154:{Solo} Productivity Hack: Time blocking

In today's episode, I'm unpacking the transformative power of time blocking in enhancing productivity and achieving business goals. I share my personal experience with time blocking, emphasizing its effectiveness in maintaining focus and intentionality. I encourage YOU to identify your optimal time for focused work and to protect that time fiercely. I highlight the importance of small, consistent actions and the compounding effect they have on long-term success. The episode serves as a motivational guide for anyone looking to improve their time management skills and achieve their personal and professional objectives.

takeaways

• Time blocking has been a game changer for my business.
• I focus on time blocking in the mornings when my energy is highest.
• Set specific goals during time blocking sessions.
• It's okay if life interrupts your time blocks; give yourself grace.
• Small actions compound over time to create big results.
• Batch content creation during high-energy periods.
• Everyone has the same 24 hours; it's about allocation.
• Protect your time blocking sessions fiercely.
• Time blocking can help you stay focused and intentional.
• Make time blocking a priority for your business growth.

Sis, you got this! 

Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:01.728)
All right. I want to come on the podcast today and talk about something that has been the game changer for me and moving the needle in my business and with this podcast with everything I've been doing, my personal brand. that is the power of time blocking. Yes, you've heard about it. It's not a new concept. We've all heard that time blocking works, but time blocking really has been the game changer in everything that I've been doing. And I actually started time blocking back in my

former recruiter headhunter days, I would time block at that time, two to three hours in the mornings and I would go do my LinkedIn DMs to the potential candidates that I was recruiting and I would stay in that time block and I would not come out of that. And so what that would look like is I would turn my phone, I would turn it over so I can't look at the screen, I can't see any text or anything coming through calls.

I would also shut my email down and make sure that my email notifications are not coming through. So I was 100 % focused on the task at hand during that time. And for me, what works too is give myself micro goals during those time blocking segments. So for example, in my recruiting days, I would say send out 50 messages an hour or talk to at least 10 candidates.

Now in my marketing journey, I time block, especially my mornings because you guys, I know myself and I know that my energy is best and I'm more on in the mornings than I am the afternoons. After lunch in the afternoons are good for admin tasks or whatnot, but for critical thinking or actually stuff that's going to move the needle in my business, I try to focus on time blocking in the mornings. Okay. So now time blocking in the mornings looks like I'll

separate out an hour or two hour time blocks. And I'll do the exact same thing. I'll turn my phone off or turn my phone over, shut my email down and I'll focus on the task at hand. And again, I give myself goals and I don't give myself a ton of goals, but maybe two or three goals I'd like to accomplish in that period. And maybe you're sitting here thinking, listening to this podcast and you're like, oh, I don't have time to time block.

Caroline Pennington (02:20.622)
I have elderly parents, I've got kids, I've got chaos in my house, I've got carpool, I've got a business, customers, whatever, fill in the blank. Okay, so if the mornings are not a good time for you to time block, that's completely okay, but look at your calendar, look at your schedule and see exactly when you have an hour that you could set aside to be completely focused on your business or moving the needles towards your goals. And even if you're like,

Man, I didn't accomplish that much in that time block period, or I had to break the time block because of family emergency. That's okay. Give yourself grace. We all have those things coming up. We all have life, all the things, but really time blocking and staying focused over the years has really moved the needle. And I will say too, don't beat yourself up, but it's not to be these big accomplishments that you do in these time blocks. You can be doing small things. Maybe it's sending out three emails to potential customers. Maybe it's sending out.

three DMs to people who you'd like to have on your podcast or you'd like to connect with for lunch or whatever. And over time as you do this, it's the power of compounding really sets in. And the power of compounding is a really big thing. You guys listening this, you know this, we talk about this with money, but the same thing goes with compounding with time and with task is the little tasks and the little steps, little actions that you take, they end up

It's like a snowball. It ends up ending up in these small actions end up with big results and it may not happen overnight. It may not happen tomorrow or next week or next month, but it will happen. You just have to keep doing it. And that's the hard part. And that's the game changer. And that's what sets the high achievers apart is they are the ones who actually stayed in the game. That's the exact same thing that happened this podcast.

Yes, podcasting is time consuming. Yes, is it work, but it's really something that I truly do love and the game changer and what's propelled it to where it is now is I just stayed in the game. just stayed doing it and time blocking. set aside time for my interviews. I set aside time for my tech and I just kept doing it every single week. And if I was in a busy season of life, maybe you got vacations going on holidays like we have coming up or whatnot.

Caroline Pennington (04:39.382)
I would make sure to batch my content. So when I'm feeling good, when I have high energy, I would time block podcasts to record and then I would just drip them out over the weeks upcoming. And so that's a way I've been able to continue to show up online consistently. And that is what has worked for me. And the time blocking I'm telling you is the game changer because I'm actually able to be focused and intentional and take action.

during the time blocking segments. And so everybody, we all have the same 24 hours in the day. Like my time is not different than your time. Your time is not different than Tony Robbins time. Tony Robbins time is not different than Sarah Blakely or Jesse Itzler's time. Like we all have the same 24 hours in the day. It's just how are you gonna allocate them? And even if you don't have time daily to allocate towards moving the needle in your goals or your business,

Take one hour a week and do it. Okay. And time block set aside one hour in the week where you can set aside time to move the needle in your goals and time block and treat that time. So sacred. Don't let anyone distract you. Don't let anyone take that time away from your interrupt your time and protect it and start, start seeing the game change because it will and micro, micro planning and those.

Time blocking segments has really been the game changer and if I can do it, you can too. Okay, so that's all this podcast is about today is time blocking, the importance of it. Make it a priority. It will be the game changer for you and your business, trust me. So thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Don't forget to share, subscribe and review this podcast. I appreciate you more than you know, until next time.