Can You Implement Your Productivity Tips Without Time-blocking?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | All right, let's do some questions.

00:00:06.920 | As always, we start with questions about deep work.

00:00:12.120 | Our first question comes from Tanner.

00:00:14.960 | Tanner says, "Can you implement your productivity tips

00:00:19.160 | without time blocking?"

00:00:21.820 | He elaborates, "I'm a public defender,

00:00:25.520 | and I have implemented a capture configure control setup

00:00:28.680 | that has greatly helped me reign in my caseload."

00:00:31.520 | I'm skipping here a little bit,

00:00:33.640 | but he says he generally finds it hard to time block,

00:00:36.840 | however, because there's aspects of his day

00:00:39.120 | that are so out of control.

00:00:40.440 | He says, "Often things bubble up throughout the day,

00:00:43.000 | and I have more small tasks than can be easily scheduled.

00:00:45.520 | Is it possible to implement

00:00:46.680 | the patented Cal Newport productivity system

00:00:49.440 | while mostly eschewing time blocking?"

00:00:51.860 | So yes, Tanner, you can.

00:00:54.980 | So what is the patented Cal Newport productivity system?

00:00:57.680 | Well, here is where I can point everyone

00:01:01.320 | to a video in which I explain this step-by-step,

00:01:04.200 | a core ideas video.

00:01:05.920 | If you go to the YouTube page for the show,

00:01:08.400 | youtube.com/calnewportmedia,

00:01:12.480 | you go to the core idea playlist,

00:01:13.980 | and I have a core idea video on time management

00:01:16.720 | where I say, "Here is my philosophy for time management.

00:01:20.040 | What are the high-level principles?"

00:01:21.260 | And then I explain my specific system

00:01:23.880 | for implementing those high-level principles.

00:01:26.640 | So the high-level principles, as you mentioned, Tanner,

00:01:28.840 | are capture, configure, control.

00:01:31.020 | Time blocking is part of how I specifically implement

00:01:35.400 | that last piece, control.

00:01:36.620 | So you can certainly take those high-level principles

00:01:39.820 | and implement them in a way

00:01:41.000 | that makes the most sense for your job.

00:01:42.400 | And for your job, that might mean,

00:01:44.280 | for that control piece, not having time blocking.

00:01:47.500 | That's actually quite common.

00:01:49.800 | I would say the most commonly occurring example I get

00:01:54.760 | or hear from in terms of individuals who use that system

00:01:57.640 | but don't use time blocking in implementing control

00:02:00.120 | is people who do support work.

00:02:01.820 | So IT professionals, for example,

00:02:05.240 | will often run their days off a ticketing system.

00:02:07.880 | So control, time blocking is not that relevant for control.

00:02:12.400 | What they typically do is have,

00:02:14.120 | what they worry about is there's a small amount

00:02:15.920 | of non-urgent, personally initiated work

00:02:20.000 | that has to happen in addition to just servicing tickets.

00:02:22.240 | There's always some stuff you have to do.

00:02:24.040 | And they typically put aside a certain amount of time,

00:02:26.600 | set time every day where they do that work.

00:02:28.600 | And otherwise they're just running

00:02:29.480 | through their ticketing system.

00:02:30.560 | And so they are definitely controlling their time

00:02:32.840 | but they don't have to time block every minute.

00:02:34.120 | It doesn't make sense 'cause most of their day

00:02:37.120 | is actually executing one ticket after another.

00:02:39.600 | So it could be similar for you, Tanner,

00:02:41.080 | that you have a different method of controlling.

00:02:43.160 | The key is just making sure

00:02:44.360 | that these three principles are implemented.

00:02:46.560 | And so capture is about not having things in your head,

00:02:51.020 | be it small obligations or big projects.

00:02:53.520 | You're not keeping track of things in your head.

00:02:55.160 | They're entrusted systems.

00:02:57.300 | Configure is wrangling with and making sense

00:02:59.640 | of all the stuff on your plate,

00:03:00.840 | simplifying, getting rid of things,

00:03:02.280 | clarifying, taking things off, moving things around.

00:03:05.060 | So you really understand what's on your plate.

00:03:07.080 | You have plans at multiple scales.

00:03:08.640 | You're not just winging it.

00:03:09.920 | And control is making sure

00:03:11.320 | that you are not reactively just going through your day,

00:03:13.640 | saying what's next in a way that is unintentional.

00:03:17.020 | So however you wanna implement that is fine by me.

00:03:20.200 | I will say though, Tanner, looking at your elaboration,

00:03:23.880 | I'm not sure that time blocking is not gonna work for you.

00:03:26.780 | It looks like to me, and again,

00:03:29.640 | I'm basing this off of just two paragraphs

00:03:32.080 | of description I have here.

00:03:33.640 | But it looks like to me

00:03:35.760 | that if you put a little bit more emphasis into configure,

00:03:39.120 | you might be able to use time blocking and control

00:03:41.400 | because you talk about here that,

00:03:43.200 | you know, you have all these small,

00:03:44.360 | more small tasks that can easily be scheduled.

00:03:46.780 | Well, you don't need all the small tasks

00:03:50.000 | on your plate to be scheduled.

00:03:51.160 | You need them to be captured and configured

00:03:53.120 | in a way that you can make intelligent decisions

00:03:55.680 | about what's gonna happen this week

00:03:57.040 | and what's gonna happen this day.

00:03:59.120 | So if you potentially had a better handle

00:04:02.100 | over the small tasks, they're grouped,

00:04:04.840 | they're categorized, you automate some,

00:04:06.540 | they're in separate particular lists.

00:04:08.240 | You have certain times where you work on certain things.

00:04:10.080 | You can make decisions about which of these things

00:04:11.800 | do I need to get done this week

00:04:12.760 | and when am I gonna do them,

00:04:14.200 | that time blocking might actually work.

00:04:15.920 | So what might be happening here

00:04:17.280 | is that you're getting to your time outside of cases

00:04:20.040 | where you're presenting in court

00:04:21.720 | and then just feeling so overwhelmed

00:04:23.160 | that you just fall back to reactive mode.

00:04:25.760 | So I'm gonna say, and I don't know if this will work for you

00:04:27.600 | because again, I only have two paragraphs here,

00:04:29.160 | but I'm gonna say, lean in more into the configure step

00:04:33.160 | because you're telling me

00:04:34.000 | you just have one large Word document

00:04:36.000 | where you try to keep track of everything.

00:04:37.360 | Lean more into the configure step,

00:04:38.800 | go watch that video and hear about

00:04:41.080 | how I implement configure.

00:04:42.540 | And you might be able to get a better handle

00:04:45.200 | on all of this stuff so that you can get to

00:04:47.920 | a time blocking level of intentionality.

00:04:49.800 | It's not necessary and maybe not best for your job,

00:04:52.720 | but it might be.

00:04:53.560 | I wouldn't dismiss it so quickly.

00:04:55.520 | (upbeat music)

00:04:58.100 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

Can You Implement Your Productivity Tips Without Time-blocking?

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