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Productivity, Wellness

March 22, 2019

Get more done & stop procrastinating with calendar blocking

Wellness

One of the biggest motivators for me, in my business is a busy calendar! I know this may stress and overwhelm some people, but hear me out.

 

There is nothing I love more than organisation, okay, well maybe there is but when it comes to business and projects, organisation is where I really shine. Now, I have always been a dedicated pen and paper planning kinda girl but I have lately been having an organisation affair with digital planning.

Yes, the truth hurts.

I have almost said goodbye to my trusty planner which has sat lonely on my desk for weeks.

So why did I try digital planning, you may ask.

 

Well lovely, because I am a total sucker for colour coding, which is a lot easier to do digitally.

But with all seriousness, (although I am not joking) there are a lot of perks with digital planning:

  1. Elevate your organisation with colour coding

  2. Easier to manage and amend when plans change

  3. Accessible on multiple devices

  4. Sync up with documents, contacts, online events, calls etc.

  5. Saves more physical space

  6. Saves time and money

 

I thought that I might as well give it a try and I was not disappointed.

In case you were wondering, I use Google Calendar although I have also previously tried, the iPhone calendar, Asana, Trello and Evernote but they haven’t really worked for me.

I have tried using Google Calendar before but what was a total game changer for me in the digital planning and productivity field was calendar blocking. Now if you are unsure of the concept, let me explain,
Calendar blocking is an organisational tool in which you schedule your to-do list against your calendar. This not only helps you keep focused and on task, but it can also boost your productivity.

I think calendar blocking will revolutionise the way you work, no matter at what stage your business is currently at.

When starting your business or running your well established business, it is no surprise that there is a lot of things to do and being able to calendar block will help you feel more in control of your workload and get more done.

However, I cannot stress enough how important calendar blocking is for those who are currently working on their business rather than working for their business.

What I mean by that, is working on your business is doing those things that will help build your business whereas working for your business is you being hired to do the work that your company does and that generates an income.

 

 

When working on your business, it can definitely feel a little disheartening when you’re sat at your desk with no client work filling your schedule. But calendar blocking will relieve you of your empty calendar blues and encourage you to jump out of your bed every morning because you have a genuine reason to.

 

 

I know how easy it is when you work from home and are your own boss to continue hitting the snooze button on your alarm or heck, not even having an alarm just because you can!
I understand how easy it is to get lost and distracted scrolling Insta and falling into a YouTube rabbit hole.
It is so easy to start work later than you wanted to because there is no pressure and you say to yourself that you’ll just make up the time tomorrow.

 

Trust me, I know all of the habits, because I have been there.

 

When no clients are calling your phone, or filling your inbox you almost lose a little sense of purpose and motivation.

I’ll focus on that another day, or I’ll do that when I have more income or more followers, you say.

The time is now, to start that project you have been thinking about, or to go out of your comfort zone and call a prospect client.

 

 

Calendar blocking will help you stay focused on the goals that you want to achieve and by having these action steps scheduled will guarantee that you feel a sense of purpose every day and will get you to where you want to be.

What do you need to include in your calendar?

 

Everything, both personal and professional. (Just make sure all of your personal events are set on private!)

This is where the colour coding makes a handy appearance.
 
The things to include are:

  1. Wake up time

  2. Morning rituals (things that need to get done in the morning)

  3. Time you start working

  4. Any commutes

  5. Meetings/Events/Calls etc.

  6. Project/task schedule

  7. Breaks

  8. Time you stop working

  9. Personal activities (socialising, chores, exercise, etc.)

  10. Appointments

  11. When you plan to go to sleep

I also love to create separate folders for each category, colour coded obviously.
(ie to-do’s that have to get done at some point, out of office/meetings, self-care, things that I have do now)

 

 

This not only looks really appealing and satisfies me to no end but it also helps you to recognise the type of tasks that you are focusing on for the day and how much time you are spending on certain tasks.

 

 

This helps battle procrastination as you now know exactly how you should be spending your time instead of mindlessly scrolling Instagram for an hour. Also, you can now start to dedicate specific times to relax, spend time doing the things that you value and to practice a self care routine which is super important for building your business.

 

I spoke about this a lot in my previous blog post:

Laptop with Burnout blog & text

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why not give calendar blocking a try and see how you feel? Let us know in the comments!

 
I literally started this a week ago and since then have been jumping out of bed, feeling more excited for the day, more motivated and focused and have had a super productive week!
 

All I could think was, why have I not done this sooner?

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Ashlea Zietz

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