Time blocking is the act of blocking out solid times on your schedule to plan everything in advance from exercise to meeting availability. The purpose is to make your schedule more efficient and to stop you from being distracted by every diversion in your day. The nature of my business affords a lot of distraction, some of it self-induced.
I’ve practiced time blocking in the past and have found it to work… until a business emergency or a vacation derails me. It feels like I’m constantly rescheduling… which easily becomes another time suck.
I’ve begrudgingly begun blocking again to protect the time I am working ON my business instead of IN my business. My heart wasn’t in it until I read Jeffrey Koltoff’s guest post on One Hour Bookkeeper. Instead of time blocking the entire schedule, he recommends committing to “islands of time” where you set aside a predetermined number of hours on one or more days to accomplish tasks important to your company’s success. He suggests turning off phones and working ON your business.
Perhaps it’s the vagabond in me, but this terminology and perceived schedule freedom appeals to me greatly.
Are you setting aside time to work ON your business?
