Run the weekly time-blocking ritual

1. Why block the week

As you scale, every employee gets stretched to capacity, and distraction comes next. The hour on this page organizes everyone's work. It raises each person's output and gives their manager full transparency: a manager can see exactly what everyone is working on, how well used the team is, who needs help and how aligned everyone is, at a glance. That makes it easier to hire well and to divide up work as headcount grows.

For management, the point is transparency: making sure no one person is overloaded or underloaded, spreading work properly across teams, and projecting deadlines more easily.

2. What the hour is, and what is expected

It is one hour of planning, usually less, said to save 10 to 12 hours over the rest of the week on average. In that hour you plan your working hours for the rest of the week, so that you finish every task and project and leave room for anything unexpected. Some people call this time-blocking.

Do it each week, on Monday morning (or over the weekend). Once it is done, your supervisor should be able to open your calendar and find every hour of your time blocked and properly allocated.

3. The six steps

1. Look back. Review last week's calendar. What did you not get done? What is unresolved?
   • Review every email you sent. What has not been followed up or finished?
   • What happened on last week's calendar that you need to pull forward into this week?
   • Review your communication platform. Is there anything you missed or forgot to answer?
   • Review last week's constraints.
     • What process, communication or document can be put in place so that constraint does not happen again?
2. Look forward. Review the next 1 to 3 months on your calendar. What do you need to start working on? What should you pull into this week so you hit your targets?
   • Review your project management tool. Which upcoming projects do you need to start?
   • Review the next month on your calendar. What is coming that you may need to prepare for? What about your quarterly goals?
   • Go through the EOW reports, yours or your reports' if applicable, for the steps they call for.
3. Prioritize the items you have just written down.
   • What matters most, the thing that will move you, your team or the business forward the most? Those are scheduled as priorities. Other things are scheduled around the priorities, never the other way round.
4. Schedule your priorities.
   • Put in the projects, tasks and work blocks for your priorities.
   • Delete or move anything that does not center on them, to the best of your ability.
   • Be realistic. Put in lunch, and any breaks you may take each day, such as taking children to or from school, or a walk to clear your head.
   • Make each block as detailed as possible. There is no "project work" block: a project block is named for the specific project you are working on.
   • Start with the high-priority projects. Then schedule time to check email, the project management tool, Facebook, and any other small tasks you have to do several times a day.
5. Schedule overflow and ad hoc time.
   • There is a limit to how well anyone can guess how long things will take. But when limits are put on time, things can typically be done in much less time than when too much time is allowed.
   • The same time is set apart for ad hoc requests, if your job means you may get them every day: urgent customer requests, follow-ups, or items that peers or managers urgently ask for.
6. Color-code your calendar. This gives an easy-to-measure way of seeing where your time goes. A basic color code follows.

Block	Color
Recurring meetings	Blue
Admin tasks	Red
One-off meetings	Yellow
Projects and priorities	Green
Breaks and food	Purple
Personal events and time, if you choose to put them in	Orange

4. What this page does not decide for you

• How much overflow time to block. This page gives no figure for overflow or ad hoc time.
• What a finished week looks like on the calendar. Not established on this page.
• How the 10 to 12 hours saved is measured. Not established on this page.
• Whether the six colors must be used as listed. Not established on this page.

5. The checklist

Step	What you do
When	One hour, usually less, on Monday morning or over the weekend
1. Look back	Last week's calendar; sent emails; items to pull forward; your communication platform; last week's constraints and what would stop them happening again
2. Look forward	The next 1 to 3 months; your project management tool; the next month and your quarterly goals; EOW reports, if applicable
3. Prioritize	What moves you, the team or the business forward most becomes a priority
4. Schedule priorities	Priorities first, named by project; delete or move the rest to the best of your ability; lunch and breaks in; then email and small repeated tasks
5. Overflow and ad hoc	Time set apart for work that runs over, and for urgent requests if your job brings them daily
6. Color-code	Blue, red, yellow, green, purple, and orange for personal time if you choose to put it in, as a basic color code
Afterward	Your supervisor should be able to see all your time blocked and properly allocated

6. What this page does not cover

The weekly meeting where departments review one customer call together is SOP 135 — Run the cross-department call review. Raising how a team communicates is SOP 136 — Grade a team's communication and raise its weakest part.

Staffing levels and hiring plans are not covered on this page.