Text File Time Blocking

As longtime readers know, I’m a big advocate of time blocking as a productivity method. Running your day from a to-do list (or, God forbid, an email inbox) leads to sub-optimal returns on the energy invested. The superior method is to give every minute of your workday a job by actually blocking off your time and assigning specific work to the blocks. In my experience, a serious commitment to time blocking can roughly double your results. (For more details, see this article or Rule #4 of Deep Work.)

Anyway, this is all to say that I was excited when several readers pointed me toward a nice variation of time blocking implemented by Jeff Huang, a computer science professor at Brown University.

As detailed in a post he wrote about his method, Huang uses a plain text file to make his time block plan for the day. (Though I use a paper notebook for my time blocks, I too appreciate the versatility of plain text files.)

Here’s an example schedule provided by Huang:

2017-11-31

11:00am meet with Head TAs

– where are things at with inviting portfolio reviewers?

11:30am meet with student Enya (interested in research)

review and release A/B Testing

assignment grading

12pm HCI group meeting

– vote for lab snacks

send reminders for CHI external reviewers

read Sketchy draft Zelda

pick up eye tracker

– have her sign for it

update biosketch for Co-PI

3:15pm join call with Umbrella Corp and industry partnership staff

3:45pm advising meet with Oprah

4pm Rihanna talk (368 CIT)

5pm 1:1 with Beyonce #phdadvisee

6pm faculty interview dinner with Madonna

What makes Huang’s system particularly interesting is that he then annotates his time block schedule with notes about what actually happened during each block:

2017-11-31

11:00am meet with Head TAs

– where are things at with inviting portfolio reviewers? A: got 7/29 replies

– need 3 TAs for Thursday lab

– Redesign assignment handout will be done by Monday, ship Thursday

11:30am meet with student Enya (interested in research)

– they’re a little inexperienced, suggested applying next year

review and release A/B Testing assignment grading

12pm HCI group meeting

– automatically generate thumbnails from zoom behavior on web pages

– #idea subliminal audio that leads you to dream about websites

– Eminem presenting Nov 24

– vote for lab snacks. A: popcorn and seaweed thing

got unofficial notification ARO YIP funding award #annual #cv

read Sketchy paper draft

– needs 1 more revision

– send to Gandalf to look at?

Zelda pick up eye tracker

– have her sign for it

update biosketch for Co-PI

unexpected drop in from Coolio! #alumni

– now a PM working on TravelAdvisor, thinking about applying to grad school

3:15pm join call with Umbrella Corp and industry partnership staff

– they want to hire 20 data science + SWE interns (year 3), 4 alums there as SWE

3:45pm advising meet with Oprah

– enjoyed CS 33

– interning at Facebook

4pm Rihanna talk (368 CIT)

5pm 1:1 with Beyonce #phdadvisee

– stuck on random graph generating crash

– monitor memory/swap/disk?

– ask Mario to help?

– got internship at MSR with Cher

– start May 15 or 22

– will send me study design outline before next meeting

– interviewing Spartacus as potential RA for next semester

6pm faculty interview dinner with Madonna (Gracie’s)

– ask about connection with computer vision

– cool visual+audio unsupervised comparison, thoughtful about missing data, would work with ugrads (?), likes biking, teach compvis + graphics

– vote #HIRE

#note maybe visit Monsters University next spring, Bono does related work

Huang then saves the document, leaving a record of what he did and what he learned during the day.

I love the simplicity of this digital implementation and its use of of post-hoc annotation. It helps emphasize the reality that if you want to get more important things done, you don’t need high tech software or complex systems. The right strategy implemented in a low-friction manner can be more than enough.