You may have probably heard the term time blocking. Time blocking for a women with ADHD can be one of the best time management tips that I can give you. Most women with ADHD don’t know how to start time blocking because it seems so complex. It is the best way to schedule your day. In this article I will cover the definition, benefits, struggles, examples, success tips, and how to start time blocking.
What Is Time Blocking – Time blocking is a time management system to organize your day into smaller steps.
What Are The Benefits of Time Blocking?
-It helps you break tasks down into smaller steps- This helps you not get overwhelmed when doing big projects. You just write out your entire to-do list for the project line by line and schedule a little bit at a time. Just complete the items on your time block and over time you will complete your project.
-When you put your to-do list on the calendar, you know the thing will get done. You don’t have to worry about forgetting to do it.
-It helps you kick your perfectionism and procrastination out the door. You know you only have an hour to do XYZ and you can’t spend endless amounts of time revising and tweaking it. You also know you have planned out your whole day and you can’t procrastinate.
-It makes it easier to say no to people. When you create your schedule, you know if you can fit other things in or not. Your schedule says no for you.
-You have to learn to plan realistically. If you know you have a one-hour time block, you know you can’t schedule to clean your whole house if that normally takes you two hours. You can schedule to do half of it though because you do have time to do that.
-It helps you be more efficient because you can focus on the task at hand.
-It helps you prioritize because you schedule them first. If someone or something wants on your calendar, you know you have to say no to something that is already on the calendar. Is the thing you are trying to add worth that or not?
-It help you become more productive. You can do higher quality work because you can focus on the task at hand during your assigned time block.
-It helps you to get out of reactive mode. Planning helps you not miss appointments, it helps you go after your dreams, it helps you be proactive and get a lot of stuff done and accomplish your dreams.
How to Start Time Blocking
Do A Brain Dump – Brain dump everything onto a piece of paper. Get everything out of your head. Get your to-do lists if you have any and write them down too. When you think you are done, ask yourself “Is that all?” and see if you can figure out anything else. This should include any appointments, to-do list items, sticky notes all over the place, priorities, goals, etc. Put down everything even items you know you have to do like balance checkbook, laundry, cook dinner, etc. Think of all of the hats you wear and write out every single thing you need to do for that role. Examples of roles/hats: household, administrative, finances, work, family, health, church, etc. (Read more about how to do a brain dump check out https://www.neverdefeatedcoaching.net/the-power-of-a-brain-dump-how-to-untangle-your-adhd-mind/)
Group Similar Tasks Together– Group all of the like tasks together. For example, if you have to make several phone calls to different people you can group them together as calls to make. You don’t have to rewrite this list. Just get out a highlighter for each of your roles and highlight them. This will help in a later step too.
Schedule Your Top Priority Tasks First– The high priority items always go onto the schedule first. These are the items like dr appointments, chores, or other tasks that has a deadline to them. Goals fit into this category too. If you made a goal to not to eat sweets on certain days because you are trying to lose weight, write that down. By always scheduling your high priority items, it ensures that they will get done and you don’t have to worry about them falling to the wayside. These items will ALWAYS get done because you will make a point to schedule them FIRST.
Schedule Blocks Of Time For Your Lower Priority Tasks-Now it is time to schedule the lower priority tasks. These are the tasks that don’t have deadlines nor are these the tasks that have to be done in the next two weeks. For example, fixing a bike tire (unless that is your form of transportation), or to going onto e-bay to see how much guinea pigs are selling for.
Evaluate– Evaluating the most important step. This will ensure your success with the time blocking system. Before the next week of planning, just take a minute and ask yourself, what worked and what didn’t work. If you don’t do this step, you will not be able to improve and keep getting better at time blocking. You have to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Note: This is not to judge yourself, self-sabotage, or let your perfectionism get in the way. This is just for informational purposes only.
For example: Maybe you schedule a task where you needed a lot of concentration right after lunch and you always come back from lunch sleepy. Not a good time for a task like that. Now you know you do not need to schedule a task like that right after lunch. Maybe you need to schedule it right when you get to work first thing when you are fresh.
When you evaluate, treat yourself with kindness and compassion. Never judge yourself.
Examples of Time Blocking Schedules:
This is a loose example of time blocking for part of the day.
5:30-8:00 Morning Time Block
Get up and get ready for the day
Get kids ready for the day
Eat breakfast and clean-up
Drop kids off at daycare
8:00-11:00 Work Block
Answer emails
Write proposals for new clients
Get things ready for monthly promotions
Attend team meeting
Cold call customers
Plan out week
These are just examples of blocks. Your blocks can be shorter or longer depending on how you want to set them up.