Time Blocking My Calendar

It’s hard to block your time when you don’t know how you should be blocking it. Let’s start with the basic things first. Just block what you know is for sure. For eg - the time for office. Let’s just put that.

Okay. I’ve put in the blocks of office work. Looking good so far. Now, I know that I will go to the gym on Tues, Thurs, Sat, and Sun. Let’s try putting that there. Let’s also put the dinner. I’m trying to have early dinners these days.

Done with the dinner and gym. Actually I only put the gym for Tues and Thurs. I don’t know when will I go to the gym on the weekends. I may go in the mornings some days or the evenings. I could always plan it on the same days as well. For now, I may have empty spaces in the calendar which is fine.

Now, I’m looking at the weekly view of my calendar based on what I’ve put so far. Wait, let me put the time for sleep as well.

Just did. I’ve also made the basic things recurring for all days - like waking up, breakfast, dinner. And the work for every weekday. Now I’m looking at the empty spaces.

On first look, no strong complaints. There seems to be enough spaces on weekends, Mon, Wed, and Fri. Obviously general chores, socializing and relationships will also fill up some of my time, but I could always find time to prioritize the things I want. Now, what all do I want to prioritize?

Well there are different things I want to do. Since I can do anything I want but not everything I want, I should keep my list prioritized. And of course, the priorities will keep on changing. They could be changing every week. There may be newer things to do, or things that I no longer want to do. So, I should always be revising them. I could create a separate page for Priorities and manage them there. Ali Abdaal also said to set and track your goals. I’ve heard very different opinions of setting goals from every other person I listen to. But Ali’s point was that goals will help define your priorities. It may make it easier for you to decide what to prioritize.

While I was looking at my calendar I also had another thought. I almost felt a little bad for doing all this work and thinking that all of this will be of no use when things change in my life. I could be either be laid off, or get a promotion, or change jobs, cities, and what not. And who knows, I could get married, buy a house, then I’ll have to work on the house, commute time will increase. I could start my own company or work full time on my side projects. There’s so much that can and will happen in life. And I just put a lot of work in setting up my calendar for the upcoming weeks and months.

Well, I don’t know what to say. Change is the law of nature. We must keep on adjusting to the changes around us. It may seem that the small things you do in your life will eventually go away. I’d say do it anyway. I mean everything comes to an end eventually. But we’re supposed to experience life to its fullest. Don’t put off anything that brings meaning to your life. No matter how small. From watering your plants every day to blocking time in your calendar to strategizing a business model.

Ah why did I get so distracted. Back to time blocking. Let me create a different page to manage my priorities.

Just did. I got confused there as well. There are so many things that come to mind. For now I just created 5 sections (Building, Publishing, Personal Growth, Hobbies, and Relationships) and added the first things that come to mind. I don’t know if this looks good. I’m not a time management expert. I could watch some YouTube video about how others do it.

And now, I need to fill up the empty spaces in my calendar with the things I pick up from my priority list. But looking at my calendar, it’s almost time to go to Costco, so I’ll just leave this right here, and come back to it later. Anyways I didn’t imagine wrapping everything about time blocking at one go. This will be an ongoing process of refinements and improvements.