# Time Blocking: How to Do It, With an Example Schedule

URL: https://startr.online/time-blocking

> Time blocking means giving each task its own slot in your calendar. How to do it, an example day, Cal Newport's method and the fix for blocks you skip.

**Guide · 8 min read**

# Time blocking

What time blocking is, how to set up a time block schedule in Google Calendar or on paper, and how to make blocks that you actually start when the time comes.

By the Startr team · Published 25 October 2026

[English](https://startr.online/time-blocking)[Español](https://startr.online/es/bloqueo-de-tiempo)[Português](https://startr.online/pt/bloqueio-de-tempo)[Français](https://startr.online/fr/blocage-du-temps)[Deutsch](https://startr.online/de/zeitblockierung)[Italiano](https://startr.online/it/blocco-del-tempo)[Polski](https://startr.online/pl/blokowanie-czasu)[日本語](https://startr.online/ja/taimu-burokkingu)

**The short answer**

Time blocking is a way of planning your day by giving each task its own slot in your calendar, so that instead of a to-do list you have a schedule that says what you'll work on and when. You list what needs doing, estimate how long each thing will take, put each one in a block, and leave gaps for overruns and breaks. When the day changes, you redraw the rest of it. For people who procrastinate, the part that helps most is deciding in advance when you'll start, and opening each block with a first step that takes about two minutes.

## What is time blocking?

Time blocking is a planning method in which you divide your day, or your week, into blocks of time and assign each block to one task or one type of work. It combines a calendar with a to-do list. A list tells you what needs doing, while a time block schedule also tells you when, which shows you quickly whether everything on the list actually fits in the day. The method is old, but it became popular again in the 2010s, largely through the author Cal Newport.

## How to time block your day, step by step

To time block a day, you list your tasks, estimate them, place them in the calendar with breaks and buffers, and adjust the plan whenever the day changes.

1.  **Plan the night before or first thing in the morning.** Ten to fifteen minutes is usually enough.
2.  **Put in the fixed things first,** such as meetings, classes, school runs and lunch.
3.  **Pick the one task that matters most and give it your best hours.** If your head is clearest at 9:00, put the hard thing there and move email to later.
4.  **Estimate, then add a third.** Most of us underestimate how long things take. In one study, students writing a thesis predicted they would finish in 33.9 days on average and took 55.5 (Buehler et al., 1994).
5.  **Group the small stuff.** Email, messages and calls go into one or two batches.
6.  **Leave a buffer block** in the afternoon to catch whatever ran over.
7.  **Write the first step inside each block.** Instead of "report", write "open the report and write one rough sentence under section 2".
8.  **Redraw when the plan breaks.** If a meeting runs long or something urgent lands, move the remaining blocks around.

## An example time block schedule

This is a workday for someone with a report due, a tax return they've been avoiding and a normal amount of email. The third column is the first thing to do when each block starts.

| Time | Block | First step |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 9:00–10:30 | Deep work: report, section 2 | Open the report and write one rough sentence under "Section 2". |
| 10:30–11:30 | Email and messages | Open the inbox and reply to the oldest message. |
| 11:30–12:30 | Team meeting | Open the agenda and write one question. |
| 12:30–13:15 | Lunch | Close the laptop. |
| 13:15–14:00 | The avoided task: tax return | Log in to the tax website and find last year's return. |
| 14:00–14:30 | Buffer | Look at what ran over and pick one thing to finish. |
| 14:30–15:30 | Admin batch | Open the invoices folder and file the first one. |
| 15:30–16:15 | Email and messages | Reply to anything marked urgent first. |
| 16:15–16:30 | Shut down and plan tomorrow | Write tomorrow's first block and its first step. |

The tax return gets only 45 minutes on purpose. A short block for a task you dread is easier to start than a long one, and if it goes well you can borrow time from the buffer.

## Time blocking vs timeboxing, task batching and day theming

These four methods overlap, and people use the names loosely, but each one answers a slightly different question.

| Method | What you decide | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Time blocking | When you'll work on something. | "Report from 9:00 to 10:30." |
| Timeboxing | The most time a task is allowed to take. When the time is up, you stop. | "The slides get 60 minutes, finished or not." |
| Task batching | Which small, similar tasks you'll do together. | "All calls between 15:00 and 15:30." |
| Day theming | What kind of work each whole day is for. | "Mondays are for admin, Tuesdays for writing." |

In practice they mix well. Most time blocked days contain a batch or two, and many people timebox the tasks that tend to grow, such as slides. Day theming suits people whose work splits into clear kinds, like freelancers with several clients, but it's hard to use if your job sends you a bit of everything every day. Batching has a reasonable basis in research: people are slower and make more errors right after switching tasks (Monsell, 2003), and batching means fewer switches.

## Cal Newport's time blocking method

Cal Newport, a computer science professor and the author of _Deep Work_, plans every working hour of his day in advance and corrects the plan when the day changes. In a 2013 blog post he describes spending ten to twenty minutes each evening building the next day's schedule in a paper notebook (Newport, 2013). The left column has two lines for each hour, divided into labelled blocks. The right column holds notes, with space left for corrections when the day goes differently than planned.

Two details are worth borrowing. He blocks reactive time too, so answering whatever comes in gets a block like any other task, and he treats an interrupted plan as normal. He also estimates that a 40-hour time-blocked week produces about as much as a 60-hour week without a plan, which he presents as his own estimate rather than a measured result. In 2020 he published _The Time-Block Planner_, a paper planner built around the method.

## How to time block in Google Calendar, Todoist or on paper

### Google Calendar

Google Calendar works well for time blocking because you can drag blocks around when the day changes.

-   Create a separate calendar called "Blocks", so your blocks have their own colour and you can hide them when sharing your calendar.
-   In Week view, drag across the time you want, name the block after the task, and put the first step in the description.
-   Make regular blocks, such as email batches, into repeating events, and add a notification for the start time.
-   With a work or school Google Workspace account, you can make a block a "Focus time" event, which can decline meetings and mute Chat notifications during it.

### Todoist and other time blocking tools

Todoist's calendar layout, part of its paid plans, lets you drag tasks into time slots and sync them with Google Calendar or Outlook. Apple Calendar, Outlook and most planner apps work in a similar way.

### On paper

Paper is the simplest option, and it's what Newport uses. Write the hours down the left side of a page with one line for each half hour, draw a box for each block, and keep notes on the right. When the plan breaks, cross out the rest of the day and draw it again.

## Why time blocking helps with procrastination

Time blocking helps procrastinators because it turns a vague intention into a decision about when and where you'll start. Psychologists call plans of this kind implementation intentions: "When it's 13:15 and I'm at my desk, I'll log in to the tax website." A meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found that making these plans had a medium-to-large effect on whether people reached their goals (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006). A time block is a ready-made version of that plan, as long as it names the action as well as the time. The guide to [implementation intentions](https://startr.online/implementation-intentions) explains how to write them.

It also removes a decision you'd otherwise make many times a day. Without a plan, every free half hour starts with working out what to do next, and the easy answer is usually email. If you want a wider set of methods, the guide on [how to stop procrastinating](https://startr.online/how-to-stop-procrastinating) covers eight of them.

## Why time blocks fail, and how to fix them

The most common reason time blocks fail is that they start with a vague task. "Thesis, 9:00–11:00" looks like a plan, but at 9:00 you still have to decide what "thesis" means today: read, outline, write, or fix references. That decision is where the avoiding happens, and twenty minutes later you're tidying your desktop.

The fix is to open every block with a first step that takes about two minutes and starts with a verb: "Open chapter 3 and write one rough sentence about the survey results." Starting then takes no decision, and once you're in, carrying on is easier than starting was. The [two-minute rule](https://startr.online/two-minute-rule) guide has a table of examples, and the free [first-step tool](https://startr.online/first-step) writes one for any task you type in.

Other common problems:

-   **The day is packed edge to edge,** so one overrun breaks everything after it. Leave at least one buffer block.
-   **The hardest task gets the worst slot.** If it always lands at 16:00, it'll always slide to tomorrow. Many people give it the first block of the day, which is the idea behind [eating the frog](https://startr.online/eat-the-frog).
-   **A broken plan feels like a failed day.** Plans break all the time, which is why Newport leaves room for corrections. Redraw the rest of the day from where you are and carry on with the next block.
-   **Blocks are too long to start.** A three-hour block for something you dread is easy to skip. Split it, or run it as 25-minute rounds with a [Pomodoro timer](https://startr.online/pomodoro-timer).

## When time blocking doesn't fit

Time blocking works least well when you don't control much of your day. If you're on call, in customer support, caring for small children or working shifts that change at short notice, a fully blocked day will break by 10:00. A lighter version still helps: block the reactive time as reactive time, as Newport suggests, and protect one short block, even 30 minutes, for the one thing you keep putting off. That single block is what Startr is built for. You pick one time and one place for the thing you're avoiding, it writes a two-minute first step, and at that time it counts down 3-2-1 and starts a 5-minute timer.

It can also be hard with ADHD. A 2023 review found that adults with ADHD had difficulties estimating time and managing it, although only nine studies met its criteria (Mette, 2023). If time tends to slip away from you, keep blocks to 25 to 45 minutes, use a visible timer instead of trusting your sense of time, and plan fewer blocks with bigger gaps. The guide to [ADHD and procrastination](https://startr.online/adhd-procrastination) has more on this. If time problems are affecting your work or relationships, it's worth talking to a doctor.

## Questions people ask

### Does time blocking actually work?

There is very little research on time blocking itself. There is good research on its parts: deciding when and where you'll act makes people more likely to follow through (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006), and switching tasks less often wastes less time (Monsell, 2003). The simplest test is to try it for a week.

### How long should a time block be?

There's no fixed answer. Many people use 60 to 90 minutes for demanding work and 30 to 45 minutes for batches of small tasks. If you have trouble starting, go shorter, because a short block is easier to begin.

### What is the difference between time blocking and timeboxing?

Time blocking decides when you'll work on something. Timeboxing decides the most time it's allowed to take, and you stop when the time runs out, finished or not.

**Try it on your own thing**

Startr is a procrastination app for the block you keep skipping. You type the thing you keep putting off, it writes a first step that takes two minutes, you pick a time and a place, and at that time it counts you down and starts a 5-minute timer. There's no sign-up, and the web app works on any phone or computer.

[Get my first step](https://app.startr.si)

## Sources

1.  Newport, C. (2013, December 21). Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day. [calnewport.com](https://calnewport.com/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day/)
2.  Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. [doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1](https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601\(06\)38002-1)
3.  Buehler, R., Griffin, D. & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the "planning fallacy": Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366–381. [doi:10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366](https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366)
4.  Monsell, S. (2003). Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 134–140. [doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00028-7](https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613\(03\)00028-7)
5.  Mette, C. (2023). Time perception in adult ADHD: Findings from a decade. A review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3098. [doi:10.3390/ijerph20043098](https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043098)
6.  Google Calendar Help. Use focus time in Google Calendar. [support.google.com](https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/11190973)
7.  Todoist. Time Blocking: Your Complete Guide to More Focused Work. [todoist.com](https://www.todoist.com/productivity-methods/time-blocking)
8.  Newport, C. (2020). The Time-Block Planner. Portfolio.