Ask HN: Have you ever used time-blocking? Why? How'd it work?

9 points by justinmolineaux 11 years ago | 8 comments

Time-blocking is when you reserve specific chunks of time (usually on a calendar) for specific tasks. Granularity may vary, but think of it as reserving time to complete each of your to-dos. I'm developing a product that will help people do this. So I'm curious:

If you've used the technique, what were the circumstances (Work, school, parenting, etc)? Did it improve your productivity or balance? If you've since stopped, why did you decide to stop using the technique?

Thanks!

mtmail 11 years ago |

Yes, but more adhoc like "starting now I will dedicate 60 minutes to X". Any solution that requires me to schedule ahead or needs me to add my todos in yet another system is too much work. Especially when todos are written with pen&paper.

Your solution (https://www.cloqworq.com/) which accesses Google Calender and moves todos into slots looks cool.

I somewhat look forward to a hardware solution that includes blocking access to internet or other distractions like https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/saent-be-less-distracted. I've tried kitchen clocks (countdown) but they just added stress and pressure and didn't do anything to keep me focused.

justinmolineaux 11 years ago | |

Saent seems cool - I definitely lose a lot of time to web distractions.

I think I'm learning that people tend to plan further out (a few days to a week) in the face of external deadlines (i.e. exam season at school, sometimes end-of-quarter in business, etc). Adhoc time blocking occurs more when the motivation to be productive is self-imposed. Does that jive with your experience?

mtmail 11 years ago | | |

I think so. I don't use any calendaring application, not even for birthdays or dentist appointments and never use reminders so my work/todo flow might be unusual.

If your software could disable distractions, and that's mainly access to certain websites (like HN) or email, it's a huge plus.

With the kickstarter campaign I just like the hardware gadget and the initial prices are low enough to try. I can imagine the social sharing added to the software I saw in the screenshots will be awful.

benbayard 11 years ago |

Some days I used to really struggle to focus on a single task. I discovered Pomodoro through a friend and have been using it ever since.

I do not use a task list, but rather for 25 minutes I work on my story focusing on just that. Then I take a 5 minute break. After 2 hours I take a longer break, (first one is lunch, second one is 30 minutes, third one is 15 and then after another hour I go home)

It works very well for me. I am happy with my output. Some days, I have to abandon Pomodoro to instead have a meeting during that time slot, or other times I am just less productive Than I would like. It is a good baseline to help keep me focused.

mtmail 11 years ago | |

Do you use any hardware or software with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique ? Or just your watch?

andersthue 11 years ago |

I have not only used timeblocks with great success in my consulting business where I forced every employee to split every day into two blocks, one before lunch and one after lunch. The employees also has to map out EVERY project and task into timeblocks.

This and a few other rules worked so extremely well that our revenue increased 33% and all our customers are very happy.

Timeblocking was such a huge success for us that we started building a SaaS app on top of our method called ... ... ... (wait for it)

http://timeblock.com

jwdunne 11 years ago |

Yes, I notice a sharp rise in productivity and progress on all important projects. I don't schedule individual todos but set out todos on a project in that time.

I use iCal at work but I'd love something similar for home, where I use Ubuntu. I dislike Google Calendar, it didn't work so well. A desktop app seems to work best for me.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your project!

gadders 11 years ago |

If I have a weekly task I know I have to do like a status report, I always block out time in my diary for it.