I was introduced years ago to a technique that changed my life. It is called Time Blocking.
You are probably familiar with it in some form but are you actually doing it?
Most people think that to be productive you have to multitask but that just isn’t the case. It makes you LESS productive! Who would have thought?!
When I started to time block, I was able to complete my projects, have more time with my family and friends and even include the amount of work I could take on.
Here is how it’s done…
Look at your calendar and block off times for your projects. When do you want to open your calendar for people to schedule calls? When do you need to block time for client projects? When do you want to block time for your own business tasks?
By setting aside time in this way you will always know when you are working on particular things or when you are open to talk to people.
Be sure to update your online calendar scheduler if you have one too and show your available times that you have chosen.
And you can take it one step further as well. Each night, look at your schedule for the next day and block off in those time blocks the projects you are going to do and the times you are going to do them. Then you have your day planned out and can rest easy knowing you have a plan in place and will be productive and efficient the next day.
Try it out and see what you think. I think you will be surprised at how focused you are and how much more you get done when you are not jumping from one task to the next and back to the first. You will spend less time getting back into the flow and more time getting things checked off and completed.