Master Time for Artist: Time Blocking

"Claim your calendar before someone else does."

Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy

Have you ever noticed that when your calendar is empty, it soon fills up with things you didn't plan?

This is the case for me as well.

I will start the week with a ton of free time to focus on my to-do list, but by the end of the week I realize I didn't get half of what I wanted done because I let other things take my attention.

Time blocking is a great tool to prevent this from happening.

After you have compiled all your tasks for the week, as we discussed in MASTER TIME FOR ARTISTS: THE USE OF A TRADITIONAL PLANNER, you will sit down with your calendar and start blocking off time.

With this method, you plan all your tasks for the week in the appointment section of a planner or digital tool like Google Calendar.

If you want your day to start at five o'clock in the morning, your appointment times need to start then. You will block off time for every minute of the day.

For example, we will take a typical school day in my house to illustrate this method. My day starts at five-thirty each morning. My first block would go from 5:30 to 7:15, during which I deal with pets, get ready, and do some Bible devotionals. Following this would be my breakfast and prep for school block from 7:15 to 8:00. The next block of time would be for starting laundry, getting my kids going with school, Bible studies, and verse memorization from 8:00 to 10:00. The rest of my morning is spent doing family tasks from 10:00 to noon. If I have meetings during the week, I'd also add those times to the blocks.

The point is to schedule all of your time and tasks into your calendar so that when something comes your way, you can look at your calendar and see if you have time to do that task, meeting, appointment, or social scrolling.

Time blocking can be done digitally, like in the picture above, or on paper. All you need is a blank piece of paper and the ability to write the times you will do the task or appointment in columns, as shown below.

This method is easy to start because you don't need to buy anything. You can use a piece of paper, a digital calendar that comes with your phone, or a calendar on your computer.

Take some time to list all your tasks so you can start time-blocking.

Here is to a happy week of planned tasks and lots of productivity.

To find out when I will publish the next post discussing each planning method, as stated in the article "Master Time for Artists: Tools and Techniques for Artists to Boost Productivity," please sign up for my newsletter. I won't bug you, and I never share your information. I will send you a quick weekly email letting you know about things happening on the blog, the artwork I am working on, and the new items in my store.

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