- I don't know how we
came up with the idea for naming this calendar blocking because every time I say it, I think to myself, "This sounds like a really
aggressive sporting event "involving my schedule." At least at the end of this game, you know you're gonna win the
ultimate prize, more time. (upbeat music) Good morning, good life, welcome back to AmyTV
where we come together to help you go after the life you want. Take a look at your calendar, what do you see? Maybe it's a digital, filled with random birthdays
and some doctor's appointments, or maybe you're the type that has one laying flat on your desk and you scribble lots of notes for things that you hope you don't forget. No matter what type of scheduler, calendar user that you are, these things can be used
in so many different ways for so many different things. But, ultimately, it's the
calculator of your life. How much time do you actually have? It's all displayed right
here in your calendar. So in today's video, I wanna talk about one
of my favorite strategies for going after the life that you want, and that is the practice
of calendar blocking. Whether you're new to the concept or not, I'm going to introduce
you to the technique and talk about the keys to leveraging it to becoming more productive. If you like productivity
videos just like this, make sure you subscribe to this channel and turn notifications on. Also, just so you know ahead of time, there is a fun printable
download in the description so that you can get started with calendar blocking right away. (upbeat music) Calendar blocking is the act
of scheduling chunks of time on your schedule for
things you plan to do. But it's not a specific type of thing that needs to qualify
to go on the calendar. When you are properly calendar blocking, you're adding everything to your schedule. Your need to do's, your want to do's, tasks, appointments, even free time. As a matter of fact, I recommend you use calendar blocking for absolutely anything
that you can think of as much as you're comfortable with. Because the more that you use it, the more you can see how much
time things actually take and how much that extra
time that you have, that free time that seems
to slip away so easily, how precious it is and how
easily we give it away. First, I don't want you to waste any time. Sit down with your calendar and just start scheduling
everything that you always do. Do you work Monday through
Friday from nine to five? Add it to the calendar. Do you drop the kids of at
school on your way there? Add it to the calendar? Do you sleep? Okay, well maybe life isn't so simple, but, yeah, it's a very
important appointment that you have with
yourself every single day for a very extended period of time, and it should be on the calendar. Okay, now take a look at that. These are the things that you always do, whether you want to or not. You're keeping pretty busy, aren't you? What about the wish you
were's or the someday's, or the try to's of your life? Where are they gonna go? You can look at the state
of this calendar right now and just get frustrated. You can absolutely do that, that is something a lot
of people right now, if they just did key number one, they will do that. But what good is that going to do? I'll tell you the same thing that I said in a Tweet recently, your reaction doesn't add or takeaway from any given situation. It adds or takes away from you. If you react to the remaining
time on your calendar, what you actually have to work with in a glass half full type of mentality, this is not going to work for you. You're allowing the status quo
to be the case going forward, you don't have the mindset that it takes to make changes in your life. That is a state that is going south, that is not calendar blocking
your life to success. If you want this to work, you need to be in the right head space. I want you to grab that
half full glass of wine, and look at it for what it is. It's a beautiful thing, you have a job, you have a family, you have a life, and that takes time. And those are all the good things that are happening right now, we just want a little bit more. This is pretty good, actually, I think I'm pretty happy
with this (laughs). Get out of your own way, say cheers and move on. Now, take a break from
the calendar for a second and list the tasks you need to do. Not things someone needs to do, not things you want to do, things you need to do, that if you don't, there will be a direct consequence. We're not trying to test the waters or add any potential risk into our lives. So that we don't feel
like we're falling behind on the things that are vitally important, we need to get ahead of them, and that is where calendar
blocking can help us. So just address them, right them down, put down the things you need to do. Based on the knowledge you
have of previous experience or what you think might happen, write down next to those tasks how long you think they're going to take. Is it one hour? Is it 20 minutes? Maybe it's longer than two hours if you had to estimate. Now we're gonna dive into that calendar. Based on what you think it's going to take to get those things done, block spaces of time to when you can do the
tasks you need to do. I don't know about you, but when I go through this process, I immediately feel better that there is now a date and time, and potentially a game
plan for doing something that is looming over me. Is it the hardest part? No, actually making it
happen is the hardest part, but if it's always sitting
on an arbitrary list that doesn't represent the
actual time in your life, it's not even close to getting done. But if you actually make it a point to decide when you're
gonna focus on something, it feels a lot better and you're
not procrastinating on it. Things happen, the timing
might be a little off and maybe you have to
reschedule something, but doing your best to
get ahead of the game is sometimes half the battle. This is where it gets very fun, start listing the tasks
that you want to do, or the things that excite you, that you wish you were doing. Have you been wanting to
start a side hustle business? Do you wish you were fluent
in a foreign language? Have you been meaning to write that book? There are a lot of things
that we wish we were doing, but the most amount of time we
have dedicated to any of them is scrolling somebody
else's social media feed to be a little bit jealous of the success that they have found in that particular area that
you haven't even tried to do. This reminder of the lack
of our accomplishments is not inspiring. What does inspire you? Get them out of your head, write them down. Which ones feel right, which ones maybe feel a little bit off? Which ones feel like you can
see yourself in that scenario? Which ones get you so excited that you wish you weren't
making a list right now and you wanna immediately
get up and go do the thing, and (shouts) shiny object syndrome. Pick one, which one genuinely
excites you the most? Calendar blocking is a great idea, and maybe you need to get more productive in all the things in your life. But if there's not
something on your calendar that actually gets you excited that you did all the stuff you had to do and now you get to focus
on what's important to you or what you aspire to, it's just kind of a worthless strategy that we're not gonna take seriously more than the first time. Decide what the first step is going to be on that thing you want to do, and block it on your calendar. If you can't find any free
time for the next few weeks and you really can't move
anything, that's okay. Schedule it, look forward to it, you have something to look forward to. But maybe also there's
something on your calendar that you don't actually have to do. That need to do conversation, the things we say we need to, otherwise there will be consequences, we often put things on that list that don't actually have to be done by us. So maybe this is a moment to reassess some of those things and say, "I really wanna start writing my book, "do I really have to do that other thing? "There are things I have to do, "but is that one of them?" The more proactive that you get about scheduling your whole life, your tasks, your needs, your wants, your inspiration, the better you get at saying
no to things that don't matter. Oh, and then we find some
more free time then, don't we? Yes, yes we do. Mm, excellent. One of the most important things when I've got all my tasks, my appointments, my stuff
I gotta do on the calendar and it's starting to get a little crazy, color code, color code, color code. I need something that's gonna tell me, "Girlfriend, hair and
makeup required, okay?" Use different colors on your calendar to distinguish between different things. So if it's important that
something's an appointment so it's in pink, versus a task so it's in green, then do that. I need bright colors when
I need to leave the house, get properly dressed and do my hair. You need to wave down a
plane when that's the case. But if it's like a work from home day and I'm just chugging away
at some administrative stuff or doing things around the house, it's a softer color on my calendar. It's like a light, light pink. This is where calendar
blocking gets really fun, is when you use this sister
strategy of task batching. It's more of an advanced look at all the things that you need to do, appointments or tasks, and trying to find the similarities so that you can do similar
tasks at the same time when you're in that mode. These types of things can add up. Don't go to the bank on one day, the grocery the next day and the dry cleaner the day after that. Knock all of that stuff out, you'll probably find that you're quicker in
each of those scenarios and can do all three
in less than two hours, and you're not running
around all over creation every other day of the week. And here's a pro tip that hopefully will give you
a little bit of confidence, don't fall into the trap that you batching your time
is inconveniencing others. Absolutely no one is
going to respect your time the way you need to respect your time. If you want others to respect it, you have to have boundaries. You're not going to eventually teach them how to respect your time, you have to have the boundaries, you have to follow through with them, and you just gotta say, "Sorry, I don't meet people for coffee "at eight o'clock on Monday mornings. "I have many, many, many,
many better things to do "to start my week off right, "even though I value your time. "I want it to be undistracted "and I want it to be valuable, "so Thursday at three sound good?" Because I know in my head when I take those type of appointments. Set those boundaries and actually
follow through with them, people are gonna be fine with it. And if they're not, find better people. This is your chance, this is a moment for you
to show up intentionally for the things you need and want to do. There are going to be many times daily that people want to
nudge you to do something that's going to take you off
track of your calendar block. Like the suggestion to stay up late and watch that extra episode on Netflix when you planned on getting
an early start in the morning. Or that invitation to happy hour when you had already scheduled time to just be with your family at home. Do not be afraid to be
ruthless about your time. Your most precious asset is time, you can always make more money, but time continues to leave
your bank account of life no matter what you do to try to stop it. Look, there it goes, crap. And you wanna make time to make sure you're
spending your time wisely. I like to do a weekly
reflection every Sunday, I've actually done a video on that if you would like to check it out. But this is the moment
where I look at my calendar, I schedule those tasks, I make sure that time is
batched appropriately. I reschedule things as I need to and I prepare myself mentally for what I'm going into for the week. Okay, and here is a bonus key tip for you, start with one small win in calendar blocking to success and develop a morning routine. I believe that you will
realize how capable you are of being ruthless with your time when you start the day on your terms. I have a manual for success
in that regard in my new book, "Good Morning, Good Life: "5 Simple Habits to Master Your Mornings "and Upgrade Your Life." Links to where you can get
your copy on Amazon or Audible will be in the description below. All right, here's your
question of the day. What's something that
you're looking forward to calendar blocking on
your schedule this week? Leave that in a comment down below. That's all for today, thank you so much for tuning in, I appreciate it as always. Make sure you subscribe for good vibes, kiss the ones you love, and go after the life you want. Cheers. Have you heard the news? "Good Morning, Good Life"
is an Amazon best seller. Thousands have already joined the movement and are starting each day on their terms. So if you're finally ready to do the same and go after the life you want, take your pick. The book is now available on Kindle, paperback and Audible. More details can be found
at goodmorninggoodlife.com. Hello, hello, hello, welcome to my new home (laughs). Do I look awake yet? It's a little early for me to be filming. I hope you have bloopers, oh, maybe that was one. Let's make sure all
this crap is turned off because it's like
calendar blocking, get it. Make sure you sub (mumbles). I knew my tummy was gonna rumble if I didn't eat that banana, dang it, should've
eaten the banana, shoot. I got loud bracelets over here. (bracelets jiggling) That was a good improv moment, good. Oh, I was gonna have wine for this, shoot. Dang it, maybe we can get the
husband to do it, hold on. - [Husband] Hello. - I need a favor. Can you bring me a half
of a glass of wine, not full and not empty, half. - [Husband] Yep. - That would be really great. - [Husband] What kind of glass? - You know, any glass with wine in it is a a wine glass to me. Thank you. I almost thought I didn't
turn the camera on (laughs). That would have been a little late. We're done, (moans). How did we do? Did we do okay? This is the first one in this space and I don't know how it's gonna be, but I'm freezing because it's cold outside and I had to turn my heater off. There's that.
