The Writing Desk: Time Blocks

Every year, I poll the Misfits, and every year they vote ‘time management’ as the topic they most want advice on. I can relate, I also struggle with it. But I do have some tricks, and maybe this one will help you.

Time Blocks

These three techniques are simultaneously totally different, and basically the same. They’re really all about concentrating your focus on one thing at a time.

Time blocks are chunks of time set aside for a task, in this case, writing. Do you have a full time job, or do you have erratic hours? Do you stay at home with young children or other people who need round-the-clock care? Do you have your own health issues that prevent you from sticking to a writing routine? That’s fine! Time blocks could be the answer.

Time blocks allow you to find the times of the day or week where you can dedicate your energy to writing. For me, it’s Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday mornings from 8-noon. My mental power is strongest in the morning, but I burn out after a few hours of rigorous mental work, and I dedicate my afternoons to my house, family, and volunteer work.

Your best times might be after the kids go to bed or are at school, maybe it’s your lunch break, maybe it’s in a different place every day. The important point is recognising where it is in advance so that you can build a ritual around it, rather than trying to seize it when it comes. It’s hard to be creative when you’re hunting for minutes.

So once you identify your time block, how do you defend it? I’m not going to lecture parents about making time for yourself or preach at line cooks about prioritising your creative life. This shit is hard, and sometimes it is the easiest thing to sacrifice in favour of everything else.

But if you are able to get the time and energy together at the same time, sometimes your brain fights you. In these instances, you can yank it back on board by activating a mini ritual. If you’re in a safe but noisy environment, you might try headphones or earplugs. If you’re at home, grab a drink and light a candle. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, it just needs to signal to your brain that, ‘right, we have 30 minutes. Let’s get some words down on paper.’ And remember that what you write doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to exist. You can always edit during a time block, so the time will come to make it look nice.

You can also combine time blocks with other techniques like dictation and the Pomodoro Method.

Task Batching

Task batching is all about flow, and it’s one of my faves. Basically, you break down your big tasks into smaller tasks, decide what order they go in, and do all the similar tasks at the same time.

For instance, when I’m planning my blog posts for the year, I break them down like this:

TitleOutlineDraftEditDesign cover images and Instagram postsAdd picsAdd linksEdit againAdd tagsScheduleSchedule social media posts

So, when I sit down to start my blogs, I open twelve new blog posts and title them. Then I go through each of them, setting up the topics I want to talk about. Next, I take a couple of days to write the actual post themselves (what you’re reading now was written during the Draft batch). Etc, etc.

The downside of this technique is that everything is done all at once, so if you don’t finish all of them, you don’t finish any of them. This is what happened last year. But if you find the cycle of ‘plan, write, edit, publish, plan, write, edit, publish, plan, write, edit, publish’ a little overwhelming, this might be one for you to try.

Micro-scheduling vs Day Theming

Micro-scheduling and Day theming are pretty self-explanatory. Some people benefit from a strict routine, and some need a bit more flexibility.

A micro-scheduled four-hour block might look like:

First hour: Pomodoro (25 mins of writing, 10 min break, 25 mins of writing)Second hour: Research and plan for tomorrow’s workThird hour: social media postsFourth hour: read fiction

This works great if you have a solid four hours with no threat of interruption, even from your own attention span. Or if your the sort of person who really needs strict structure.

Day theming is kind of the reverse, but not really. A four-day work week might look like:

Monday: draftingTuesday: researchThursday: social media postsFriday: read fiction

This works great for people with less reliable time blocks, or who need more flexibility in their structure. Four hours of drafting is four hours of drafting, whether it’s done in the same day or over the course of a week.

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Do these ideas work for you? Are there any you’re excited to try? What techniques do you use?