At my day job, I manage a Project Management Group. If you know anything about project management, it involves lots of tracking, organizing, and planning. These are things I do personally and professionally so I thought I would share the app that I use to help with time management and productivity.
The main way I am able to effectively manage my time is by using a block schedule. This means I schedule out my day in blocks of time so I can complete all my personal and professional tasks. To successfully use a block schedule, it's important to block time for every task no matter how uneventful it may seem. Blocking time keeps you accountable and mindful of your time so tasks actually get done. With the pandemic requiring me to work from home and my son to attend distance learning this has been even more meaningful for my family.
The app I use is Google Calendar to schedule personal, blog, and school related time/tasks. It's easy to use and free. These blocks are stored within separate calendars for each with a specific color assigned.
• Personal Calendar - holds time blocked for birthdays, special events, doctor appointments, travel, and meeting details.
• Blog Calendar - holds time to write blog posts, photo captions, edit/shoot content, and engage on social media to name a few.
• School Calendar - holds time for each of my son's Zoom sessions for distance learning.
Here is an example of my monthly calendar and daily calendar. As you can see I use gray for personal tasks, gold for blog tasks, and blue for school tasks.
I love using this calendar because all entries are synced and are accessible across many devices (phone, tablet, or desktop) which makes using it very convenient. I prefer this method instead of a task list because this calendar has many features already built in that are useful. With Google Calendar you can customize entries by making them recurring events, sharing them with others, adding video conferencing information, location, push notifications to a phone or tablet, attachments, and miscellaneous descriptions. You can also setup email notifications as well if you like.
I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you would like a tutorial on how to setup your own block schedule using Google Calendar.
