As the year comes to a close, we all look with excitement to a fresh start in the New Year. We all desire to crush time management. We want to overcome feelings of overwhelm that we have battled. In this post, I am going to give you the 3 steps you need to succeed in my five-step time blocking which will help you win in your time management.
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
Time Management Bootcamp
If you’re on my email list or have been hanging out in the Facebook group or listened to my podcast in the last week, you have heard about my upcoming Time Management Bootcamp that I am hosting NEXT WEEK!! It will be live, 100% free, and I know it will help you improve your time management if you show up and do the work.
It is three days of live teaching (November 16-18, 2022) starting at 11 am MST going deeper than ever before into this topic of time management. If you haven’t seen the bottom of your sink in ages, if you’re behind in work because you are drowning in your never-ending to-do list, if you want to actually put makeup on and wash your hair for once, then girlfriend, this bootcamp is for YOU!
There is a better way to do life. I know there are so many things you wish you could be doing: exercising, caring for yourself, spending quality time with your husband, and really pursuing your side hustle. I am here to show you how you can work those things in while still taking keeping up with your housework, being a taxi driver, caring for extended family, or whatever else is on your plate.
As we approach next week, I am sharing things on the podcast that will help you get the most out of the Time Management Bootcamp. I want you to succeed and am giving you the tools to implement to go from where you are now to where you want to be.
If you haven’t already, make sure you register here! We have already given out some incredible door prizes and have even more planned for the next several days (including my favorite paper planner, essential oils, and more!) I will be diving into how you can use my five-block method most effectively, which I will be helping you prep for today.
Why I Created My Five-Block Method
Before we begin, let me share with you what my five-block method is and how it is different from other time blocking methods. After designing and using this method for years, I want you to understand that it works! I have had success using the five-block method in busy seasons. Many other women with many things on their plates have had success as well.
I created the method to combat the constant attention that things in your life seem to need, not only every day, but every minute. The feeling that you’re an owl, because your head is turned in every direction. Everything is asking for your time.
I realized that chaos was not going to accelerate my life. My desire is not to live in stagnation, but to accelerate. For this reason, I began experimenting with different methods. I used other people’s strategies that I found on Pinterest or the internet, but all of them were lacking. None of them were systematic or clear.
Then I crafted this five-block method. It truly allows you to take everything that you could possibly have to do and fit it inside of these five blocks. The way that you structure your time and tasks inside of these blocks is the magic, the secret sauce, which is what I will be teaching you inside of the Time Management Bootcamp. Please go register, it is completely free!
1. Know My Five-Block Time Management Method
There are so many podcast episodes on my five-step time blocking method that you can go binge in the podcast vault. You can search within the document by typing Control + F or Command + F, depending on your computer. Then typing “time blocking” into the search bar that opens up.
Basically, my time blocking method consists of five-blocks: 1) morning routine block. 2) AM block. 3) work block. 4) PM block. 5) nighttime routine block. To understand how this works out, look at your hand and imagine your thumb being block one, your pointer finger being block two, and so on.
Your thumb, middle finger, and pinky (blocks 1, 3, & 5) are the blocks where you are without your family or children or external responsibilities. Those are the blocks where you would be focusing on your needs whether those are work or personal.
“I realized that chaos was not going to accelerate my life. My desire is not to live in stagnation, but to accelerate.”
Then your AM and PM blocks are fully dedicated to everything else. The exact time windows and what fills those windows are going to look different for each one of you and a lot of you get lost here. We’re really going to hammer this in during the bootcamp.
For the work block, this could look like 2 hours if you’re a naptime warrior or maybe 8 hours if you work outside of the home. For some of you, you can’t have that work block during the day and everything that belongs in that might need to happen in the morning routine block.
The beauty of this five-block method is found in understanding it well enough to adjust it to the season you’re in and still fit in all the appropriate responsibilities into each of those five blocks. That is part one of how you crush time management with this method.
2. Accessories!
Accessories, accessories, accessories! I love accessories in all things: fashion, time management, home decor! There’s only three accessories that you need in this second step.
A Paper Planner
You guys know that I am partial to the Dream Planner by Horacio Printing. It is just a gorgeous, blank canvas, ready to receive my five-block system. It actually helped me create my five-block method. The Dream Planner is a lightly guided clean slate that helped me get the vision of what I wanted my time management to be out onto paper.
I am an affiliate for them, I highly recommend them, and we’re actually giving away one of their planner kits inside of the Time Management Bootcamp. (So you’ll totally want to get over there!) I also have a discount code with them to get 20% off, which is a pretty sizable discount for a planner. Use the code CHELSI20 at checkout for that 20% off!
If you want to use something other than the Dream Planner by Horacio Printing, I recommend you get something with a daily view that has a really open layout. Time stamps may be your thing. It is totally fine to get a planner with time stamps. But you don’t need them. I actually recommend against it because I am teaching you a framework and moving away from schedule.
Schedules can be hard because if something in life throws you off track, it is hard to know where to get back on. With frameworks, you have much more flexibility. You’re able to see what part of the day you are in and what is the highest priority to finish in that part of the day. Which is why I recommend getting a planner without time stamps.
Black Pen & Highlighters
The last two accessories that you need are a good, old-fashioned black pen and some highlighters. If you don’t have highlighters, pastel markers, colored pencils, or your kids’ crayons work just fine as well!
Some of you are really going to love the idea of erasable pens and highlighters that you can snag off of Amazon. I personally think they’re unnecessary, especially when you’re just getting started. Yes, you really want to get it right, I know, but you don’t have to.
Additionally, inside our Facebook group we have sample planner pages that you can use to practice with because your planners don’t start until 2023. If you want to start practicing for the rest of the year, you can head over and snag the PDF that the creator of Horacio Printing, Polly Payne, was gracious enough to share with us.
3. An Hour Every Week
Oh my goodness! You’re so starved for time already, I know. But that’s what I’m here to tell you, that it’s going to take an hour a week. The final step to crush time management is investing one hour a week into creating your time blocks.
One of my goals this year is to make this time blocking method even more effective and completely automated for the women who have got the systems and method down pat. We already try to do that, but I am just hungry to make it even more automated and simplified.
However, you cannot skip the learning curve. You have to go through the process of learning a legitimate time management strategy. You must apply yourself. It will not magically appear in your Google calendar because you purchase my course or listen to the podcast. You have to decide if you are done running around like a chicken with its head cut off. You have to make the time to put the pen on the paper in order to see growth and change in your life.
The requirement is there for you to do the hard work of changing your ways. I know you want to. You have been looking for solutions and I have solutions. Now it is time for you to take the solutions and apply them. All you need is an hour a week.
Here we go!
You’ve got to know the system, have the supplies (paper planner, black pen, and highlighters), and set aside an hour week. It’s all you need and I know you can do it. I want you to trust yourself. Sit down right now and schedule some time this weekend to do it. Tell your husband you are going to do it, make a promise to yourself, and show up to it. Don’t forget that about the other resources on time blocking in my podcast vault. You’ve got this!
Frequently Asked Questions
I am ready to dive in, but have a history of breaking promises to myself. How can I get accountability?
That is my favorite thing in the whole wide world to give my community! I was a cheerleader all of my life and I never had a clue that it would manifest itself this way. My favorite resources for accountability here are the Systemize Your Life Facebook group and the Time Management Bootcamp Facebook group. I’ve got 5 people focused on investing in the women in this bootcamp and we are all in to bring you success!
