How Students Beat Procrastination: Time Blocking
This is part of my How to Stop Procrastinating series.
Hey, friends!
My friend, Alice, is an anthropology major. As she starts her junior year, she has three goals:
Maintain a 3.7 GPA (and keep her scholarship)
Minimize studying time
Quiet that nagging feeling that she should be studying
Getting good grades seems to be at odds with minimizing studying time. But Alice feels confident she’ll achieve her goals with time blocking. (She stole this idea from Cal Newport.)
Alice breaks her day into 1-hour chunks for studying, going to class, etc.
Example schedule
Alice’s Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule is as follows:
6:00 am - study
7:00 am - study
8:00 am - breakfast and getting ready
9:00 am - study
10:00 am - class
11:00 am - class
12:00 pm - lunch
1:00 pm - class
2:00 pm - free time
3:00 pm - job
4:00 pm - job
5:00 pm - job
6:00 pm - dinner
7:00 pm - free time
8:00 pm - free time
9:00 pm - free time
(Alice sleeps from 10 pm - 6 am.)
Benefits
Let’s look at how time blocking helps Alice achieve her goals.
Goal 1: Maintain a 3.7 GPA (and keep her scholarship). Time blocking ensures that Alice spends enough time studying so she’s always prepared for exams. She even gets feedback on research papers—and revises them—before turning them in. As a result, Alice got straight A’s last semester.
Goal 2: Minimize studying time. Alice studies first thing in the morning when her energy levels are highest. Because she gets enough sleep, Alice’s studying time is wildly productive, and she spends less time studying than her classmates.
Goal 3: Quiet that nagging feeling that she should be studying. Every time Alice completes her morning study session, she feels a sense of accomplishment. Every time she walks into an exam, she feels confident and prepared.
Alice feels confident she’ll maintain her GPA, keep her scholarship, and graduate in four years. Consequently, Alice feels less stress and anxiety than her classmates. She enjoys her free time (watching foreign films with friends) without that persistent feeling, “You should be studying.”
Downsides
Time blocking has a downside that proponents seldom talk about: We give up some freedom. We can’t stay up late, sleep late, and avoid studying until we feel like it. This is hard for our ego (it expects to do whatever it wants).
When Alice adopted time blocking, it took her a couple of months to adjust. It took time to adapt to these guardrails. The hardest part was when Alice had to limit time with a close friend. (The friend stayed out late, procrastinated, and pulled all-nighters). This chaotic lifestyle was incompatible with Alice’s desire to maintain her grades and lower her stress.
Alice misses her friend. She misses watching midnight movies and talking until dawn. But she doesn’t miss the anxiety that accompanies a chaotic life. She doesn’t miss studying late, turning in barely-finished papers, and always feeling exhausted.
She doesn’t miss feeling out of control.
(In the months since switching to time blocking, Alice made two new friends. They share her love of foreign cinema, and their lifestyles more closely align with Alice’s.)
Trade-offs
Time blocking comes with trade-offs. We give up some freedom, but we get better sleep and better grades. We boost productivity and reduce stress.
For some people, this isn’t worth it. For them, time blocking is a prison. They prioritize freedom and despise schedules. (If this is you, that’s OK.)
In the end, each of us decides how to structure our life. Each of us decides what’s important.
But if you want to increase productivity and decrease stress, try time blocking. Try setting clear boundaries for studying, sleeping, and recreation.
If you’re like me, you’ll love it. And you’ll never go back.
Read more on How to Stop Procrastinating.
Thanks to Brynn Stewart for reading a draft of this!