Fluid time blocking
Since leaving my full-time job, I’ve noticed that working from home on a part-time or contract basis requires quite a bit of discipline. I used to putter around, doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Often, an entire day would go by and I’d have no idea how I spent my time. While I’ve definitely loved (and I mean looooved) the freedom and flexibility, I’ve missed some of the groundedness that structure and routine bring to my days.
During the pandemic, I found myself frequently distracted by the news and my baseline level of anxiety made it very difficult to focus. I started experimenting with what I now call “fluid time blocking” — and after nearly a year of honing this practice, I realized I landed on something that allows me to simultaneously focus my attention, add a bit of structure to my day, and maintain the flexibility I so cherish.
It’s a bit difficult to explain but my practice of fluid time blocking is essentially setting an intention for a given block of time. By intention, I don’t necessarily mean a specific goal, although this could certainly be the case.
Intention in the context of fluid time blocking is to enter each time block with focused mindfulness. By focusing my attention on what I’m doing for the next 30-90 minute chunk of time, I become more present, less distracted, less anxious, and more engaged. The days seem longer and fuller. Often, I look back and feel that it was a day well lived.
At a very basic level, I view each day like a puzzle with pieces that I can slot into place. Within each day, there are things I’ve committed to doing and things I’d like to do. These things don’t fill up the entire day, but I also like to practice fluid time blocking for meals, rest, and sleep.
Here’s where it gets delightfully puzzley. I start mentally slotting in things I need or want to do to build my day. I have productive time blocks and restorative time blocks. How or where I slot them in depends on the event category. When I was thinking of how I could explain fluid time blocking in a blog post, the categories very naturally settled into:
Events that have predetermined start AND end times. These are typically things like meetings and webinars. A lot of work related items fall into this category and all of these events go in my calendar.
Events that have predetermined start OR end times. These include chats with family or friends (although these occasionally do have prespecified end times) and my first meal of the day. These events typically only go into my calendar if they involve another person.
Events that have flexible start and end times. These could be time blocks for paid work (non-meetings), personal writing sessions, household chores, vlogging, and my daily walks. These events do not go in my calendar, but they are essential to my fluid time blocking practice due to their adaptable nature.
Every day is different. Every day feels pretty darn good. Here’s what a weekday could like in terms of my fluid time blocks if I don’t have any scheduled work meetings or calls with friends.
6am (~120min): morning routine (predetermined start time)
~8am (~60min): paid work (flexible start/end time)
9am (~30min): Morning Coffee Sessions (predetermined start time)
~9:30am (~90min): morning walk (flexible start/end time)
~11am (~60min): paid work (flexible start/end time)
12pm (~30min): first meal (predetermined start time)
~12:30pm (~90min): paid work and/or creative work (flexible start/end time)
~2pm (~60min): rest/nap (flexible start/end time)
3pm (~5min): feed Lulu (predetermined start time)
~3pm (~30min): paid work and/or creative work (flexible start/end time)
~3:30pm (~60min): prepare dinner + household chores (flexible start/end time)
~4:30pm (~90min): dinner + household chores (predetermined end time)
~6pm (~4hr): miscellaneous + evening routine + rest (flexible start/end time)
~10:30pm (~7.5hr): sleep (predetermined end time)
The most important aspect of fluid time blocking is to be in a state of focused intention.
An example: When I am in a time block for paid or creative work, I am focused on said work; in other words, I don’t check my phone, social media, news, or anything else that might distract me from my intention for this time. I know I work best in 30-90 minute chunks and I’m easily able to focus for that length of time. I usually alternate “me-time” with my work blocks, and having this “me-time” throughout the day is an indulgent treat that feels incredibly delicious.
Time anchors are key to fluid time blocking as these serve as guideposts among which the more flexible events can nestle. The time anchors in my day are: when I wake up, Morning Coffee Sessions, my first meal, the time I feed Lulu, and when I start my intermittent fast for the rest of the evening. In the above sample day, only the 9am facilitated writing session would go in my calendar. Everything else rests gently in my brain but I do set alarms for things that are a bit more time sensitive (e.g., preparing dinner). I usually plan 1-2 time blocks ahead so I can set an intention for how much time I want to spend in each time block — but I use the word “plan” loosely because I’m not overly rigid about these time blocks.
Found time is how I describe a chunk of time that becomes available if something takes less time than expected (e.g., a meeting that ends early, a work task that doesn’t take as long as expected, a postponed call with a friend, etc.). I adore found time. It’s an unexpected little treasure that adds so much joy to my day. Sometimes I’ll do creative work during found time, or I may take a cuddle break with Lulu, or I might look up some fun stuff on the Internet.
The most unstructured part of my day starts at 6pm. I fill this flexible time with whatever I feel like doing. Sometimes I watch a show with hubby, sometimes I do paid work, sometimes I do creative work, sometimes I do household chores, sometimes I respond to emails, sometimes I play games on my phone, sometimes I work on a puzzle, sometimes I just rest. This is essentially a giant time block that might be divided into smaller productive and/or restorative blocks. Or it can be a giant time block that involves me simply sitting on the couch all night.
Have you tried fluid time blocking? It’s a simple, elegant, and mindful way to organize your day. The more you do it, the more intuitive it becomes. In fact, it’s so intuitive that you might be doing a version of it already.
♥︎
