probably try it out for a month instead of my current to-do list version of bullet journaling and see how it goes!
I've been off work almost a year now due to mental health and I am DREADING going back. I think this may be a solution to ease me back in, and I might try it on a personal basis to restructure my days and get back to functioning like a normal human being ^^'
I use modified calendar blocking with my paper calendar and if I need to change something I just write over it or put a post-it note on top with the new schedule
I always find calendar blocking really helpful! But with my job there’s definitely times where a more urgent task comes up out of nowhere and pushes my schedule back and I struggle with getting back on track 😣
I LOVED THIS! I found it so interesting. Would love to see another video about how you organise filming/scripting/researching your videos and how long a video is "in development". Definitely want to try calendar blocking now!
i’ve recently started using my online calendar because my classes this semester are taking up much more of my time (i used to just make daily schedules on paper when i had a particularly busy day/week ahead). it’s been very helpful, though it’s also made me realize that i just don’t have enough productive time in a week to get everything i need to done without sacrificing sleep/quality. but I love the idea of segregating events by calendar! mine is just a wall of blue, but there’s something so calming about the color coded tasks. also, the clack of your keyboard in the background of the video was so satisfying
I have done the calendar blocking in a BuJo and I’ll tell you how: Every page is one day and every line on a page corresponds to one waking hour, so you write the hour numbers vertically along the page and you add the tasks. If you want to get fancy, you can color the blocks, if not, it all boils down to giving one or two lines to your task. Hope this was clear!
I did this aggressively in college and it was so helpful, I have rarely felt busy enough to need it since, but now I kind of want to try it to help me organize my freelance work too!
I feel so validated, this is *exactly* how I manage my time! I also keep my Google calendar open in desktop (as well as my emails and student portal) as the leftmost tabs in my chrome window. I'm a full time student so I have an ical feed from my university timetable feeding into my Google calendar. At the start of each week (or term or whenever I have some dead time - I used to do it on the bus to campus) I manually copy each lecture into another calendar and change the colours so that it's colour coordinated for different modules, because you can't directly edit ical events, and then I hide the original calendar. The uni calendar also includes deadlines as hour long events that end at the deadline, which helps me factor in submission time. I then have daily recurring events for waking up/breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime/wind down, and weekly recurring events for things like dance classes, grocery shopping and laundry, plus obviously I add in any random one off events like meetings with my academic advisor or doctor's appointments. Then I can more clearly see what time I have left in which I can work on my assignments. Usually it is a wake up call as it tells me I have less time than I would have previously thought so I need to focus more and get stuff done. I love love love having my week visualised in this way, since I would otherwise really struggle with time management (I'm autistic and have adhd). My favourite thing I've discovered recently is using emojis before the event names as a shortcut for what they are related to (mostly because I ran out of calendar colours). I also do this for email folders and it works really well for me, as such a visual person.
I calendar block! I didn't realise that it was an official system with a name though so that's cool. I have a bunch of categories and colours: dark green for studying, light green for in person uni classes, yellow for lectures, purple for online events, dark blue for events, pink for outings (this has been a more recent distinction that I'm still not completely clear on), orange for medical appointments, brown for chores and everyday life and maroon for extracurricular planning and thinking. I don't use all of them all the time mostly the uni related ones and the outing/events are mostly in use but it helps me distinguish in my brain the different type of tasks and also where I should be/the type of mindset I should have for them. It also helps me feel more excited for them rather than having this feeling of dread at the constant stuff to do it's like 'no look at all this change and different things happening'. cool video!
Well, I do not use a bullet journal, but I do use a paper calendar. I use sticky flags, with permanent ink on them with various tasks on them. The flags are color coded also, so I am able to see what type of a task it is. Then I am able to move around the blocks if it is necessary.
I needed this! Yes, I have a color coordinated calendar. I pick a color scheme for every course I'm taking and then I use this system: Lilac: Standard, use for random shit like laundry time Purple: Social events, like a party, dinner or coffee at my grandma's Yellow: Work Red: Important shit, also for blood donations (because blood = red) *For uni I use this system:* Dark color: Important stuff where participation is required, like labs, seminars and exams. Medium color: Non-mandatory stuff that are not lectures, like computer labs. Light colors: Lectures and voluntary check ins with teachers. Because I use different color scheme for different courses it's easy to see where one course ends and another starts, also if courses overlap I can easily distinguish between the two. I don't have any system for what color I use for which courses, the important thing is that they have a contrasting color from the one before and after, but in my mind plant sciences and ecology are green and marine biology is blue.
I work in a small business tax & accounting office where it is just my boss and myself. I use this method to make sure my boss has time to get everything done throughout the day. The alerts are definitely the best part and only way I can get my boss to stay on task and not get distracted with the small stuff she doesnt really need to be doing herself. Shes a very particular person who has difficulty delegating even when she knows her time would be better spent on something else.
another benefit of this system is that you can plan stuff around your idea working times. for example, I get an energy crash in the afternoon around 3pm, so that's when I'd do lighter work like checking emails or doing some chores around the house.
I do the same, but I add my to dos as reminders on Google cal, that way it's all in one place and I can check it off. For instance before a meeting I can put a reminder/to do as "bring meeting notes" or smilliar. 😊 And check it off. If I don't complete it, it will automatically go to the next day on my calendar
Calendar blocking is my favorite method of keeping track of my time. As much as I've kept to-do lists and timers, blocking events on a calendar has made those tasks so much more important.
My team at work does it, so I've been doing it for a few years now. It's so nice to see everything mapped out. And my goodness do things look different at the end of the week! Instead of multiple calendars, we just have categories, for example: initial project stage, revisions, meetings, virtual call, training, client site visit, etc.
Just got google up to try this because I cannot get organized for the life of me with a notebook, no matter how much I love writing things down manually! Thanks for the really informative video Hannah
I have never been more impressed with someone's organisational skills than when I was sat at your desk with you and you had your google calendar open! Every time I need to get organised I'm like *channel Hannah channel hannah*. Calendar blocking has always been my go to when I'm busy busy so 10/10 recommend!
I started doing this last year, LIFE CHANGER!! Years ago, I tried to do bullet calendars, lol. (I also have aa bit of a disability, writing physically.). I am such a digital person, so it has really helped.
Thank you so much for this video. I tried calender blocking once when I was still in school and it worked so well, but i never did it again. I dont even know why... thanks for reminding me!! There is hope again!!
I do this in my bullet journal. I don't write things in with pen and color them until Sunday before the week starts, and if something minor needs to shift around as I'm working I don't really worry that's it's "wrong" on the calendar I just do them in the order I need to, and if I need to make a note I just write over it and draw arrows. I only had to figure out the format to draw a weekly calendar once and I now I just reference the one before and it takes me less than five minutes to draw in the lines and label everything. I like doing it this way because I can have my to do lists on the opposite page and everything is in one place.
rewatching this video as I am needing a new way to manage my time with a lot to do both at work and with my studies and want to get a better overview of how I manage my time at the moment and decided to use google calendar and then I remembered this video and it has been really helpful :) so thank you!
I had no idea this had a name! I've been a dedicated calendar blocker for about 7 years, it is the only way I can make myself be productive. So important to have that flexibility, but I always feel so reassured when I can start the week knowing I'll have time to get everything done that needs doing. And I enjoy the process of planning, so it's a win win :) Great video!
hey Hannah, yes I do calendar block in my bullet journal. Yes, I use colors. It works great. So I make a two page spread for the week that looks similar to what you have on your screen. I leave one extra column on one side for things I would like to do during the week but the day doesn't matter. I journal on the next page. So it is calendar blocking, flip the page to write notes. Because it is a bullet journal, I can switch to another method if I think the week will call for it (like we are on vacation - so that week I have no schedule, but I do have a list of restaurants, etc) I have also trying ten block method from Matt someone or other.That can work also if I don't have appointments but I want to get things done - I plan how much time during the week I want to spend on each project and then I fill in the blocks as I work the hours of time on the project. That is a good method when I am slower in my appointments. (My job is also has highs and lows)
I recently started calendar blocking at work... to stop managers overloading me with work. I share my calendar so they can see that I'm busy. I do business support so I have 8 email inboxes to monitor, meetings to attend, minutes to type, and various tasks to complete. My work is sent to me via multiple teams so it makes it a lot easier for them to see my availability before they ask me to complete a task at short notice. It also allows me to glance and see when I will be able to complete the task because every team claims to take priority so I operate a first come-first served system with recurring items taking priority unless there are exceptional circumstances. I work in one department of a large organisation so it is interesting seeing someone with a completely different work life using the same method for a different purpose.
Calendar blocking is the only reason why I was able to finish my final projects for college! It's a big lifesaver and I'm going to keep using it for as long as I can! I highly recommend it!
Really appreciate this, need all the help and motivation I can get! I always end up spreading my workload out across the day/week so I’m working nights and weekends when I know I could be condensing it if I were more organised. Think I will test this out for the month of July!
Just started calendar blocking and I love it! I didn't have such a big need for it before, but now that I have more things to do, calendar blocking is a BLESSING!
Just wanted to say I've tried calendar blocking before and found it so overwhelming, but after watching this it gave me a lot more clarity on how to set up my days and how to be flexible with it. it's literally changed my life!! Now I just need to learn how to wind down after I clock off at 5pm.
I use it for work, trying to get others to do the same so we can see who it busy at what times. I've got 5 colours Blue - personal Yellow - Task to process Green - meeting/video call Purle - Admin tasks Red - Priority do not move. It works for me
I have such a strict system for my to do list and I opened this video thinking it would be interesting to see but definitely wouldn’t work for me and now I’m planning to CHANGE EVERYTHING cause this is brilliant
I'm someone who really needs structure, and already figured out that using a digital calendar was best for me. I tried calendar blocking before, but couldn't really get used to it. This really motivated to give it another try!
I've been doing this at work for years. It's such a good system! I pair it with a to-do list as well. So it works like "XYZ Project" calendar block from 1-3 pm and then the overall to-do list will say specifically what I need to do to complete the entire project, but I'll put the specific things I need to get done during the blocked time in the calendar description. It's great for organization and a great way to track how long it takes to do certain tasks in retrospect.
my first thoughts on this were: "wow, look at that B, she doesn't have executive dysfunction, must be nice" but then I caught myself being so negative and envious that it was clear "hey, I probably want to be like her. Maybe I should give it a try and see how far I can go". So now I will try calender blocking this week! Thank you for a very nice and actually inspiring video! You're great and I'm sorry my brain was mean to you at first, you're awesome for providing transparency and content like this for free! Have a really great week!
Thank you for this, I'm totally going to try this. I've found working from home is wonderful, but I spend so much time procrastinating and putting stuff off, I'm actually doing MORE hours then I ever did at the office. This seems like the perfect solution! A to do list is great, but actually blocking out time for specific tasks makes so much sense!
I'm terrible at sticking to it but I love calendar blocking. I find it particularly helpful for helping my colleagues understand my workload and it makes them pause before they put a meeting in my calendar. It also helps me understand my workload because I'm terrible at saying no to projects and tasks but if I can visually see that I don't have any free time it forces me to be honest about my availability.
Okay, this is both great planning satisfaction and a great insight into the actual work of a RU-vidr. You make it sound very doable while also showing how much goes into what only appears as twenty minutes for us.
This helped so much! As a freelancer that used to work a 9 to 5 I always have a fear that I might be forgetting something, and def struggle with rest with no guilty. thanks!! 🥳
I'm definitely going to try this. As someone with depression my will power is recovering and I keep on procrastinating on very important stuff so I will absolutely try it. Thank you so much
Omg I started doing this last month (without having heard of it from anyone before). It's amazing how much more serious to take your own tasks and how much more you get done!
I have 5 different colored calendars on my Google Calendar. Purple- Personal Green- Appointments (therapy, doctors, etc) Yellow- School Red- RU-vid Blue- Writing Grey- Moon Phases
I currently use a system called Pomodoro to get stuff done and I honestly think that I could combine the two to be a bit more productive. I'm excited to see!
Color cordinated - HECK YA! As a busy working mom with 2 kids and 2 part-time jobs, it is a must! Unfortunately, my "before tasks" calendar looks like your calendar after you add tasks. But I still have hope and I still "schedule" the bigger tasks.
I'm a bullet journaler and my time blocking is a bit smaller scale using a weekly todo list and daily logs. I takes about 3 steps: 1. I make a weekly to do list on Monday morning (sometimes Sunday night). 2. I 'soft plan' the tasks accoss the week using the allister method, basically just assigning it to a day. 3. On the day itself, I make the daily log including writing out the hours and assign the tasks to the part of the day I want to do them and around my planned events. It works for me, and I can always move the exact day I'm going to do things if it turns out different. I have noticed that non priority things (especially when I don't soft plan them) often just get pushed to the next week for a long time though.
I find it very hard to follow Todo lists but calendar blocking has really helped me do even normal daily tasks I would previously struggle with. I printed out a blank daily calendar, undated, laminated it and use whiteboard markers to help me focus so I don't get overwhelmed
I didn’t realize this was called calendar-blocking, but I do a similar process on my phone calendar to keep me organized for the upcoming weeks. I am currently unemployed so mine is centred around going for a walk, cleaning the cat litter, remembering to floss, chores, etc. Even though I don’t assign specific times to tasks, having them in my calendar and then deleting them when they are finished is very soothing and helps me build better habits.
I do this to! It is fascinating to watch other people’s methods. My calendar categories are similar but a little different: work tasks, work events, personal tasks, personal events, and fitness. This lets me isolate events quickly from tasks with a few clicks on check boxes. I also leave Fridays a bit more open! I like having a recurring ‘calendar blocking’ event on Friday mornings so I can get any last min things blocked in and start the next week running.
