PRODUCTIVITY HACKS — SOLUTION FOR EVERY PROBLEM

Never Get Overwhelmed At Work With This Proven Time Management Secret

A workday can have multiple meetings on different topics, strategizing, deep work, and handling dozens of emails. It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you are not careful

In 2019, Emma Keyes, a strategy consultant, was in a short-term assignment to work with a startup. Emma always thought she was very productive (and she was right). But the startup kept asking for way more than she could have imagined. Emma quickly realized that she’d have to work on investor pitches, financial analysis, marketing planning, and even product & operations development.

In just a handful of months, Emma completed most of her tasks with resounding success. She launched one of the most refined products, along with the marketing team, in 3 months. Her other works made the startup more efficient every day. Despite being overwhelmed, Emma was never late with any of her deliverables.

How did Emma handle so many different types of tasks?

Emma used a technique that is widely used by many productivity experts. It’s called Time Blocking. Time Blocking is a time management & scheduling format that sets aside certain blocks of time for groups of activities. It’s in a way similar to what Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey does, but on a smaller scale.

For example, Emma started her day by blocking 3 hours for investor & financial modeling-related activities, she then had an hour to take care of smaller tasks. After lunch, she focused on marketing for 2 hours and then product development.

I was once in a startup where the work was coming like rain. To tackle that, I blocked my calendar with fixed slots. The fixed slots allowed me to spend time on strategy, digital marketing, product development, sales calls, outdoor marketing management, team management, and even brainstorming. I remember that I could only allocate 2 hours per week to digital marketing. But as that was a very focused two hours dedicated for deep work, I could do a week's worth of work by setting up rules, automation, checking data, and creating campaigns. We could maintain a healthy ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) with this focused approach. The same happened for most of my other tasks. Despite getting overwhelmed, time blocking brought a method to the madness.

What makes this simple method so useful?

Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, and Ulrich Klocke showed in their study, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress”, that mental workload, stress, frustration, time pressure, and effort increase when we have to switch from one task to another.

“the average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, and, once distracted, a worker can take nearly a half-hour to resume the original task”

Multitasking is the killer of productivity and the mother of stress. Time Blocking is a multitasking blocker as well. It increases productivity, maintains the time spent and focus.

4 Steps to use it like a pro at work

Step 01: Start with a short slot for planning: You can start your day with a 15-minute slot to plan how you’d block times. It’s even better if you do it beforehand and make it a routine. E.g. Monday mornings are for team meetings. Monday afternoons are for client calls.

Step 02: Do the harder & important tasks fast: We are most productive in the first few hours of a day. We feel well-rested, fed (don’t skip breakfast!), and ready to start a new day. It’s better if you spend time on important tasks in the morning.

Step 03: Mix with other productivity techniques: There are many productivity techniques like the two-minute rule, POMODORO, Eisenhower Matrix, etc. that can help you become more efficient.

Step 04: Make sure you have time to take a break: Lastly, make sure you have time to take a break. Life is not a Tom Cruise movie so that you can keep on running. You should use your time blocking to keep time for a coffee, a small break, etc. The POMODORO technique might be a great tool to incorporate with time blocking.

To summarize

Time blocking makes sure you have control over your time. That paves way for better work and never missing deadlines. Even if you can’t control your whole week, you should start by booking a few hours every day for your work.

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