Ever been in a position where you feel like you have too much work to do but at the end of the day you've never been able to complete any one of them even if you felt like you did have time?
Yeah me too.
>>>REWINDING MY EXPERIENCE BEFORE TIME-BLOCKING<<<
So as law students, we understand that we do have multiple things to take care of.
From being involved in multiple activities to being involved in law school projects, assignments, a lot of classwork and keeping myself updated with the notes, it became hectic.
Adding on to that, I even began blogging and working in my own organisation. That took up a lot of time.
So now I had to manage my curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular and personal time in the span of 24 hours! Seems hectic? Yeah I felt the same.
When I listed down my tasks, I realised that I had a lot to complete and it stressed me out, because I didn't know when to do them all and soon it became overwhelming. I would eventually delay the tasks.
Giving myself deadlines with dates didn't work well either. So I decided that it was time to give myself deadlines for each task while assigning them a particular time slot.
This is how I began with time-blocking.
So what is time-blocking?
In simple terms, I would call time blocking as allocating specific time for each task.
Time blocking is important for me because then I can organise my schedule without feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have.
How would that work?
Now, considering I have a list of multiple tasks, such as:
a. Meeting with my Team members from International Legal League.
b. Making an Instagram Post for my Shivani Speaks Legally account.
c. Completing all of my class notes.
d. Sending articles written by our content writers of I.L.L. for proof-reading to the editors.
e. Writing a blog post for Shivani Speaks Legally.
How do I divide the time then?
The first step is to always list down the tasks you are supposed to accomplish. Make a list of the things you need to do for that particular day or that particular week.
Then give them dates.
For example, as I stated above, considering I take a meeting with my team members, it would generally be on a weekend, because of the difference in time zones and because all of us would most likely have other commitments on the weekdays.
So now, the next thing is to decide the date. In my case, generally Sundays are the days to relax and hence almost all of our meetings would be on a Saturday.
The final thing would be to decide a time. We agree on a particular time that would suit all of the members of our team regardless of our difference in time zone and then allot that time to that particular task only.
Which means, that if I have a meeting with my team members from 3:00 PM IST to 4:00 PM IST, I would not do any other task at that time.
Multitasking is always, ALWAYS, a bad idea.
Now, The next step is to see, which of the tasks can be done together in a fixed time slot.
For example, on Weekdays, I have my online classes beginning from 9:45/10:00 AM IST which go up to, 4:30/5:00 PM IST.
Which means, this period of time, I will most likely be busy and would not take up any task that would require me to dedicate more than 10 minutes to it.
Now the trick again, is to establish and dedicate a particular time.
Here, I would state that I'm generally awake by 8:00 AM which means, I have about 2 hours before my classes actually begin.
Considering I do all of my personal tasks by 9:00 AM, I would still have about 1 hour left.
Here, I club my tasks. Which means, tasks that require me to use my mobile, I club them together.
In the above list of tasks, I can see, that task (b) and task (d) would require my mobile. I do them simultaneously.
This does not necessarily mean that I always use my mobile for these tasks.
Sometimes I use my laptop as well, and at that point of time, I may fix my time accordingly.
Again, I allot a particular slot of time.
Like I said, I had about 1 hour free before the class actually begins. So during this time period, I make sure to complete these tasks between 9 am to 10 am and stick to the allotted time-slot.
This way, I've given myself a time period to complete the tasks and stick to it while making my work seem less overwhelming.
Coming on the next set of tasks -(c) and (e).
Since all of my classes are online, I listen to the recordings after class to see if I have missed out on any point or go through the study materials provided by the teachers.
Which means, I would require my laptop for the same.
Similarly, I would need my laptop for writing my blog posts as well. (like I am writing now)
But these tasks take time. So I would give a generous amount of time slot for them.
Sometimes I have a writer's block and cannot think of a proper way to write down all my thoughts on the blog post and that's why I give myself a generous amount of time.
Since I have my classes till the evening, it would mean, that I will have to do these tasks post my online classes. Hence allocating time after my classes would be the best idea.
Let's say, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 Pm I do a task and from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM, I do another task.
From these two tasks, I make sure to complete the task that is more important at that period of time.
Presuming it is Friday evening, writing a blog post would be more important than completing my notes, because I have to publish my blog at 11:00 AM IST on Saturday, while I can complete the notes and revise immediately after that for the next two days.
Now, if it was a week-day, let's say, a Tuesday, writing a blog post would not be of much importance as I would have my classes the next day and completing my notes before the classes next day, would be more relevant.
Therefore, you need to allot time, depending upon your priorities, your urgency, and clubbing them together so you can do them in that particular time.
Finally
If you complete your tasks before the allotted time limit, make sure to give yourself rewards. As I stated in my previous blog post, rewards motivate you to do better.
Hope that this blog post has given you a small idea of what time-blocking is and would probably help you organise your day and make use of your time wisely!
If you haven't already, check out my Instagram page for updates on blog and more of such stuff. I also provide study tips updates on freebies and other tips on Instagram, so be sure to follow me there- https://www.instagram.com/shivanispeakslegally/
Comentarios