Block Scheduling: Benefits, How to, & the WeekCal App

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in this video I'll talk about the benefits of block scheduling and show you the tool that I use for it -- WeekCal -- an app for the iPhone and iPad.

Block scheduling is one of the hot productivity ideas right now.  Basically, it refers to the idea of blocking time on your calendar for specific tasks, projects, or themes and then following that schedule by actually shifting focus when the block changes just like you are changing classes in school -- even if you haven't entirely completed the task you were working on.  Your block schedule usually recurs either daily or weekly, but you can always change it up based on what you have going on that particular day.  So, your weekly block schedule might look something like this with each block representing a specific task, activity, project, or theme.

Block scheduling is particularly good for people who don't already have a ton of structure built into their day.  So, if you have a job with 5-6 meetings a day, you probably don't have much need for block scheduling.  After all, you know when you are busy and when you have space to get things done.  Your job already dictates this for you.  But what if you have a more flexible schedule with fewer meetings?  Maybe you are a stay at home mom, or a freelance writer, or a student.  Then maybe block scheduling would work better for you than what you are already doing.  

In this video, I'd like to go through the benefits of block scheduling, work through how you would come up with your own schedule, AND introduce you to the tool that I use -- the WeekCal app.  First, let's talk about the benefits:

• Structure - as I said before, doing block scheduling creates structure in a day that might not already have structure.  Much like switching classes throughout the day gives a distinct start time and end time for students, this system gives you specific start and end times to move your day forward.  Which brings us to our second benefit it
• Keeps Things Moving - days without structure CAN be really productive -- particularly if you have hit a state of flow with some creative endeavor.  However, more likely than not, days without structure turn into absolute pits of unproductivity.  You can drift from one task to the next without a clear sense of purpose or any time constraints.  I ALWAYS do better if I have a deadline -- even if it is completely self-imposed.  So, if I know I'm going to switch tasks in an hour and a half, I'll work harder to get my task done by then.  Switching to a new block also helps to
• Keep Your Mind Fresh - if you've spend 4 hours looking at the same project, what are the chances that you are going to have fresh, new, creative thoughts on it?  Practically none.  Switch to something else and when you come back to it, your mind is fresher, more focused, and more creative.  The flip side of this is that bigger time blocks allow for
• Deep Thought - if I'm constantly rushing off to the next thing, I don't feel like I can concentrate properly on the task at hand.  Giving yourself a block of time for concentrated work can really allow you to engage with the material in a deeper, more thoughtful way.  And along the same lines, block scheduling is a good way to deal with
• Long Term Projects - surely you have these as well.  Things you would *like* to do, but that never seem to get done?  This can pertain to actual projects like tearing down a shed and building a new one or it could refer to learning a new skill or starting a new business venture.  Whatever it is, we all have them floating around in our minds -- they just never seem to make it onto our task lists.  Why not, I wonder?  For me, I'm much more drawn to short, finite tasks, and will almost always pick one of those to do over some nebulous project like "learn line art illustration."  Part of it is that I haven't broken down that super vague project into smaller tasks, but the biggest thing is that I really need to give myself regular blocks of time to work out what needs to be done and to start a regular practice.  Block scheduling is a great way to do this.  And finally, this productivity method allows you to
• Batch Tasks - What this means is that similar tasks can be done together and more efficiency.  If you have a block for running errands once a week, you save all of your errands for that day, which makes your life more efficient.  I keep an idea list of all of the things I need to do around the house or on my computer and just check them off during that house or computer chores block.  Batching tasks works well since you don't have to switch gears between each task and you can keep a rolling list that you can be assured will eventually get done -- as long as you block time for it.   Okay -- so that covers all the benefits. 

Now let's walk through how you create a schedule like this for yourself.  Get a piece of paper and create a weekly schedule that looks roughly like this.  It does not have to be perfect -- this is going to a rough draft.  

• First, determine what portion of the day you will be time blocking.  Some people are hardcore and block every minute of their day including time for sleep.  I definitely don't do that.  I block schedule the hours between 7am and 5pm.  After that -- my evenings are more fluid.  Whatever this is for you, note this on your draft.
• Next, you need to determine all of the events that you have every day, week, or month during that time.  Do you exercise?  Commute to work?  Have meetings at specific times?  Write all of that down, list the days and times that they happen and block that time off on your paper.
• Next, think about what kind of activities you do during the day.  Can you batch them into blocks of time?  For example, I have a bunch of things that I do every morning: unload the dishwasher, chop up fruits and vegetables, walk the dog, get my inbox to zero, etc.  So, I created a one hour block called chores that I do every morning.  Go ahead and put these on your rough schedule.
• Next determine what things you need or want to work on during the week and estimate how much time you'd like to devote to each thing.  Perhaps you want to spend a couple of mornings a week writing or you have a project that is taking up about 6 hours every week.  Now see if all of those blocks can fit onto your schedule and try to be reasonable.  You don’t want your blocks to add up to 70 hours a week!  Sometimes you'll have to break the blocks up over a couple of days, which may work better for keeping your mind fresh.  Okay -- once you have a rough draft of what you want your weekly or daily block schedule to look like, let me show you the tool that I use. 

For those of you who have seen some of my other videos, you know that I am a huge Google Calendar fan.  Unfortunately, Google Calendar really doesn't work for block scheduling since you should ideally have different colors to visually represent your different blocks.  For Google Calendar, each color represents a different calendar, and there is no way I'm creating that many different calendars.  I am also NOT looking to replace the function that Google Calendar has in my life.  Instead, I see this block scheduling tool as an overlay -- like a piece of velum that sits on top of my calendar with colors that represent all of the blocks that I have planned for the day.  I tried a bunch of things, including a physical calendar (too much work to redo it every week) and Notability, which is my favorite handwriting app on the ipad, but it ended up being frustrating in the extreme.  The tool that has worked best for me by far is the WeekCal app.  The nice thing about it is that is automatically integrates with my Google Calendar (it does the same for the iOS Calendar app) so that I can see the appointments that I already have each day without having to refer back to another app while I’m establishing my block schedule for the day.  I use two active calendars in Google Calendar.  One for my personal schedule and one calendar that everyone in my family shares.  After a couple of fails, I ultimately decided that it was best for me to create a brand new Google calendar for my block scheduling, so that it doesn't clutter up my current calendars.   You can make this decision for yourself, but when I had my block calendar combined with my personal calendar, it was so cluttered that I was worried I would start missing actual events and appointments.  I went into Settings for Google Calendar and created a new calendar called xBlock Schedule.  The x in front is so that it sorts down to the bottom of my list of calendars.  Then, I choose not to show this in Google Calendar, but I can see it in WeekCal or turn it on any time I want. 

Okay -- once I did that, I went into the WeekCal app and started to create my block schedule.  Here are the great things about the WeekCal app.  First of all, it

• Integrates with Google Calendar - as I mentioned before, it allows you to see the events already on your calendar.  In addition, when you add events, they sync with Google Calendar as well.   Based on the way I have this set up, i can see important events and appointments on my regular calendar and just use this for blocks. The best feature is that it allows you to add
• Colors for each block - Google Calendar assigns a different color for each of your calendars.  So in order to get this effect, you would have to add like 12 different calendars.  No thanks.  WeekCal allows you to add a color for each appointment - you get to choose from all these different colors, or you can make a custom one.  It also allows you to add
• Icons - Both colors and icons make the blocks much easier to differentiate.  The icons also integrate with Google Calendar.  You can also turn on the ability to
• Sync colors by cloud - so if you use this app in 2 places like I do (my iPhone and iPad), the block colors will sync between those two devices.  It also allows you to use
• Automation - for example, if I name a block YouTube, WeekCal will automatically turn it red and attach the movie camera icon to that block.  And lastly, if you turn on
• Drag & Drop - it is really easy to change your time blocks.  You can drag and drop events to a different spot on your calendar.  You can also use this little handle to drag the appointment to be longer or shorter.  And this is all in the free version.  If you upgrade to the paid version, you get even more features.

I prefer to use a calendar app because even if I have my typical week already laid out, I will inevitably have things that pop up or other tasks I need to accomplish, so being able to edit and change things around is important to me.  So, now you can go ahead and take your draft weekly schedule and start entering it into WeekCal or whatever other manual or digital tool you prefer to use.  And let me know what you think.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!