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 .

Here's how you can use time blocking to make the most of the time you have each day. Need more help taking control of your time? RescueTime shows you how you spend your day so you can optimize your schedule for focus and productivity. <a href="https://www.rescuetime.com/?utm_source=Blog">Try it for free </a>. Time blocking is the practice of planning out every moment of your day in advance and dedicating specific time "blocks" for certain tasks and responsibilities. <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-blocking-101/&amp;text=While%20a%20standard%20to-do%20list%20tells%20you%20what%20you%20need%20to%20do%2C%20time%20blocking%20tells%20you%20when%20you%E2%80%99re%20going%20to%20do%20it.&amp;via=RescueTime&amp;related=RescueTime">While a standard to-do list tells you what you need to do, time blocking tells you when you're going to do it. </a><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-blocking-101/&amp;text=While%20a%20standard%20to-do%20list%20tells%20you%20what%20you%20need%20to%20do%2C%20time%20blocking%20tells%20you%20when%20you%E2%80%99re%20going%20to%20do%20it.&amp;via=RescueTime&amp;related=RescueTime">Click To Tweet </a>

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

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