Could Time Blocking Actually Work?
For years people have been advocating time blocking. Virtually every coach I have ever had and every class I have taken swears that in order to be successful you need to block your time. Well after almost 14 years in Real Estate, I have yet to see the light. For those of you not completely hip to what time blocking is, you basically list out all of your activities for the week and how long you need to do them and then pre-schedule appointments with yourself to get the various tasks completed. They could be things like preview homes (2 hours a week), client follow up (1 hour a week), FORD calls (2 hours a week), you get the picture.
I must admit, that I have actually tried time blocking once or twice, but what happens is I get excited about time blocking because I can now color code my appointments so I pick all of the pretty colors in my Outlook calendar, load everything in and then 2 weeks later I can’t remember which color is for which task and the whole things falls apart and soon enough everything is back to being one color and scheduled whenever I can fit it in. There is also a minor possibility that I have an issue with authority and I hate being told what to do ahead of time even if I am the one telling myself what to do.
How can life be any fun if you are so scheduled all of the time?
Well, I have been feeling particularly short on time lately and generally behind the power curve. So in a fit of desperation one day I listed out exactly what I wanted to get done in a week. It included work tasks, but also personal things like time with Gary and the kids and workouts for myself. I must admit, it was a breath of fresh air to realize that it was a doable number of hours. Certainly a pleasant surprise, since I usually am feeling like I need a 36 hour day rather than the 24 hour one that seems to work for everyone else. So on Monday this week I decided to give the whole time blocking thing a try. It hasn’t gone perfectly, but is has been nice to have a true sense of purpose in direction in each day and the reassurance that once the items on my schedule are taken care of that I can relax and enjoy the rest of the day, knowing that I have time allotted during the rest of the week to take care of the other items on my list.
So stay tunned. I’ll keep you posted on how this thing works out and when I feel confident enough to commit to color coding things again. In the meantime, I would encourage you to write out your perfect week, assign some timeframes to things and see how you can fill in your week. Who knows, you may even have some time left over.
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