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	Building Blocks

	by Dan Pierce

Time management is a relatively simple idea. The difficult part to managing your time is finding out what WORKS for you and using the TOOLS that simplify your life. It can be tough making sure that you are able to put in all the tasks or activities that you need to get accomplished with enough time left over to do the things you want to do. A tool that can help is to look at time in a way that helps you put new activities in your schedule and not feel like you are being over loaded. One such way is by breaking down your day into different blocks of time.

BREAKING DOWN THE DAY

The first step is to look at when you feel most PRODUCTIVE for different tasks. If you are most focused in the morning, do those tasks that need that focus first thing. Likewise if you have difficulty getting tasks done in the afternoon, try them somewhere else in your day. An example of a task that I have found difficult to schedule is paperwork. I found that I had meetings in the afternoon right when I was trying to get my paperwork done. I found that the office was quiet in the morning and if I went right into work before there were a lot of people in the office, then I could focus on my paperwork. Now I can attend my afternoon meetings and not dread my ever increasing work load.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

The second part is look at how your day flows. Every day flows from one activity or appointment to the next. Some can be changed, some can't. Look at what activities cannot be moved to a different part of the day -- activities that need to be done at a SPECIFIC time and in a specific place. An example of this is work or school. This creates a BLOCK of time in your schedule. Other blocks of time in your day can be when you wake up to when you have to go to work or after work to bed. Some people have a few blocks of time others have many. It is what ever works for you.

PLANNING AROUND YOUR BLOCKS

Take those blocks and see what activities can be reasonably PLACED into those blocks. I have four major blocks of time in my day. A small block from when I get up to when I leave for work. The time I am at work makes up its own block of time. The end of work to when I get home is a third block, where I place my errands, and my fourth block of time is being home in the evening to bed time.

MY PERSONAL EXAMPLE

About a month ago I wanted to make exercise more important in my life. Because I go to work early in the morning and have errands and appointments in the evening, I found that I wasn't exercising as much as I wanted and the treadmill was collecting a lot of dust. By looking at how my day flowed I found how my blocks of time had changed over the past few months and was able to make adjustments so I could get on the treadmill more often. By looking at my available blocks of time I was able to see where I could put exercise in and not get OVERLOADED. Knowing that my morning block is smaller than my evening block helped me see that I could make more time available in the evening after work and after I ran errands.

GETTING VISUAL

It can help to look at your blocks in a TANGIBLE way. Take out your calendar, scheduling program, or appointment book and look at what blocks of time that you have. Do you work at a specific time? HIGHLIGHT that time one color. What do your mornings look like? Highlight that in another color. Do this until you have all of you blocks of time highlighted. Try this for the whole week. You may find that your blocks change throughout the week. Ask yourself if those times work for you. If not see what changes can be made.

FINDING YOUR OWN WAY

Time management can be as rigid or as FLEXIBLE as you need it. There is no doing it right or wrong, just what is right for you. This tool can help you put your activities in the right part of the day.

Dan is a Personal and Professional Coach who works with vibrant and motivated individuals who want to expand their lives. Dan has experience in a wide variety of topics to include leadership development, personal growth, and time management. He may be contacted at www.coachingforbalance.com or .

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