Have you tried time blocking to help you be more productive? Me too. And no matter what I tried, it didn't work. My calendar would tell me what to do, and I'd completely ignore it. If that's your experience too, listen to this week's episode where I share what's working for me instead. Not so you can copy what I do, but to inspire you to let go of the struggle to make time blocking work, and find what works for you.

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Welcome to Unfrazzle, a podcast for solo business owners with a big vision who are ready for a kinder, more sustainable approach to productivity.

I'm Louise Miller and each week I share bite size insights to help you step away from the hustle, stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world.

And before we dive into today's episode, if you enjoy what I'm sharing here on Unfrazzle and you'd like to support the podcast, you can buy me a cuppa by going to buymeacoffee.com louisemiller and making a one off donation.

I'll pop a link to that in the show notes.

Okay, grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started.

I knew I wanted to talk about time blocking in this week's episode, but I wasn't quite sure where to start.

So I asked Claude to give me a quick overview and here's what it came back with.

Time blocking is a time management method where you divide your day into dedicated slots for specific tasks or types of work.

Instead of working from a to do list, you plan in advance what gets your attention and when, so the work itself ends up on your calendar with a real time slot alongside your meetings.

The idea is to trade reactive in the moment decisions for a plan made in advance.

There are a few common variations rather than one single correct way to do it.

Day theming.

So assigning a theme to each day of the week, task batching, grouping similar small tasks into one block, and energy management scheduling demanding tasks for your highest energy hours.

So that's what Claude came back with when I asked him to tell me about time blocking.

So first of all, have you tried any of those methods to help you get stuff done and have they worked for you?

Now, like accountability, time blocking is often presented as the solution that will help you stay focused and make sure the right things get done.

But also, like accountability, it doesn't work for everyone.

And I wanted to talk about this today because when I hosted my roundtable back in the summer, I got the sense that people were hoping that once they'd sorted out how to structure their week, all of their problems would be solved and that they're holding out for a fixed rhythm that is going to make everything suddenly fall into place.

And I understand that because for the longest time that's what I was hunting for as well.

So I have tried every version of time blocking you can imagine.

I would create a new Google Calendar and block out chunks of time that I thought would help me get things done.

And I had that sitting alongside my calendar with all of my meetings and stuff in it, and I tried it with different activities that needed to happen in my business.

So when I was going to write my email to my list, when I was going to do client work, when I was going to do admin, all of that kind of stuff.

And then when that didn't work, I got very interested in archetypes and I tried to block out my time using those.

And in theory, that made a lot of sense to me, right?

I'd figured out what sort of tasks fit into each archetype.

So this was a long time ago, so my memory might be a bit off here, but I do remember that I was working with like a queen archetype, a warrior, a sorcerer, there were a few others, I can't remember what they are right now, but I had figured out which tasks fit the energy of each of those archetypes and then blocked time in my diary where I would step in to each of those archetypes, right?

And that made a lot of sense at the time because it is true that doing tasks that require a similar energy together is more efficient because you're not switching from one type of work, one type of thinking to another.

So, for example, the energy that I need to record this podcast is very different to the energy that I need to schedule emails.

So it makes sense not to bounce back and forth between the two, to batch those things together in this kind of energy management that Claude mentioned earlier.

So energy blocking in that way makes sense on paper, but for me, it didn't stick in reality.

And in fact, none of the things that I tried stuck, at least not when I was over engineering everything to within an inch of its life.

So I can see now, looking back on it, that I really just wanted to feel in control of my time.

And I truly believed that imposing, like a rigid structure would give me that, that it would cut out the in the moment decision making that we all have to contend with, because I'd already decided what I was going to be doing ahead of time.

But actually, when I stopped to think about it, imposing that sort of structure actually gave me less control.

And when I didn't do what past me had decided I was going to do, I felt really rubbish.

So I spent a few years trying to figure it out, experimenting with all these different ways to do time blocking before I gave up seeing that as my way into being more productive.

So when I look at how I structure my week now, I Guess you could say that I use a form of time blocking, but I don't look at it that way because it is way less rigid and it is much, much lighter touch.

So here's what's been working for me over the last few years now.

On Mondays and Fridays, I completely block out my calendar so that nobody can book calls with me.

And I protect those days so that I have plenty of time to work on whatever is most important for the growth of my business.

So that's one thing.

I've also set things up so that my client calls always happen in the mornings because I know that's when I'm at my best.

I've structured the calls in Make It Happen Club to make sure that I'm not delivering every week of the month, so, so that I am able to take time off easily.

And I block out an hour every afternoon to rest because I tend to lose my mojo at around 3:00'.

Clock.

And then I get my second wind after I've had a cuppa and an episode of something fun on the tv.

And everything else that I'm doing falls in around those key things.

My Mondays and Fridays are free.

My one to one client calls always happen in the morning.

Make It Happen club is structured so I'm not delivering every week and I have an hour every afternoon to rest.

And the great thing about this, and what makes this work for me when your more typical time blocking didn't, is that it is incredibly simple and it can flex depending on what's going on.

So for example, over the summer I gave myself permission to take the afternoons off.

That doesn't mean I took every afternoon off, but because I'd set that intention, it did mean that I was able to take naps, hide from the heat, or do something fun whenever the mood struck and my rhythm allowed me to do that.

And right now, you know, things are ramping up again for me now.

So I've given myself permission to work during the weekends if I choose to.

That's not normal for me and I know that being happy to do that every now and then, just until the summit that I'm running in November is finished, that will take the pressure off and it will allow the next few months to feel a little bit more spacious for me.

And I know that might sound counterintuitive that working at a weekend is going to feel more spacious, but if working on a Saturday morning means that I'm not running around like a headless chicken all week trying to cram everything in, then that feels good.

To me.

That works for me.

So I'm sharing this with you not because I want you to do what I do.

If you've been here a while, you will know that I am very much against telling people what to do because you are not me.

And what works for me will not necessarily work for you.

So I'm sharing this to inspire you, to tell you that it's okay if you've tried time blocking and it didn't work.

It's not you.

It's because you're trying to force yourself into a rigid way of being that doesn't allow for your brain, your humanness, your shifting energy levels, your shifting priorities, and all of the other things that are going on in your life.

So if you have been holding on to the hope that all you need to do is find the perfect rhythm or structure for your days and then everything will be fixed, consider this gentle encouragement just to ease off a little bit.

Go back to basics.

These things don't need to be over complicated and over engineered.

Sometimes just knowing your non negotiables and then working around those things can be enough.

So as always, I hope that this helps and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend who needs a dose of calm productivity in their life.

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So thank you so much for being here and I look forward to seeing you next time.