You can probably count on your fingers the number of times you've completed 8 hours of work in an 8-hour workday. Whether it's endless meetings, constant emails, or coworkers popping in for a "quick chat," your productivity rarely makes it through the day. The problem is that when you design your to-do list for an 8-hour workday but end up with just 1-2 hours of productive time, you're going to be in trouble. But to-do lists aren't the only way you can organize your daily schedule. Some of the world's most productive people, from Elon Musk to Bill Gates to Deep Work author Cal Newport have sworn off to-do lists in favor of something else: Time blocking .

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 <a href="https://blog.rescuetime.com/workplace-distractions/">guard against distraction </a>but also multiply your focus. <a href="https://blog.rescuetime.com/single-tasking/">Single-tasking </a>-focusing on one task at a time-can make you up to 80% more productive than splitting your attention across multiple tasks. Plus, when you know you have time set aside later for checking email or replying to Slack messages you're less likely to give into the FOMO these tools create.

You can probably count on your fingers the number of times you've completed 8 hours of work in an 8-hour workday. Whether it's endless meetings, constant emails, or coworkers popping in for a "quick chat," your productivity rarely makes it through the day.

Time blocking 101: A step-by-step guide to mastering your daily schedule

Krishel Gabuco