Plexii glossary
Time blocking
Planning the day by reserving named blocks of calendar time for specific kinds of work.
What it means
Practical definition — give every part of the day a job on your calendar — and how it differs from a to-do list and from timeboxing. HBR, 12 Dec 2018 (verified): “In a recent survey of 100 productivity hacks, timeboxing — migrating to-do lists into calendars — was ranked the most useful.” (quote it as HBR’s report). A worked example day with focus, meetings, admin and buffer blocks, labelled as an example; what to do when a block is missed (rebook, don’t stack).
The term is most useful as a shared description. It does not remove the need to look at the actual task, evidence or constraint in front of you.
A practical example
A day reserves 09:00–10:30 for a draft, 10:30–11:00 for email and 11:00–11:30 as buffer before a meeting.
Put it into practice
- Name the concrete situation before applying the label. Time blocking is useful only when it changes a choice, boundary or next action.
- Make the state visible: write the owner, time, source or stopping condition down instead of relying on memory.
- Review what happened. Keep the part that reduced ambiguity and change the part that added ceremony without helping the work.
How it relates to Plexii
book focus time on the calendar and start it from Today’s agenda with Start it now (home widget todays agenda); the Calendar widget shows booked time (in beta) (widget calendar). Link time blocking planner.