Are you struggling to meet deadlines?

How do you plan your days when you have about a gazillion to-dos going on?

I got your back, girl. 

In this post, I’ll share with you one of my favorite productivity and time management hacks ever.

It’s one of the best ways you can properly up-level your productivity game, especially if you’re blogging on top of having a full-time gig. 

So, get out your Google Calendar and let’s get started. 

 

 

Related Reads:

• How To Plan Your Day & Stick To It – Like A True Girlboss
• How To Be More Productive In Life: 14 Brilliant Tips
• How To Start A Blog For Beginners

 

 

 

 

What Is Time Blocking?

If you’re into productivity, like me, you’ve probably heard the terms “calendar blocking”, “time blocking” or even “time batching” been thrown around. 

To make things simple for ya, all of these terms pretty much mean the same thing. 

What it all comes down to is you batch and arrange your tasks in a structured way throughout your week.

You do certain themed tasks for a certain period of time – for example, a block of one hour.

You basically block out time to complete specific tasks. 

I’ll be sharing some sweet screenshots with you very soon, so you can see what this looks like in practice. 

 

 

Why You Should Start Time Blocking

With time blocking comes focus, fewer distractions and you’ll completely avoid multitasking.

Multitasking is the enemy of productivity. 

You lose a lot of productive energy when you switch from one task to another.

With time blocking, you completely avoid this scenario. 

You’ll stop reacting to everything around you and instead become proactive when it comes to managing your time. 

Time blocking adds constraints into your life by eliminating everything else so you can be more intentional and clear about the results you want to produce.

It also makes it so much easier to plan your week more efficiently. 

You know what to do and exactly when to do it. 

When I first introduced time blocking into my crazy, side-hustling, and busy life – everything changed.

Suddenly, I was producing way more than before, and in less time. 

Yup, time blocking will do that to you. ✨

You have been warned. 

 

 

Before We Start

Before you get your groove on with time blocking, we have to cover some basic ground first. 

 

 

Turn Your To-Do Lists Into a Results Lists

First, we need to turn your to-list into a results list.

Focus on the results you want to produce this week instead of the actual activity. 

Don’t just put down “work on blog,” but instead be very specific about what you want to produce and the results you expect to get from this activity. 

• Activity example: work on blog
• Result example: write a blog post about anxiety (if you can be even more specific and pin down the title of your new blog post that would be even better)

And, we’re going for the result example – always. 

Transform all of your to-do activities and tasks into results. 

 

Batch Related Results

Next up, batch similar and related results under the same themed umbrella. 

Think about your life as it is now and the results you want to produce. 

Then, categorize these results under a specific theme. 

For example, all content-related tasks like writing a new blog post, Instagram captions, email drafts and so on would go under the content creation tab. 

Other examples of categories could be: 

• House maintenance
• School
• Family time and kids
• Errands
• Meals
• Quality time

Yes, I even recommend scheduling your downtime on your calendar so you can properly enjoy this time and not feel like there is something else you should be doing. 

 

Use Google Calendar

You can use any calendar you prefer, but if I were to recommend a calendar for time blocking it would definitely be Google Calendar. 

You can even color-code the different time blocks and make it look really pretty. ????

If you don’t yet have a Google account, you can easily sign up here. 

 

 

How To Time Block

We’re getting into the good stuff, guys. 

Below, I will go through the step by step process I use for blocking my time for better time management and productivity as a side-hustler.

This is how you become a true queen at productivity, so pay attention. ✔️

 

 

Start Off Fresh

First, I start out with a fresh and clean week.

I am ready to roll and have a fresh perspective on my available time. 

 

 

Batch My Results List

At this point, I have already done the prep work and categorized my results lists into themes like above, and I know exactly how much time I will allow for the different themes. 

 

 

Morning Routine

The very first thing I add to my calendar is my morning routine. 

I start each day of the week by adding a time slot for when I want to wake up, which is usually around 5:30 AM.

As I work full-time in addition to my online business, I try to keep my morning routine of journaling, stretching and sometimes meditating to the minimum. 

 

 

Add The Must-Do’s

I then add the must-do’s, like my 9-5 and I set it to repeat every weekday from Monday to Friday. 

You can easily set any task or appointment to repeat in Google Calendar by hitting the “More Options” button. 

 

 

Add The Morning Time Blocks

I do different blog-related tasks on different days.

• Mondays and Thursdays are my content creation days, where I focus on writing blog posts, emails, captions, and all that jazz. 
• Tuesdays are my CEO days, where I do CEO related tasks – for example setting goals and strategies for my biz. 
• Wednesdays I go all-in on email marketing.
• Fridays are reserved for general blogging tasks, so this could be anything from catching up on a content piece, creating new pins or anything else that needs my attention. In other words, my buffer time to catch up. 

 

 

Evening Routine

I make sure to schedule downtime in the evenings and I alter between batching my admin tasks and taking passive action.

• Admin tasks = answering emails, general website maintenance, and updates.
• Passive action = taking online courses, listening to podcasts, audiobooks, watching inspiring YouTube videos or hanging out on Pinterest. 

 

 

Blogging With A Full-Time Job Calendar Full Week Example

This is an example of my whole week as a side hustler, including the weekends.

Keep in mind that I don’t have kids (yet) and I do prioritize my online business over a lot of things (like weekend brunches).

My weeks don’t always look like this, some days I’ll have events, birthdays and other exciting stuff going on. 

If you’re a blogger who works full time and struggling to manage your time, this is for you to take away inspiration from. ????????

 

 

 

Doing What’s On Your Calendar

Time blocking is all good and great, but it requires something from you in return.

You have to actually do what’s on your calendar in the time frame you have allotted. 

Show up for yourself and honor your own commitment.

This is how you will have amazing results. 

You got this, dreamer. ✨

 

 

Before You Go

Now, if time blocking doesn’t help with finding your flow again, I don’t know what will.

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this post and that it was useful to you.

Off you go on your new time-blocking adventures.