Time becomes a precious resource when it comes to achieving professional goals. But today, it is not easy to maintain high productivity with the constant clutter of emails, notifications, and chat messages. However, there is an effective strategy for boosting productivity with a task management tool, which is Time Blocking.
Time blocking is a method that allows employees and project managers to think critically about the time they spent. Moreover, it helps project managers to set clear targets and help them focus their efforts and attention to ensure high productivity in their projects.
In this blog, we will discuss the meaning of time blocking and provide some useful ways to use it that will help project managers to increase their team’s productivity.
What is Time Blocking?
Time blocking is a strategy to boost productivity where one can segregate available time into blocks or set timelines to achieve daily weekly or monthly project goals. For instance, in an eight-hour workday, employees might work in a fifteen to sixty minutes time block.
Employees can use these blocks to focus on only one task at a time rather than working on several tasks at once. The time-blocking approach allows an employee to create a more deliberate workday structure. As a result, employees can effortlessly stay away from defensive work approaches.
Practical Ways to Use Time-blocking in Project Management
The importance of staying well-organized cannot be stressed enough in today’s fast-paced era. Here time blocking is of great help as it will help project managers to stay focused. Furthermore, project managers can use time-blocking to achieve a seamless workflow by focusing more on important tasks only.
Other than this, the time-boxing technique enables project managers to plan and formulate better strategies for decision-making. Here are some tips to follow while integrating the time-blocking method into your project management:
1. Identify Tasks
Project managers need to consider a few questions carefully like which repetitive tasks they are doing in a week. They need to list down such tasks and set priorities for them.
In addition to this, project managers should consider the way in which they want to schedule their weeks to achieve maximum productivity. They need to be realistic while identifying their tasks to make an efficient time-blocking schedule.
2. Consider Your Chosen Increments
There is no fixed pattern for setting time blocks in project management. Time blocks can work irrespective of the kind of increments project management teams are working with.
Project management professionals need to choose these increments carefully as they differ from person to person. However, smaller time intervals allow project managers and their teams to be precise with project schedules, but they can also be more stressful to manage.
Project managers can start with something broader, like 45-minute or 1-hour intervals for time blocks. As a result, they can be able to handle their projects effectively.
3. Stop Multitasking
Employees tend to think that multitasking will help them to complete all the tasks in minimal time. But the truth is multi-tasking will ultimately create chaos and confusion for them as they are working on several things at a time. Thus, multitasking can adversely affect employee productivity.
Time-blocking will force employees to avoid multitasking if implemented properly. Project managers can set only one task for a particular time block. Furthermore, they have to ensure that none of their team members get distracted by phone calls, e-mails, notifications, or any other unrelated task.
By doing this, project managers can efficiently decrease the instances of multitasking at the workplace which will eventually increase the productivity of their employees.
4. Select Proper Documentation Strategy
Create a clear documentation system to have a clear understanding of the time-blocking schedule. You can use a robust task management tool that will help you distribute time in regular intervals. Also, employees can set reminders that will notify them about the completion of a one-time block.
In addition to this, project managers can assign specific time slots by using a team task management tool to define when someone can schedule appointments with them. In this way, project managers can get control over project schedules by documenting time blocks properly.
5. Add Flexibility to Your Schedule
Project managers should leave some time for miscellaneous tasks as emergencies may occur at any time. These emergencies can be a doctor’s appointment, personal work, or some unplanned meeting. Project managers can successfully address such emergencies by making their time blocks flexible.
Project managers need to first understand the type of organization and its meeting standard. They need to think about whether employees plan meetings in advance or if they expect project managers to do so. Answering both these questions can help project managers to allocate time more realistically.
6. Review Your Plan
A complete-time blocking strategy enables project managers to calculate the number of hours that are consumed time left for unexpected meetings or incidents. Project managers need to adjust project plans by carefully reviewing them.
However, reviewing project plans is not an easy task as one needs to wait for their time block schedule to evolve over a period of time. Project managers also need to keep one thing in their mind they have to carry out quarterly or monthly reviews of project processes.
Concluding Lines
Time blocking will help you boost productivity by enabling you to solve difficulties with managing your work obligations with a task management tool. It will be able to help you perform at your best to complete more goals. By following the above-mentioned steps, project managers can develop a realistic plan to make their workdays more fruitful and productive.
