Design Your
Ideal Week with Time Blocks
Another way your calendar can become a powerful life-guiding tool is by using
it to design your ideal week.
Think about what your ideal workweek would look like.
If you’re a freelancer, consultant, or coach, it might include focused time to
work on client projects, but also time to learn new
skills or to be inspired by
others’ work, or to work on your own marketing initiatives.
If you’re a mid-level executive, your ideal week might include one-on-one
coaching time with some of your team members, time for a team meeting, as
well as time to sit alone to think strategically about the year ahead.
Regardless of your professional role, you may also find that your ideal week
—and even ideal day—has some recurring personal things:
exercise, time with
your family, time to relax or to pursue hobbies.
Mapping all of these items onto your calendar—and making them recurring
appointments—is the right way to design your life. It’s a powerful way to stay
consistent to those activities that give you the most return, and the most joy.
My own calendar reflects many of my values:
•
I value health, so I time block 60 minutes each morning for
exercise.
•
I
value coaching my team members, so I time block one-on-one
meetings with each direct report on Mondays as a way to kick off the
week.
•
I value team alignment and breaking down silos, so I time block
a weekly full-team meeting.
•
I value writing so I have two to three blocks of time scheduled
each week to write uninterrupted.
•
I value my children’s education, so
I time block evenings after
dinner to help them with their homework.
•
I value recharging and new experiences, so I block off long
weekends or entire weeks—sometimes a year in advance—for
vacations, even if I don’t know yet where I’m going yet.
Remember that the key point is
not to use a to-do list as your primary time
management tool. Items on a to-do list can sit there forever, constantly getting
bumped by things that seem urgent in the moment. And
having this list of things
that still need to get done is the root cause of our underlying stress.
When you master the practice of time blocking—using your calendar
instead of your to-do-list—you can literally see your life’s priorities by
looking at your weekly calendar.
How Does This Apply If You’re A(n)...
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