Time-Block Planning: backsliding and finding a foothold

Over the last few weeks I have not kept up with my time-block planning as much as I had hoped I would. During these last two weeks I tried using my Outlook calendar to manage my time, and for the most part it worked in that I got to my meetings on time, but I did fall behind on a few important projects. 

In thinking about why I didn't create a time-block plan I realized my family had a number of social plans the past two weekends. With the pandemic protocols loosening, and with my wife and I being fully vaccinated this week we'll have to go back to navigating fairly busy weekends. This is compounded by the fact that my wife's work schedule includes Fridays and Sundays. It seems likely that I will need to step up a bit more on the domestic chores through the Summer, so she will have time to work on her new business and freelance projects. This might be a good push to figure out more meals that can be prepped ahead of time, establish some task lists that I can get done quickly once I get a routine, and work with my child Jack to figure out how to put toys away.... Hey, a parent can dream. 

I took some time on Sunday night to create my time-block plan for the week, and as I was doing so I listened to a past Deep Work podcast. This was a really nice task as my mind was engaged with the podcast, my hands engaged with drawing out my plan, and if I needed to write anything down from the podcast my notebook was handy.

To plan my week I wrote a weekly overview with my personal plans, five work days with the full deep work schedule and lists, and two weekend days with just the dates. 

Weekly Schedule

Daily Schedule

After creating these 'blank' schedules I then reviewed my work Outlook calendar for meetings, appointments, or workshops, writing them in the relevant daily schedule. After that I looked at my ideal schedule and scheduled the remaining times, balancing meetings with moving forward on projects. I feel like there is some tension between my ideal schedule and the meetings I have to attend, but I think this is good as it pushes me to think about the meetings I have scheduled and if I need to go to them. This term I've cancelled a number of workshops or asked if I really needed to be at a meeting on the basis of not having enough time for my ideal schedule.

Daily Schedule Completed

Each pass of the schedule seems to address an important part of why I try to manage my time.

• Drawing out schedules - Aside from enjoying the arts and crafts feel of taking a straight edge and drawing these schedules, it also gives me a minute to really process the upcoming days, as without this exercise I feel like time just slips away. 
• Personal schedule - Allows me to address any personal commitments I have, my wife's work schedule, if my childcare provider cancels a day, any special meal prep I need to do (we plan meals with Google calendar and their shared shopping list site), and allows me to think up plans. 
• Work schedule - There are a number of meetings I'm expected to attend based on my role as chairperson, in relation to projects I'm managing this term, and as different events come up. It also gives me a chance to look at the status of a variety of projects and see if any are lagging, and what, if any, updates I need to provide stakeholders. 
• Ideal schedule - This is my quarterly plan for how I want to spend my time, but I've been iterating on it this term every month or so. I realized early that doing emails first thing in the morning was spinning out my days to focus just on emails and replies. Instead starting with a smallish focused project and not checking emails until 10 or 11 helps me start the day productively, which in turn makes me feel comfortable about spending time in my emails. It also helps me feel accomplished earlier in the day, to get that next ball rolling. 

In the past I would complete my daily schedule for the next five work days, but this week I decided to do that only for Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I am visiting my campus and am still sorting out what I'll be doing that day, and it seems likely the following days will be spent catching up on other tasks I wasn't able to get done then.

How do you manage your days? How do you determine if you need to go to a meeting or not?