It’s September. If you are a mom this means that your kids are going back to school, or they may have just gone back to school last month. “Going” back to school can mean virtually or physically in a school; either way with all the changes 2020 has brought us, things can be a little chaotic. If you are like me you don’t even know what day of the week it is anymore.

This is why time-blocking is so crucial now more than ever. Time-blocking gives you a way to account for every moment of your day. It’s great for discovering where your time went and gives you the chance to reflect on how to get it to go the direction you would like it to go. 

Time gets the best of all of us sometimes, pulling us away from even our best intentions both in our personal lives and businesses. I have found one of the best ways to ensure my productivity is at its peak, it is to time-block my calendar. So how do I time block? 

• To get started time-blocking your calendar, you will need a basic understanding of what is coming up on your schedule. You may want to plan out a whole month or stick with a week’s worth of planning depending on what is easier for you. I like to plan weekly and work on my calendar every Sunday, so the upcoming week is fresh in my mind. 
• Grab your planner or a blank time calendar template. (Need one? Grab yours here) 
• First start with filling in anything with a scheduled time. Appointments, meetings, etc. Have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday at 2:30? Add it on the calendar.
• Next, block off your work schedule. No matter if you work in or out of the home, this needs to be part of your plan.
• Do you have a certain time you go to the gym, cook dinner, or pick up kids from school? This is also part of your routine, so it needs to be added.
• At this point, you likely still have some white space. Now you can start to fill in the white spaces with things you would like to accomplish for the week. Want to find time to read a book? Where can you fit it in? It’s also okay and perfectly fine to just leave the white spaces empty. Sometimes we just need to have some white spaces in our life where nothing is planned so we can get creative or take a nap. 

Once you have completed your first week of time-blocking, review how the week went. Were you on target with your expectations for the week? There are a plethora of calendar tools out there that are great for time blocking. You could use your Google calendar or maybe a physical calendar is more of your style. Choose whatever is easiest and working for you. Developing a calendaring habit will boost your productivity and simplify your life. You just need to get started. I have created this printable for you to do just that!

I would love to hear about your experience, whether you’ve practiced time-blocking for a while or are just starting to implement this strategy, so please feel free to drop a comment below.