My Top 3 Time Blocks
I’m a huge proponent of time blocking (or time batching). After I wrote this post I received so many questions and comments regarding what goes into specific time blocks, that I thought I would jot down my thoughts to share with you today! These time blocks can be slotted into every day, every couple of days, once a week or once a month! Whatever works for you and your life!
Home Administration Time Block
All things financial. Budgeting, paying bills, balancing the budget and cash flow checks. The home administration time block is the perfect time to tackle the financial aspect of your life.
Create shopping lists for the upcoming week. Wether you have an ongoing Target or Walmart list, a grocery list that needs to be filled out or an Amazon cart that needs to be updated, spending a couple of minutes a day ensuring what you and your family need is written down will be a huge help during your week.
Family correspondence. This time block is a great opportunity to spend a couple minutes and touch base with family and friends. Even if its just taking some time to send a thoughtful email or a quick text reaching out and connecting with people you love will help set you up for a great day!
Business correspondence. This is a great time to book appointments for the upcoming month for you or your family. If you’ve scheduled a home administration time block in the morning, try emailing in appointments or calling to leave a message with dates and times that may work for you. Then you at least ensure that you’ve started the ball rolling and the office can call you back to confirm!
Kids To Do List!
Health and Wellness Time Block
Setting aside even 30 minutes a day to work on your health and fitness will be a huge benefit to your life! I’ve placed this time block at the very begging of my day and have changed my schedule to wake up earlier to give myself more time to experience this time block.
Spirituality. Spending some time learning, reading and developing your own spirituality really sets yourself up for a great day. This is such a personal time block and may include meditation, bible study, prayer, yoga…. there are so many ways to connect with the spiritual side of your life.
Exercise. Ideally we would get 45-60 minutes of exercise a day but for some of us (myself included) that can be a hefty amount of time to devote to it. Especially if you’re in a busy season like babies, young children, sickness or a time of great change, finding that time to devote to your exercise can seem impossible. For me, I try to do 15 minutes of exercise a day. That can be stretching, yoga or some quick calisthenics. Right now, in my life, thats the amount of time I can give to that. Other then that running after a toddler, cleaning, tidying and playing daily keeps me moving throughout my day! Key here is to find what works for you!
Write. I’ve recently started jotting down two or three things I’m grateful for on a daily basis. I’ve actually never been a journaling person and I still cant seem to get into that habit! So, jotting down what I’m grateful for on Google Drive lets me put my life into perspective. Try a couple minutes of writing down what you’re grateful for in your life, or journaling, and see if that puts things in perspective for you!
Planning for the Future
Planning is my favorite thing (shocking I know) . So for me I set aside time each day to plan out my long and short term goals, make sure they’re on track, tweak them if they need tweaking and generally plan all the aspects of my life. I use Google Calendar to plan everything (personal and for An Organized Life), Google Keep for tracking thoughts, to do lists, cash flow and everything else, and Google Sheets for budgeting and everything financial and super long term planning.
You may insert this time block into your daily schedule, or set aside time once a week or once a month to plan for the future. Whichever way you choose to fit it into your life, here are some items you can put into this time block:
Long and short term goal setting. Reverse engineer this project. Think of your yearly goal (example would be loosing 10 pounds) and then work backwards to the start of your goal. Another example would be organizing your whole house. Start with identifying the date you want to have it done by (say a year from now) and then start identifying one organizational project a week until you meet that goal.
Vacations, time off and staycations. This is a great time block to decide on your next personal or family adventure! Spending a couple of minutes blocking off your calendar, researching and planning your great escape will give you a huge feeling of accomplishment and excitement!
Do you use time blocking? Let me know what time blocks are a must have in your schedule!