Time-blocking my week

[Ing]

I noticed I kept missing the evening run, partly because it’s getting cold, wet, and dark in the evening, and partly because my running buddy keeps bailing on me. I could go a particular evening but wait to go with him, then he cancels.

Waiting for sport buddies is boring.
Its the same as with business partners : you must be very luckt to get one whith whom that will work.
I m running since about 45 years alone, not relying on a running partner.
Years going by, I have seen nearle 100 different people, which run with me. Or did another sport. Climbing, biking, running, squach ...
But the only thing, that really works is : run alone! And run, when you drive back from work or a meeting or even your school run. Always put trousers and shoes in the car! Than you dont have to leave the house xetra for running, but its only an ad to the last thing you had to do.

And when your running buddy wants to come with you, tell him when and where and he can be there or not!

edith: btw. happy you! Its never really cold, where you live. I cant run under 6 °C; I get ill soon!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

I do the same, on my planner because I'm a pen and paper lady.

Fun activity for getting slapped in the face: Grab a sharpie and time-block (color in) your 9-5, what's left blank is your YOU time.

DEPRESSIVE AF ISN'T IT???????????? EVERYTHING IS COLORED BLACK! Rip the page and onto the corkboard for permanent motivation.

The difference here is Andy's sharpie block is actually family time and we all want to be Andy rignt now.

Hmmm... what about drawing out your *ideal* week and putting that on the wall?

 

[BellaPippin]

Hmmm... what about drawing out your *ideal* week and putting that on the wall?

I had a vision board and even thought I thought I had curated the images really well, I don't think it made much of a difference. But seeing that, or seeing stuff like "each jelly bean in this jar is a year of your life" type of stuff seems to remind me I'm wasting my time. It's funny... it's like the only type of negative reinforcement that works on me.

Also paradoxically, planning "ideal" things ends up triggering my anxiety when things happen and I have to accomodate stuff or the plans change for x reason. So I've been advised to try to not set too strict of a plan...

 

[Andy Black]

Here's the calendar for next week.

• As mentioned, the main difference is I moved the evening runs to the morning. Now the mornings will all look the same and I won't have to think (which is good in the morning).
• I won't make the gym on the two scheduled mornings next week, but will go for a walk instead.
• A call slipped into my calendar on Monday morning. It's with the business consultant for one of my clients. The client recommended us to the business consultant and he wants a chat to see how and if we can help his other clients. I thought it worth breaking my "No Calls On Monday" rule.
• The YouTube stuff is there, but not happening at the moment. It's on hold until I get a grip on all client work, and bring the team up to speed. I've left it in my calendar to "tease" me. Haha.
• Oh, and another cool thing with Google Calendar is that it can send me an email at 5am every morning with my schedule for the day.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Defection]

I've been scheduling everything in my calendar for quite some time now, I find the best thing is to get everything that's likely to consume any of my time down, and I've found it extremely useful. The notifications are often the kick up the backside I need to get moving.

However, you've also made me realise that sometimes I do 'All day' for the convenience of quickly jotting things in sometimes, specifically jobs that are likely to take up all/most of my day.

From this week, I'm going to put a specified time for how long I can spend on a project, especially if I know how long it should really take. I'm hoping this will eliminate distractions and give me a goal to focus on and work towards.

Thanks for the excellent advice as always, @Andy Black !

 

[Deleted69685]

YES! It's all about putting those big rocks in first. For those that don't know:

View: https://www.youtube.com/embed/SqGRnlXplx0


You have to know what you value before you do it, otherwise your calendar fills up with things that are important, but not necessarily valuable to you. It's important that I work in a clean office, but spending time cleaning is not valuable to me, so I hire someone.

What happens is that the lower value stuff falls off, and sometimes that's painful. OTOH, you can easily free up 5 - 10 hours a week doing this.

He said that the golf balls are your very important things, eg. family and FRIENDS. He then said that the beers represent "no matter how full your life gets there is always time for a beer with a friend." Wait that's a lot time for friends. If I got my golf balls right I would not have the beers- time, right?

Can we re-phrase it?

I'd label "the beers time" time for yourself - no matter how full your life can be you can always have time for yourself. How about that?

 

[Andy Black]

Bump. Curious if anyone else timeblocks their calendar like this.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.