With everything having a name now, the term time blocking may sound complicated and daunting, but you may do it without even realizing it! Essentially, time blocking is planning out and delegating your daily tasks to certain hours or time frames of the day. The most common way to approach time blocking is by sitting down at the start of every week and writing down your full plans for each day on a calendar or planner. I have found some success in using this method, but with the ever-changing nature of college, I think it’s easier to do it at the beginning of my day or the day before. However, some people find it easier to stay on track by planning out their full week, so I believe it should be assessed on individual preferences.
Time blocking has worked for me because my biggest asset and weakness as a person is my big-picture mentality. I find myself to be good at staying motivated and working toward my long-term goals, but my short-term goals tend to be difficult to carry out. Because of this, I looked for a way to keep myself on track. I actually started time-blocking during my first semester of college without even realizing it. With all of my newfound free time outside of classes, I found it easiest to get my workload for the day out of the way in one or two long sittings, usually taking place at a coffee shop.
I chalked my spurts of homework up to be a part of a new routine that comes with adapting to a new environment, but I discovered that many others find time blocking to be a useful tool as well. Time blocking has proven very effective for me because I’m satisfied with being in a set routine during the weekdays when I need to get high-priority work done. Although I’m not the biggest type A person, I do better and achieve more of my tasks with a structured schedule rather than an intuitive one.
In terms of how time blocking has enhanced my productivity, the obvious answer is my academics. Since starting, I’ve been able to comfortably get my high volume of coursework done every day. I’ll acknowledge, I have the occasional days (and we’ve all been there) where my work has kept me up late into the night. However, time blocking has certainly prevented it from happening many times, especially during midterms and finals.
For me, the key to prioritizing my mental health is having a relaxing and stress-free night that I can spend however I like. Time blocking has become essential to my routine. By doing so, I’m able to focus on doing my skincare, reading before bed, calling my friends, watching some Netflix or taking a long shower without a stress inducer hanging over my head.
Another aspect of my life that I’ve been currently focusing on improving is my health, specifically by getting into a routine of exercising regularly. Although I highly value my health and maintaining good habits, I find it difficult to fit the gym into my routine. Additionally, I tend to have a hard time finding the motivation to go. With time blocking, I have enough free time in the earlier part of my day to account for going to the gym.
Ironically, I usually avoid time blocking for the gym because I don’t want to force myself to go when I don’t feel up for it, whatever that reason may be. I think this is important, especially because forcing myself to go to the gym creates an unhealthy mental relationship between me and exercising, which is the last thing I want to do.
However, by time blocking my extracurricular commitments and academics, I’m able to allot enough time in the day to go whenever I deem it best for a given day. Because of this, I’ve been able to create a healthier dynamic for myself to exercise, whereas before I would force myself to go during the only available time I had.
My experience with time blocking has enhanced my work week considerably so that I’m able to focus on every facet of my life, not just focusing 90 percent of my time on academics or extracurriculars. By having a healthy work-life balance, I’ve noticed a difference in my mental outlook and satisfaction with my goals, as do my friends who have also successfully implemented it. Although it may not work for everyone, I certainly never expected anything to transform my productivity as much as time blocking did!
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