In my previous post, I discussed the daily task checklist as a tool for organizing freelancer schedules. In this post, I’ll take a look at the pros and cons of time blocking with Google Calendar.

At the end, I’ll provide a brief conclusion about both systems. Then, you’ll get my final verdict based on this way super-duper deep and exciting examination!

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Solution?

Keep track of how long tasks take you using a spreadsheet or other tracking medium you prefer. I use Microsoft Excel* to log my start and end times and then note what project I worked on. Over time, I’ve built up a record of how long different types of tasks take me. And I use that to determine my time blocks for each task.

*To learn more about my tracking system, check out my course “Complete Time Management for Freelancers” on Udemy and LearnDesk.

Solution?

Take time to think about what’s really important. I’d recommend reading Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In it, Covey provides sage advice on how to identify what’s important, urgent, not important, and not urgent.

The key is to work toward living most of your life in the quadrant of “important and not urgent.” Once you’ve done that, you can handle whenever those “important and urgent” things arise. As you start time blocking with Google Calendar, you’ll find that the more you time block, the more seamless identifying priorities will become.

Solution?

Consider a combination of time blocking with Google Calendar and daily task checklist! Use time blocking for meetings and non-negotiable tasks or make time blocks flexible.

If your clients are less active in the mornings, plan your most demanding tasks for that time. Then leave the afternoon free for less urgent and less demanding tasks that are laid out on an organized, prioritized to-do list. You can use a combination of Google Keep checklists and Google Tasks or some other app or web-based tool.

Conclusion

In sum, and in my determination to prove that time blocking with Google Calendar is the best system, I somehow managed to state that both are pretty great. And used in conjunction, they are a force to be reckoned with.

To learn more about how to manage your time and priorities effectively, check out my online course. In “Complete Time Management for Freelancers” you’ll learn to identify priorities, organize them, and get them done. In addition, you’ll learn to keep focused and maintain good habits. Your enrollment includes access to resources like the time tracker I mentioned above, worksheets, and book recommendations. The course is available on Udemy and LearnDesk.

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There’s a war going in the time management field over the best tools for organizing freelancer schedules. One camp favors the daily task checklist, or to-do list. And the other advocates for the time blocking calendar, or as I sometimes refer to it, extreme scheduling.

I would staunchly identify with the time blocking calendar as you would learn from my online courses. However, I have many friends and colleagues who are determined to hold onto their daily task checklist as if any other system were morally impossible.

Some of them even swear by piles and piles of Post-it notes, and I shudder at the thought. If they are getting things done with this system, though, more power to them!

But in the next breath, some may complain that they never can get to that one project on their list. Its presence instills guilt and remorse each time they see it or think about it.

Is my bias too obvious here?

So, to be completely fair and forthright, I’m going to examine that bias by taking a deeper look at each system. For this first post, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of the daily task checklist.

Solution?

Back in the day, I had a simple way to overcome the overwhelm of an ever-growing and unorganized to-do list. I labeled some tasks by order of priority. In other words, I just numbered them.

Over time, though, some tasks seemed to be at the same level of priority. So then I started to label them with letters. All tasks considered #1, for example, got a letter to drill down their priority even more. I ended up with tasks labeled #1a, #1b, and so on.

This daily task checklist seemed to work for me back then. But now, as a freelancer, I juggle multiple personal and business priorities. And they all depend on several factors: deadlines, level of effort, client expectations, ideal time of day, and ETA of the actual work in my inbox. It would be impossible for me to implement all of these using just a primitive handwritten paper list.

These days, though, we have an app for that!

Instead of a legal pad, you can use online checklists to move things around just with your mouse or finger. You can even go a step further and add a date that triggers a reminder on the assigned day. It’s still on a list, though you can also put a time if you like.

For simple checklists, I would suggest looking into Google Keep, which is also a notetaking app. For tasks, I would suggest Google Tasks, which also syncs with Google Calendar.

Solution?

My best advice here would be to limit the media you use to record tasks as much as possible. If you tend to write things down when using a daily task checklist, keep one notepad at your desk. Alternatively, designate a notepad for each type of task, such as professional versus personal.

When you’re away from your desk, consider using an app on your phone for any tasks you think of on the road or in the next room. Then, designate a time each day to transfer the notes from your phone to your lists at your desk. I would recommend doing it when you first start working for the day.

Solution?

Then again, and I’m going to get a little philosophical here, understanding the perspective that a to-do list is forever and it’s the same for everyone around the world may be a reassuring feeling, if you are inclined to feel that way.

But, if that doesn’t work for you, stay tuned for my next post about the pros and cons of the time blocking calendar. Might this option be a good one for you to explore? Maybe just give it a try for a week or two? Even just for a day?

Thanks for getting to the end of part 1 of my two-part series examining the pros and cons of the daily task checklist and time blocking calendar. Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!

If you want to learn more about managing your time and priorities effectively, check out my self-paced online course “Complete Time Management for Freelancers: Strategies for the Virtual Workplace,” which is available on Udemy and LearnDesk.

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