The first question you need to answer is: Why do you want to use time blocking?

Is it because you want more time for focused work ? Or to reduce your

Again, how Brad blocked out his time was based on his priority of spending time with his family. As Brad told us :

"Before having a baby, my wife and I would both work well into the evening hours, largely because we cou...

Want to see some real-world examples of schedules designed for focus? Check out our guide to setting up a work scheduled designed for sustained attention .

One of the great things about time blocking is that it can be dead simp...

The human brain needs guardrails at work. Otherwise, we fall into what's known as Parkinson's Law:

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

By scheduling every minute of your day you not only gua...

Potential issues aside, time-blocking is still a powerful time management strategy . Especially when you see it as a framework for thinking about your day rather than a set of laws you can't break.

As Abby Lawson writes in

• Place buffers in between tasks. We all have what's called "Attention residue" after completing a task that can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to get over. If you assume you can switch gears on the spot, you're going to end up frustrated and behind schedule.
• Schedule...

• It takes a lot of time and effort. Scheduling each minute of your day means... scheduling every minute of your day. It's a much more labor-intensive system than just writing out the 4 or 5 tasks you need to complete.
• Few of us (if any) have the same schedule every day.

As Deep Work author Cal Newport writes :

"Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detaile...

Here's how you can use time blocking to make the most of the time you have each day.

Time blocking is all about focus. To stay on task during each block, I like to use a simple Pomodoro timer (Right now I use Be Focused ). Having your remaining time visible can be a huge motivator and also help ...