The Side Hustler's Guide to Time Management: Part III

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase using one of the links in this post, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, Thanks for your support!If you missed Part I and Part II, make sure you go back and start from the beginning to master your calendar and to do list!Today in Part III of The Side Hustler’s Guide to Time Management, we’re going to talk about Time Blocking and Task Batching, two productivity strategies that could seriously change your life.  They definitely changed the way I see my time and how I manage my business.Time Blocking means simply blocking off a chunk of time and dedicating it to a certain set of activities. For example, you might dedicate a free two hours to blog post writing and create and write 5 different drafts of blog posts.  Then, at a later designated time, you would go back, edit the posts, add in pictures, etc.Task Batching means grouping activities into like categories.  For example, you might set aside time for emailing and respond to all critical emails at one time, rather than constantly checking email and responding throughout the day.These strategies can be used to give direction and purpose to your time.  Rather than sitting down for two hours with a mile long to do list (and more things to do that inevitably pop up before you even GET to that to do list), you’re giving each chunk of time a clear purpose.This helps because you can

• Not feel guilty for working on one things because you “should” be working on something else. This time was planned for this activity.
• Feel DONE when you’re done with that task, even if you’re not done with the whole to do list.
• If your plans need to change, you know exactly what you need to “make up” when you do have time.
• You can make “appointments” with yourself to accomplish the things you’d otherwise just do when you got around to them

So how do you do it? Let’s go back to our recurring tasks from Part II.  (If you didn’t already get the workbook, you can drop your email below to follow along!)[convertkit form=5137808]First, look for activities that can be done together.  If you plan to write 3 blog posts a week, can you do all of that writing in the same chunk of time?  If you need to post on Instagram 5x a day, can you set aside an hour on Sunday to schedule all of your posts? If you have 3 project proposals to complete in the upcoming week, can you do them all in one afternoon?  You’d probably save time if you “got into a groove” and had all of them open at once!  You might even find places where you could use the same content for each proposal! Write once, use three times? That’s a time saver for sure.Next, look back at your time inventory, where are your long chunks (an hour or more) of time you can dedicate to your work?  Where are the short pockets with 15 minutes or so?  Are there categories of tasks that can ONLY be done when you have extended time?  (Think: post writing, graphic creation, proposal drafting, etc.)  Are there categories of tasks you can do in short amounts of time or with little attention? (Think: email responses, bookkeeping, follow up emails to clients, social media posting, etc.)  There will probably be several things on your to do list that are in a category all their own.  Don’t worry about those things for now.  We’ll make sure those are taken care of in Part IV.Today, go ahead and schedule in some time blocks for dedicated activities.  Even if you’re not sure if you can ALWAYS stick to post writing on Tuesday evening when you have two hours, Put. It. On. The. Calendar.  If it stays on your to do list, it may never get done.  But if you have it on your CALENDAR, and it doesn’t get done, you’ll know you need to “make up” the appointment with yourself the next time you have a time blockOne other thing I want you to do today is think about your working personality.  Do you have more energy in the morning? Or the afternoon? When do you feel most creative?  Do your longer chunks of time (typically necessary for more creative or brain-intensive activities) coincide with when you have available time?  Can you rearrange your schedule so they do?  If you still feel like there’s never going to be enough time to do all the things you want to do, stay the course.  I feel you.  There will always be SO many things we could be or should be doing.  But if make a plan and stick to it, we can feel better knowing that even the things we can’t do right this second will still get done.Pro Tip: Don’t try and schedule every second of the day.  For now, we’re just dedicating general chunks of time to certain activities. If you know you need to send client follow up emails every day, don’t write 8 – 8:10 am: Client 1, 8:10 – 8:20 am: Client 2, etc.  Just block off time for client emails from 8-9 am every day.  Sometimes it will take you a few minutes more, and sometimes it won’t even take 30 minutes.  Your goal is to set a PLAN in place, so you aren’t always worried about WHEN you’ll follow up with your clients.Tomorrow, we’re bringing it home with Part IV!  Hope you feel better already!