Did you know that 19% of business owners work a 50-hour week? With all those extra hours, it’s no wonder that over 87% of leaders struggle with mental health issues.
However, there may be a straightforward solution for reclaiming your calendar and reducing those extra hours: a time-blocking template.
A time-blocking template will give you more control over your work week, improving your productivity, reducing distractions, and enhancing your work-life balance.
Our Time Management Training course covers time blocking in detail, just one of the many strategies we share to begin unlocking your productivity.
So, what is time blocking, and how can a simple template help rebalance your working weeks? Let’s examine these questions.
What Is Time Blocking and How Does It Work?
Also known as “timeboxing,” time blocking involves splitting your day into chunks dedicated to specific tasks. Rather than working through a daily task list, you dedicate each block of time to a task or group of functions.
For example, you might set aside an hour in the morning to respond to emails, then schedule a meeting in the next time block. The next hour block could be reserved for project work.
Time blocking helps improve productivity and time management. Blocking allows you to solidify your schedule, outlining what you will work on and when.
By incorporating your email calendar, colleagues can see when you have free time to schedule catch-ups or other impromptu tasks.
Benefits of Using Time Blocking in Daily Life
Creating a time-blocking calendar can have several benefits for your everyday time management, including:
- Enhanced focus: By focusing on specific tasks for a pre-defined period and reducing multitasking, time blocking can help minimise distractions while improving concentration and work quality.
- Reduces distractions: Time blocking allows you to minimise distractions by highlighting the times when you are available for ad-hoc tasks or discussions.
- Increased productivity: Time blocking improves productivity by helping you overcome procrastination. Dedicated focus periods reduce decision fatigue and distractions while helping prevent task avoidance.
- Better work-life balance: This practice doesn’t have to be reserved for work alone. Use it to map time for personal tasks like self-care, exercise, catch-ups with friends, and more.
- Realistic planning: Estimating the time it will take to complete certain tasks helps you better understand your workload. Likewise, defined “stop” times can prevent you from getting stuck on a task.
- Deep work: “Deep work” is a period of focused concentration that enhances problem-solving and productivity. These periods are beneficial on complex or lengthy tasks.
Having a robust time-blocking template is a great way to ensure your approach is workable and marries well with your schedule.
If you’re looking for expert guidance about time management and time blocking, connect with our team at TSW Training. Our expert courses can help enhance your organisation’s performance.
Key Components of an Effective Time Blocking Template
An effective time management template is structured and offers specific slots for tasks, group work, meetings, and downtime.
A good timeboxing template includes these five key components:
- Task identification and prioritisation: List all the tasks you want to complete. Then, objectively prioritise them based on importance and deadline. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to define jobs that will help you and those that will help the team – then prioritise accordingly.
- Allocation of blocks: Assign specific periods to each task or group of tasks, like “responding to emails.” Be pragmatic but ruthless with your time—have a maximum time for a block to ensure you don’t get stuck on one thing.
- Incorporation of breaks: Schedule regular breaks throughout the day to protect your concentration levels. Again, be pragmatic here to ensure you have enough time away from the desk without encouraging procrastination.
- Flexibility periods: Include buffer periods in your time-blocking template to accommodate ad hoc or unexpected tasks. This ensures those impromptu jobs don’t derail your productivity.
- Visual layout: Play around with visual layouts to find one that works best for you. Calendars or time-blocking planner views are the most popular, but table views work, too.
Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Time Blocking Templates
As we just mentioned, a time-blocking template that would work for you is specific to your work methods. You can make it as in-depth or flexible as you like.
The adaptability of this approach also means you can expand the view to focus on the time in specific days, weeks, or months.
Here’s an example of what those plans could look like:
Daily View
| Time | Activity | Notes |
| 06:30 – 07:00 | Morning routine & planning | Coffee, catch-up on news, review schedule |
| 07:00 – 09:00 | Deep work (priority task) | Focused work on a high-priority project |
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Break | Stretch, coffee/tea/snack |
| 09:15 – 11:00 | Meetings | Emails & calls |
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Task batch: Admin & respond to emails | Reports, paperwork, ad hoc email tasks |
| 12:00 – 12:45 | Lunch | |
| 12:45 – 14:30 | Focus blast #2 | Secondary work priority |
| 14:30 – 14:45 | Break | Walk, stretch & snack |
| 14:45 – 16:00 | Creative work/strategy | Brainstorming, planning, content creation |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Buffer time | Catch up on unexpected tasks |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | Wind down & Plan tomorrow | Reflect and plan |
| 17:00 – 18:00 | Free time |
Weekly View
Expanding the approach further, you could take a complete view of your week. Include the weekend to get maximum recharge value from your downtime.
| Day | Focus Area | Example Activities |
| Monday | Deep work & planning | Strategy, major projects |
| Tuesday | Meetings & communications | Team syncs, calls, networking |
| Wednesday | Focus work & learning | Research, writing, skill-building |
| Thursday | Admin tasks & catch up on unexpected tasks | Paperwork, general admin, follow-ups |
| Friday | Overflow work, creative tasks & planning | Brainstorming, planning & goal setting for next week |
| Saturday | Hobbies, family time | |
| Sunday | Rest day |
Of course, this is a distilled version of the week. You can go into more detail with specific tasks.
Specialists in the Harvard Business Review have theorised about the benefits of establishing meeting-free days in your schedule.
Alternatively, you could take an even broader view of your working week and designate days to specific tasks, like making Monday an “Admin Day” or Tuesday a “Meetings Day.”
Booking all your discussions into a specific “meetings day” could free up more time in the rest of your week to complete tasks while establishing a day for collaborative discussion.
Monthly View
The timeboxing planner doesn’t have to stop at a weekly view. Expand it further and develop an overarching monthly view to keep you on track during busy periods.
| Week | Focus Area | Example Activities |
| Week 1 | Goal setting & planning | Define priorities, create |
| Week 2 | Execution & deep work | Focus on major projects/tasks |
| Week 3 | Review & adjustments | Check progress and adjust strategies accordingly |
| Week 4 | Wrap-up & reflection | Analyse successes and learnings |
This monthly view can help with project delivery by expanding the outlook further to include clarity on elements like targets, core functions, timings, deadlines, and responsible parties.
Whether you’re using this outline to map a month-long project or overview a busy period, week 3 presents an opportunity to implement the Plan, Do, Check, Act, or PDCA model.
The PDCA approach works perfectly for performance reviews, offering ample opportunity for self-reflection and corrective action if better results can be achieved.
Best Tools for Time Blocking
The table views we highlighted above are perfect for simplified plans.
However, if you prefer a more dynamic and interactive option, some highly effective time-blocking tools can help:
- TickTick: TickTick combines task management with time blocking. It includes features like an in-built calendar, reminders, and a Pomodoro timer, which allows you to tackle tasks in 25-minute intervals with a five-minute break after each burst.
- Sunsama: Sunsama helps you better structure your daily workloads by integrating tasks, emails, and calendars into a unified planning space. It allows you to balance work tasks with hobbies and downtime easily.
- Clockify: A free time-tracking tool with blocking capabilities. Clockify features start and stop task timers, which are perfect if you need to know how long you’re spending on particular jobs.
- Fantastical: Fantastical is a sleek and intuitive calendar tool that makes scheduling time blocks super simple by syncing with your existing calendar apps and programmes such as Outlook, Google Calendar, or iCloud.
- Planyway: If you’re a heavy Trello, GitHub, or Jira user, the integrations on Planyway are perfect. They allow you to visually manage tasks and schedule work within those project management tools.
Advanced Tips to Make Time Blocking More Effective
Time blocking is a powerful strategy. However, to maximise productivity, it helps to adapt the approach to your specific role, style, and tasks.
Here are some top tips on sculpting your efforts:
- Arrange your day to suit your style: Time blocking works best in collaboration with your natural rhythms. If you’re more focused in the morning, afternoon, or evening, schedule demanding tasks during these peak periods. Likewise, schedule less labour-intensive jobs in quieter periods.
- Be ruthless and pragmatic: It helps to accurately estimate the duration of tasks on your to-do list to prevent overloading your calendar. Being pragmatic reduces stress by allocating sufficient time to each task. Similarly, be strict with your timings. If you haven’t finished a task within the allotted time, move on to the next block.
- Schedule movement breaks. Sitting at a desk for too long can increase your chances of suffering from musculoskeletal issues. One innovative solution might be to get a standing desk and incorporate “standing periods” into your schedule. Chair Office suggests elevated desks can reduce blood sugar, improve mood and energy levels, and lower the risk of health issues like heart disease and cancer.
- Utilise nested blocks: Split larger tasks into smaller time blocks to make large projects more manageable. This approach also allows for scheduling short breaks to aid concentration, task engagement, and productivity.
- Group similar tasks: Besides splitting out large tasks, consider grouping smaller activities into larger time blocks. For example, responding to emails and smaller admin tasks could fall into the same “admin” block.
- Maintain flexibility: Integrate buffer zones into your schedule. This allows specified time to be allocated for overrunning, ad hoc, or unexpected tasks. Keeping these buffer periods timed also ensures that those tasks can’t be overrun even further.
Looking for more guidance on implementing effective time management?
At TSW Training, we offer various training courses that can boost your organisational efficiency and productivity.
Contact our expert team today to learn more about time blocking through our Time Management Training Course.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some frequently asked questions surrounding time blocking templates:
What Are Some Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using a Time Blocking Template?
When using a time blocking template, you should avoid common mistakes like:
- Overloading your schedule: If you try to cram too many tasks into one time block, you increase your stress levels instead of reducing them.
- Ignoring breaks: Breaks are essential for health, engagement, and productivity. Make sure to include them in your daily schedule.
- Lack of flexibility: Getting too rigid with your schedule can leave you unprepared for overrunning or unexpected tasks dropping onto your desk.
- Lack of realism: Underestimating the time it will take to complete certain tasks could disrupt your whole schedule.
- Ignoring your rhythms: Don’t schedule complex or in-depth tasks when your engagement levels are usually low.
- Not communicating your schedule: If no one knows you are heading into a deep work block, you risk being interrupted. Sharing your calendar with others enables them to see your available time slots.
- Failure to evaluate: Not regularly reviewing your time blocking template can lead to processes that harm rather than help your productivity.
How Often Should I Review My Time Blocking Template?
You should review your time blocking template at the end of each day to assess what worked and what didn’t. These daily reviews also help you manage any leftover jobs and ensure they stay focused.
Additionally, schedule some time to review your template weekly. Map out the week ahead and adjust your outlook to accommodate new tasks.
Should I Use a Digital or Physical Time Blocking Template?
Choosing the right time blocking template depends on how you work best. Each has its positives and negatives, but digital planners are the most effective, especially from a collaborative perspective.
But let’s overview each option:
- Paper planners are tech-free, customisable, and can improve memory. However, they can also be inconvenient, lack reminders, and are not collaborative.
- Digital planners offer customisation, cost savings, and editability, but they also require tech and can be distracting.
- Digital calendars help with time management, are collaborative, and allow for the sending of reminders. However, they require tech, can be distracting, and raise privacy concerns.
Is Time Blocking Suitable for Remote Workers?
Yes, time blocking remains highly effective for remote workers. In fact, it can be a straightforward method to enhance your productivity if you struggle with procrastination while working from home. Similarly, if you find it easy to become glued to your desk when working remotely, time blocking planners simplify the scheduling of breaks
However, remote workers need to consider the type of time-blocking template they use. Paper versions are not collaborative. Digital options are better as they allow for schedule sharing, so your team can see when you’re available and when you’re tied up in deep work.
Conclusion
Time blocking templates are valuable alternatives to the humble to-do list—especially if you struggle with getting bogged down by tasks.
However, while timeboxing is great for enhancing productivity, it can also help boost your everyday health.
Including blocks for essential but overlooked tasks, such as breaks, review sessions, training opportunities, or even something as simple as standing up for a while, can positively impact one’s physical and mental health.
With our tailored time management training course, you can learn more about time blocking and how it could unlock your productivity.
