Time blocking has pretty much saved my life. If you read this post last week, you’ll know why. Time blocking finally made it possible for me to find a routine that worked and that I could manage as a work at home mom with three kids. Our day to day lives change so much that creating a schedule just wasn’t working, especially with kids. I needed something that could follow more of a general routine and pattern, but create some guidelines for me to accomplish what I needed to and be proactive with my time. Without it, my time would get away from me. I would see an hour go by and feel like I was drowning in what I wanted to get done…still! Time blocking changed it all.

To help time blocking work for you, there are a few things you should do. It’s not enough just to set aside your tasks and batch them into blocks. You need to find ways to implement guidelines to help you succeed.

Tips to Succeed at Time Blocking

Set Alarms. If you’re like me, alarm clocks can be annoying. I hate alarm clocks and I hate hearing them go off. But setting an alarm throughout the day kept me on task and moving from one block to another with ease. When my alarm went off, I moved on to the next block. Even if everything wasn’t finished, it was time to move on. If there were things to get done still, then I would do them the next day. Little by little, that’s the key.

Remove time suckers. This right here is one of the main reasons to set an alarm…your phone can be a time sucker. You may pick it up to look at the time, and before you know it you have responded to a dozen texts and scrolled through Instagram at time or two. There is no need to look at your clock when you have alarms set. Just hustle hard, get things done, and your alarm will go off when it’s time to move on.

Write a to-do list. Even though your time is divided into blocks, don’t stop writing lists. Writing out your to-do list will help your thoughts stay organized and keep you proactive with your time. If there are certain cleaning things you want to get done one week, write it out. Then work on the list during its assigned block, but if you don’t finish it all, move it over to the next day.

Keep your blocks consistent. Because this is organizing your time into blocks, it doesn’t need to change every day. You have a general flow each day that may be made up of different things. The best way to succeed is to keep every day the same general flow. If you have to, do every other day (maybe your kids is in preschool or your work two days a week). So you may have two block schedules, one for days you work, one for days you don’t. The more consistent they are, the more it helps you fall into a pattern as well. This only increases your productivity!

Set aside time for you. It’s not wrong for you to pick up your phone and respond to a text or scroll through Instagram. It just doesn’t help you if it ends up being a time sucker. Make sure to set aside time mentally that you know you can check your phone. I purposely keep my phone in the room in the mornings when getting my son out the door for school because I don’t want it to be a distraction. But I know during lunch or nap time, I can have it and scroll through Instagram. If it’s not work time, I don’t pull up my email or Instagram. I try to keep those times for when I have the block scheduled so I don’t get sucked into something when it’s not time yet. But, it’s okay to set aside pockets in your day for these moments.

I promise you if you give time blocking a try, your life will be changed. You will find a level of productivity you didn’t even know you had! You can grab my time blocking workbook to help you get started or just use the schedule to craft your own. They’re both free and can be downloaded by joining the mom tribe where you will get access to all the freebies in my resource library. Sign up below!