Do you ever wonder why putting things in your diary just doesn’t work for you, even though it seems to work for everyone else? You’re not broken, and you’re definitely not alone. In this week’s episode, we’re talking about why traditional time blocking doesn’t suit everyone, and how you can still protect time for what matters without feeling boxed in by your calendar.

Find out more about the Four Tendencies in this episode of Unfrazzle

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Welcome to Unfrazzle.

I'm your host, Louise Miller, and one of the ways in which I'm creating space to enjoy my summer is by having a break from recording new podcast episodes for a while.

Instead, I'm doing an Unfrazzle Summer Rewind, sharing some of my favourite episodes from the last year.

So if you're hearing them for the first time, I hope you find them helpful.

And if you've heard them before, perhaps you'll take something different from them the second time around.

So have an amazing summer and I'll be back in your ears with new episodes soon.

Foreign We've all met them, haven't we?

Those magical unicorns who are somehow able to decide something is important, put that thing in their diary, and then actually do the thing at the time they said they would.

Mind boggling, isn't it?

It doesn't work for me, and it doesn't work for most of the people that I support, probably because the people who are able to work that way are far less likely to need help from a productivity mentor.

But as a quick aside, the people who can do that, who can put something in their diary and then always get it done, are what's known as upholders in Gretchen Rubin's four Tendencies framework.

And according to her research, those are the smallest group out of the four groups she identified.

So I'm not going to talk more about the four tendencies right now.

I've already done an episode on that, so have a listen to episode 105.

If you're curious to learn more about the four tendencies, I'll pop a link to that in the show notes.

But what I want to talk about today is what do you do if you're one of the majority for whom putting things in your diary doesn't work?

Unless, of course, it's a client call or a workshop or something where you actually have to show up somewhere at a certain time.

So the purpose of using your diary to tell you what to work on when, really, is just to make sure that you're protecting time for the important things.

So let's think about some other ways of doing that that don't require you to be some sort of productivity robot.

So for me, all of this is just about taking a bit of time at the start of the week to decide what's important, with my calendar in front of me so that I can make sure I'm being realistic with the expectations I'm setting myself.

So the big advice I can give you that I want to share with you today, that actually I believe applies to everyone, regardless of how you work best, is to mentally prepare for your week by making sure that A, you know what you want and need to get done, and B, you have the capacity to actually do those things.

So that can be as simple as looking at your calendar and your list of tasks every morning or every evening if you prefer, and choosing what gets your focus and then what you do from there is up to you.

So whether you physically put things in your diary is up to you.

As long as you've got a sense of where the spaces are and you have clarity about what you need to get done in those spaces, you are all good.

So in Make It Happen Club, I guide people to look at what's on their plate, what they're aiming to achieve this quarter, and what capacity they have available to make that happen, so that they can align what's important and the tasks they need to be doing with the space they have available.

And some of those things will end up in their diary as a reminder to protect space.

Others will stay on the plan that they're encouraged to revisit at least once a week.

And if you're curious about that, about Make It Happen Club, I'll pop a link in the show notes so you can find out more.

But if you feel it would be helpful to use your calendar to protect time for some of the things you need to get done, I'm going to suggest a couple of ideas that might help.

So sit with them, see how they land, get creative, and over time, I know that you'll figure out what works for you.

So what if, for example, you chose to use your calendar to protect time for certain tasks?

Not for everything, but some of the things that you want to dedicate some time to.

But you let go of the idea that you have to do that thing at the time you allotted.

So could you put things in your diary knowing that it's perfectly okay to move them around and that doing so doesn't mean you lack discipline or have failed?

All it means is that you've allowed yourself to be flexible based on what's going on for you in the moment, and that by doing that, you're actually learning about what works for you and what doesn't.

So if you're the sort of person who doesn't like being told what to do by your diary, you could block out chunks of time so that people can't book in calls with you, but not actually decide in advance what you're going to do with that time.

You could leave it open so that you then get to choose what to do with that time.

But that time is there, protected for you with the things that matter most.

For now, what I want you to remember is that there is nothing wrong with you if putting things in your diary doesn't work.

All you need to do is to make sure you're protecting time and space for the activities that need to happen to keep you making progress and what that looks like is going to be different for everybody and you get to choose.

So I hope that some of the ideas I've shared today help and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who needs a dose of calm productivity in their life and and I'd love it if you could leave me a rating and a review as that will help more people discover this podcast.

If you'd like to hear more from me to help you stop faffing and take back control of your time, you'll find a link to join my mailing list in the show notes and I would really love for you to join us.

So thanks so much for your support and I look forward to seeing you next time.