Why Time Blocking Isn't Enough
Are you taking time to step out of the day to day work?
This article talks about the practice of time blocking. It’s a practice encouraged by many coaches to support creating a weekly work structure. Specifically, I’m going to explore one kind of time block which I call “Important Work” or “50,000 ft high Work” because it’s vital to the health of your business. You need to work in your business but you also need to dedicate time to working “on” your business.
If you’re wondering what “Important Work” is, you can also think of it as Strategic Work. I’d also add in Deep Work as popularized by the author Cal Newport in his book (you guessed it) Deep Work.
All of this “Important Work” varies uniquely from the daily operations of running a business because it’s so easy to put off. The urgent tasks of the day to day easily railroad over our best intentions. This article outlines skills to ensure Important Work happens more consistently and successfully.
Time Blocking is a Meaningful Work Practice
Time blocking is invaluable. For the entrepreneur whose calendar is blank canvas of possibility, scheduling in blocks of focused time dedicated to marketing or client work establishes a work rhythm that ensures your needs and your business’ needs are met. It’s a way to establish healthy boundaries so you can balance your desire to be available to everyone as well as create time to attend to other parts of your operation. And when you’re working inside that block of time you bring more focus to the person or task at hand rather than inefficiently switching from one thing to another.
Are You Time Blocking Your Important Work?
Important Work is vulnerable. By definition it lacks urgency so it’s easy to set aside. Here are reasons why time blocking your Important Work matters.
Time blocking your Important Work resources your business.
—Creating a Plan or Roadmap for your business is Important Work. It serves as a type of North Star.
— Dedicating time to being creative is Important Work. Your business and brand depend on your unique flair solving problems or creating amazing solutions for your clients.
— Chunking out time for this quarter’s projects is Important Work. Give them the time and attention they merit so they advance your business as imagined.
— Stepping out of your business is Important Work. Patterns and possibilities reveal themselves when you look at the whole picture.
Time blocking your Important Work also resources you.
— Tuning in to what you want as you build your business is Important Work. You’re not simply building a business, you’re building a life you love.
— Being in the Important Work is deeply nourishing, holding the flavour of why we’re doing what we’re doing and for whom.
— Working in a state of calm on the Important Work is uniquely rejuvenating bringing relaxation and ease into the body.
Is Time Blocking Enough?
Practically, it’s tricky stepping out of the day to day work into Important Work! Day to day work has so many juicy hits of adrenaline: check marks awarded for completion, inbox zero when emails are answered, sweet clients connections that nourish, social posts written and shared…
The day-to-day stuff is almost magnetic, and there are so many ways to see how we’ve been productive! And this is precisely why we need to know how to exit the vortex of the day to day.
Successful Time Blocking Is More Than Time Management. There Are Skills to Learn & Practice
If time blocking was just about time and calendar management we’d all be doing it more regularly and consistently.
It can also feel so “right” to prioritize that client call that just came in or to keep on working the to do list since you now have two hours of “free time” rather than opt for the strategic.
If it feels tricky to shift, read on to discover why. There is a whole cluster of what I call “switching” skills that we need to help us move from day to day work into Important Work. And the good news is these are skills, so they’re learnable. And skills that get flexed make for more ease in switching.
Switching Skills Needed to Get Into Important Work
These are some of the main switching skills you need.
1) Shifting from 0 ft to 50,000 ft.
If you’ve ever flown in an airplane you can appreciate almost viscerally what it takes to get the plane off the ground. It takes incredible force and power (and fuel) to take off and soar into the skies of Important Work. Equally, to land a plane, and return to the details of our day is challenging.
2) Switching from fast to slower
By mid day your mind and body are like a Tesla on the AutoBahn, you’re going at full tilt. Heart racing, mind buzzing, fast fingers typing, are all symptoms of a “faster” internal environment that has been busy doing all the ground floor work. At 50,000 ft, the pilot settled in the cockpit; there is only one place to be, focused on the one task at hand; to arrive at the destination. It’s a different pace altogether.
3) Switching from outer to inner directedness
Day to day we’re focusing on client needs, on our VA’s needs, our kids’ needs, the needs of humans calling from our inboxes and social profiles. We’re focused on the demand that exists outside us. With Important Work we switch to tuning inward, a time with heart and self, consciously turning down the volume of the others.
4) Shifting from stress-filled to calm, present and mindful
Not all work activates our sympathetic nervous system where we’re dragged into fight, flight or flee, but it’s more likely than when we’re immersed in the Important Work. In Important Work we are switching into a different activation state. If this isn’t a normal place for your body, it will take practice to stay in it.
Which skill feels most helpful to you?
I’d be keen to know what helps you accomplish your most important work. Do you time block? Or are there other strategies you employ? Do share!
