"Do you have 5 minutes for a chat?"
This small ask during the day from your co-workers or employees can quickly spiral into long discussions, and your day ends with you having attended a bunch of meetings, completed small tasks, and sent a few emails. Then, when it's time to wrap up work, you are felt feeling guilty for not getting deep work done while the day just passed. Even for the next day, there's more chaos than clarity.
That's where time-blocking and day-theming can help. These two scheduling methods can help you get deep work done and have guilt-free time for things you enjoy outside of work.
In this post, we'll explore these techniques, why they matter, and how you can use your calendar and task list to practice them.
Time Blocking
Time blocking means dividing your day into blocks of time. Each block is reserved to complete a specific task or a group of tasks. Instead of a day with a list of to-do items that you are not even sure you will be able to get to, you will have a concrete schedule of what you'll work on and when.
Sunsama tip: Before you time block, prioritize your tasks. This will help you get those things done that actually move the needle.
Day Theming
Usually, work isn’t just chasing one project, following through one decision, and working on only one task. Instead, most of us usually have a lot of different areas of responsibility. If you try time blocking, with everything on your plate —meetings, reviews, admin work, creating content, making decisions, deep work, and more, you will likely end up with multiple tiny slots of work with time blocking. That can make the process cumbersome and render you unable to focus deeply/
Luckily, there's an answer for it, a slight variation of time-blocking called ‘Day Theming’.
Day theming is organizing your day around one topic instead of splitting it into blocks for different types of tasks (as is the case with time-blocking).
For example, a software engineer's schedule for the week built using day theming can look something like this:
- Monday: Brainstorming new product features
- Tuesday: Coding
- Wednesday: Code reviews
- Thursday: Coding
- Friday: Bug fixes
In a 2012 interview, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and founder of Twitter, explained that day theming is his secret to managing two companies at a time.
"So on Monday at both companies, I focus on management and running the company, which is—we have our directional meeting at Square, and we have our OpCom meeting at Twitter. I do all my management one-on-ones on that day. Tuesday is focused on the product. Wednesday is focused on marketing and communications, and growth. Thursday is focused on developers and partnerships, and Friday is focused on the company and the culture and recruiting. Saturday, I take off. I hike. And then Sunday is reflections, feedback, strategy, and getting ready for the rest of the week." ~Jack Dorsey
Read More: Theme Days
What is the advantage of designing your schedule with theme days and time blocks?
Time blocking and day theming help you become productive because of two reasons:
- By blocking time for a certain task, you avoid multi-tasking. It reduces context switching, and you can fully focus on your task and get quality work done quickly.
- When you know you have to finish a task in the allotted time, you will avoid distractions, save time, and increase your productivity.
But there are more benefits to using theme days and time blocking than just doing it for the sake of saving time or being productive.
Let your mind be stress free
The simple act of putting tasks on your calendar will free your mind and improve your cognitive abilities to focus on the tasks at the moment. We tend to remember unfinished tasks (aka the Zeigarnik effect), which can lead to anxiety. But when we put a task on our calendar, we know it will get its due attention when it's time. That brings a sense of control over our workload and relieves us of stress.
Bring clarity instead of chaos
When you wrap up your day knowing what's the theme of the next day and how your day looks like, you can go to bed with fewer (if any) thoughts racing through your head. It also helps you get excited for the day when you wake up because you've already set an intention for how it should look. No more mulling over what to do. That means a more focused and productive day.
Become a better person for those around you
Theming can allow you to shape your quarter or year around the life of people around you. For example, If you have kids and you need to drop them off and pick them up from sports practice on Tuesday afternoon, keep that day for shallow work.
You can say "no" without feeling bad about it
When you block time on your calendar and can't find any time to "quick-chat" or take unplanned, spontaneous work, it's easy to inform the other person about the same and say "no" without feeling guilty. That also helps you avoid getting overworked and feeling burnt out.
How to day theme your calendar using Sunsama
It takes a little practice to get better at creating schedules that honor the natural flow of your day and boost productivity. But it gets easier if you use tools like Sunsama, which are designed with these techniques in mind.
Step 1: Create a list of your tasks and re-arrange their sequence according to their priority.
Identify different themes that emerge out of these tasks. For example, if you are a product manager, you might have the following themes: Meetings, Product Reviews, Customer Interviews, and Admin Work. It even helps if you slot in time for personal life as well. Themes in personal life can be Hobbies, Meal-prep, de-cluttering, etc.
Step 2: Create labels according to these themes, and tag different tasks with these labels.
Step 3: Drag tasks that belong to the same label to the day slotted for that theme.
Make sure all of your priorities fit into your calendar. If there's not enough time to fit everything, re-work your priorities. Identify if you can delegate or defer anything.
Theming your days always pays!
Time blocking & Day theming can seem like an 'extra task' at first. But if you spend 10-15 min each day setting your schedule, you can get a few hours back — enough to make a difference in managing your work-life balance, avoiding burnout, and living a fulfilled life.
So before the next week starts, signup for Sunsama here and get your 14-day free trial. No credit card is required. Create your tasks, and assign them some themes with 'labels' in Sunsama. Test out what's working and adjust accordingly. It's okay to sort out one day at a time and keep adding theme days till you feel everything works well.
