Timeblocking for Polymaths

Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator -

One thing I've been struggling with this year is making the most out of the time I do have. When I got sick I couldn't do anything, and I realized just how much time I had to waste until I got better.

More importantly I realized how much time I was wasting even when I WASN'T sick. The hours in the morning or late at night, that could be used for rising up strong, or decompression. The chunks during the day, that could be used for deep work.

All of these things could have been accounted for, and I've been trying more and more as well!

Chunking out Time per DAY and per WEEK

What a lot of people learn very quickly is that timeblocking is actually pretty hard. It is very easy to just sit at your calendar, and SAY that you're gonna do this at this hour, or that at this hour. However actually going through with that declaration is a different story.

One thing we often do too is allot too much time per task, thinking we would need it, but in actuality the task itself will stretch to fit the time we give it.

We over estimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a week. Learn to spread things out over the course of the week, especially for us multidisciplinary folks, as we can separate our different disciplines on different days.

Eat the Frog, DEEP Work, Snowballing... All of it

There are plenty of methodologies and ideas for productivity, and if you don't know one of them mentioned. I'd encourage you to check them out, as explaining them in detail is too much for this newsletter post.

I find that when I do a combination of different strategies that ends up helping me be more productive. Rather than sticking to just one. Perhaps that is the polymathic way however!

Here is a quick run down of them:

  • Eat the Frog: D0 the hardest thing first.
  • DEEP Work: Spend 3 hours deeply engaged on that task.
  • Snowballing: Do small tasks first, and build up the scope for each next one.
  • Interleaving: Doing one task, then switching it to another, allowing for you to stay focused over a longer period of time (even though you are switching).

As you can see snowballing is the opposite of Eat the Frog in a way, but in some cases it can help that you get that momentum.

Using a Tool or System #PIOS

Creating a system for yourself is more than likely the best way to go about it. As you can alter to your needs, but even just adopting one from someone else can work too.

I tried creating the PIOS to be a system to organize your polymathic life.

Organizing your varied interests and disciplines into phases, and disseminating from there.

Conclusion and Thoughts

Creating your habits and systems can be tough, but with timeblocking you can manage your effectiveness a far greater amount.

Even right now I am looking at my calendar, seeing what things I have blocked out. I'm moving things around because I've been lax on my discipline to complete things. However I started up a new morning routine this week, that will hopefully help in that case.

Picture your macro view of your life, and how you want it to look. Then try to block out time on your calendar/daily routine to make it happen!