Block Off Time to Get Shit Done
“I don’t have time to get my own things done.”
This, or some variation of it, is a common complaint that I hear from most new Software Engineering Managers. In fact, it’s a common thing I hear from a lot of leaders in general.
When I start training new managers, one of the first things I talk about is my technique for “blocking off time to get shit done.” The more “business appropriate” name for my technique is In-Time Time Management - but that’s way less fun.
First and foremost, it’s important to realize that this is a lightweight and pragmatic technique that works for me. Many of my managers have adopted it; some of them have taken it and modified it in some way; and some use other techniques, like todo-lists, sticky notes, etc. And that’s fine.
But for me, to-do lists and sticky notes don’t work, because as a leader, my day-to-day job has me in lots of meetings – my calendar dictates my workday.
The solution that I’ve found works best for me is creating “in time tasks.” There’s a few core ideas in this technique: Meeting with yourself, varying by complexity, searchability, and stacking easy tasks. I’ll describe each of the ideas, share some examples from my personal calendar, and offer a few pro tips that I’ve found over the years.
Meeting With Yourself
This is the core of the technique: Any task that you have to get done becomes a calendar event that blocks off a certain amount of time. You may be in a meeting with someone and a task that you have to do comes up - add it either immediately to your calendar (which I do often) or write it down and do an after-meeting close out where you add the task to your calendar. If you’re unsure about the duration it will require, start with ½ hour blocks.
Varying By Complexity
When filling out the meeting event in your calendar, the title, description, and duration will vary by the complexity of the task. That’s fine - what you’re looking to do is give yourself the time and enough information to allow you to quickly context switch into working on the task. Adding links to files, webpages, documentation, etc. are a good idea in the description, as that provides the right information for you to get going faster.
Searchability
Make sure that any task title and/or description have searchable phrases in them. What I mean by that is when the meeting event notice comes up, you should be able to read the description, and if, for example, you need to reply to an email chain, you can search your inbox using a phrase from your meeting event. This regularly saves me a ton of time in context switching onto the task itself.
Stack Easy Tasks
I typically default to ½ hour time blocks for tasks, but not all tasks will take a ½ hour. In cases like this, I can add additional tasks during the same time block, but as discrete overlapping meetings. I keep all tasks as discrete meetings – that way, if I have to move something around, I don’t lose the specifics of the task.
Examples
Below are several example screenshots from my calendar. I’ve added some notes on the screenshots.
In the first task highlighted, I know that it’s a research task, I’ve identified who the stakeholder is and the reason right in the title. The second highlighted task shows blocking off some personal time during lunch - this is an effective way to avoid any meetings that may get scheduled during your lunch break.
In this example, the first task I’ve blocked off time for is to sign some documents. This is a well known process for me and I know who the stakeholder is and what I need to do, so the meeting title carries the weight. The second task is blocking off time to finish editing a job requirements document for a recruiter. The third was a recurring task for me to work on developing OKRs for the quarter - I blocked off a set period of time over several weeks so that I was able to accomplish a larger task by the due date. More on that tactic later.
In this last example, I scheduled a task over a meeting with other people, because it was a topic that I wanted to bring up in the existing meeting, and I didn’t control the agenda.
Pro Tips
Here are a few tips that I’ve found over the years that I have used this technique, as well as feedback I’ve had from people that I’ve taught this method to.
- Your calendar is omnipresent – you should have your calendar open and alerting you throughout your workday. In addition, I sync my work calendar with my phone, so that I’m less likely to miss things when I’m on the move.
- Be good to your future self - you put that time and task on your calendar for a reason - honor it.
- But also, live in the present - sometimes you need “you time” – if you need a break, move your in-time task to accommodate. Make sure to honor the time by moving it forward before you disconnect.
- Alert stakeholders - if you owe something to someone, but that in-time task gets pushed out more than a couple of times, let them know ASAP. People tend to accommodate folks who alert early about slipping deadlines, rather than the day it’s due.
- Share your calendar - if you have the ability to share your calendar with your boss, peers, project managers, executive assistants, etc. you should (at your discretion of course.) They (in theory) should all be allies in honoring your time.
- Eat the elephants - I mentioned above that I had a recurring in-time task setup for a larger project. I know that I’m not going to have large segments of time in my calendar open to most projects. By blocking out chunks of time, recurring either daily, weekly, or monthly, I can work towards a goal over time and accomplish many larger initiatives that I want to get done.
- Keep it simple - I try to develop habits and techniques that have low cognitive overhead and this one is no different. I don’t color code, use different calendars, or use any other apps for this technique. They exist, and some folks have a lot of success using them, but I find that keeping the default setup works best for me, as I don’t risk messing anything up.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully if you’ve made it this far you’ve learned something about keeping tasks in time to get things done. If you're interested in learning more of my tips and tricks, have any comments on my techniques, or want to share your own time management techniques, feel free to follow me.
