Google Calendar is such a powerful tool to create the most productive week you’ll ever have. Over the last year or so, I became really into blocking time on my calendar and using a color coding system to easily scan what type of week I was going to have – is it a report heavy week, do I have a lot of personal stuff going on? In this post, I’ll share how I’ve been using Google Calendar to plan out my week and how important it is for me to protect my time. This also applies to Apple Calendar or any other calendaring system that has similar features to Google Calendar.
My interest in time blocking and color coding on my calendar peaked when I started watching more productivity videos on Youtube. I can’t remember the first video I watched, but I remember feeling inspired to really take advantage of how my weeks were structured. Of course, a lot of productivity videos on Youtube are made by entrepreneurs who work for themselves and can dictate their own schedules. They would have less meetings on their calendars and more time to do deep work. I had to figure out how I could apply this to my schedule, which can be unpredictable at times or change week over week. Sometimes last minute meetings are scheduled or a big deliverable is due that requires more review meetings. Sometimes meetings might be grouped in the mornings or there’s the annoyingly random 30 minute blocks of free time throughout the day (you know what I’m talking about). Although most meetings I have I schedule on my own, a lot of those meetings are dependent on when other people can meet with me. So, knowing this, I had to become smart about what types of work I prefer to do during certain times of the day and blocking out as much of the free space I have for deep work.
Identifying the tasks for the week
At the beginning of every week, preferably on Sundays when I am preparing for the week, I will take a look at my calendar to see what meetings I have coming up that I need to prepare for. I also try to do this at the end of day Fridays in case there is something on Monday I need to prepare for. Once I know what meetings I have coming up, I will then think about what tasks need to be accomplished to either prep for those meetings or what tasks can be accomplished to move the needle on my projects.
Identifying when to work on those tasks
After I have my list of tasks that need to be completed for the week written down, I will look at the calendar again to see when I can work on those tasks. If I see I have a few meeting heavy days, I know those days will mostly be admin related days – answering emails, entering in data, checking in on my project’s progress. For days that are not filled with meetings, I will carve out as much deep work as I possibly can. If you’re not familiar with the term deep work, I highly suggest you read “Deep Work” by Cal Newport! But for a quick summary, deep work is when you dedicate 90 mins or so to one task that you are laser focused on with no distractions to make progress on the most important work – this work is usually related to your goals.
I know that I am much better at completing my most important work in the morning. Once it reaches the afternoon, it is a lot harder for me to keep my focus. Lately, I haven’t had too many morning meetings, so I will block out that time to do reporting or documentation work – anything that requires more thinking. This is not always the case, so if I know I’m going to be working on important items in the afternoon, I break down the steps for that task so I know exactly where to start and what to do next.
A pro tip here that I learned recently when writing your tasks list is to think of your tasks in 3s:
- 3 tasks for the week
- 3 tasks for the day to get closer to your goals for the week
- 3 wins for the week that you want feel good about when you get to the end of the week
This is a helpful method to keep you focused and not overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to get done. This will also create a more realistic schedule with the amount of time you might have for the week.
Blocking time on the calendar
Once I’ve identified which days I can get going on my most important work, I will start blocking that time on my calendar and color coding that time so I immediately know which projects I am working on for that day.
Here is a mockup of my calendar for what a week can look like:
- Flamingo – Reports
- Blueberry – Documentation/Process
- Orange – Admin/Management
- Green – Project Management
- Yellow – Personal
- Purple – Workout
- Light Blue – Blog work
- Red – Meetings
Now of course there are times when I need to take those last minute meetings and a fire drill task does come up that needs my attention, but having my calendar blocked out this way allows me to identify where there is real time and what can move. This method can also help conversations with your manager if last minute tasks come up by asking: “I have been looped into this fire drill task, here is what will move if I spend time working on it. Is that okay or should I re-prioritize my schedule?” It shows proactiveness in keeping your manager up to date on deliverables as well as giving them the opportunity to help you focus on the most important work for the week. If you work for yourself or doing personal work, it’s good to check in with yourself in this way because you need to make sure you are okay with changing your schedule and re-prioritizing your work. As I am more focused on my blog, I check in with myself often.
Why calendar blocking is important to me
Lately, it has been more important for me to protect my time because of my theme of being disciplined this year. I have practiced this method of calendar blocking for awhile, but I am more strict about it now by paying close attention to my schedule and what needs to be accomplished within that schedule. I have clear goals I want to accomplish personally and professionally. I have a timeline for when I want to achieve those goals and it is in my best interest to put my time first in order to make this happen. In the past month, I have felt a huge transformation in how I am managing my time to get good quality work done. I’m noticing I am more realistic in what I can actually accomplish within a week, even within the day. I make sure that I not only plan for the full week, but I review that schedule every night to reflect on what I have worked on and what needs to get done the next day, especially if new meetings have to get scheduled for the week. As with life, this doesn’t work out perfectly all the time – I’ll have harder days where I don’t have mental energy to plan the night before or I get distracted, but I make sure I do better the next day.
Google calendar is only one method I use to plan my week. I have a suite of productivity tools that help me plan my week, stick to my to dos and keep myself organized to accomplish my tasks. A full productivity post is on the way!
What is your favorite method to plan out your week? I love hearing ideas of other methods people like to use!