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In my first two years as an assistant professor, I worked all the time but didn’t get much done. Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. I got lots done. But what I got done seemed way out of proportion to how much time I spent working (which was many more than 40 hours per week).

Each day I woke up without much of a plan, and completed tasks reactively. I’d start prepping for class, then get sucked into an email blackhole for an undetermined period of time before realizing that I needed to get ready for a meeting (no time for lunch!). By mid-afternoon I was already exhausted but tried to focus on research for a while before getting sucked into email again, or switching to mindless grading because my concentration was shot. Eventually I would realize that it was 7pm and I was starving so I’d heat up a frozen burrito and scarf it down while staring at my laptop (or into the abyss) before collapsing into bed accompanied by the nagging feeling that I didn’t get enough done.

In the tumult of moving to a new state (and applying for permanent residence in the United States), preparing new classes from scratch, staying on top of my research, applying for fellowships, traveling to professional conferences and workshops, attending meetings, and performing various and sundry faculty service responsibilities, I never stopped to consider whether there were more effective ways of managing my time.

If any of this sounds depressingly familiar, let me introduce you to time blocking.

Time blocking is a way of intentionally structuring your daily and weekly schedule so that specific “blocks” of time are dedicated to completing a specific task or group of tasks. For example, you might block 8am-10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for research and writing, and devote an hour on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to lesson planning or grading.

Although learning how to use time blocking takes practice (you’ll probably over- and underestimate how much time some tasks will take), the payoff is huge. Once I started time blocking, I found that there were many more hours in the week than I thought, and not all of them needed to be spent working. I started eating lunch, stopped eating frozen burritos, and found time to do things that I enjoy (running, hiking, camping, skiing, Animal Crossing) without guilt.

“A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.” Cal Newport, Deep Work

Here’s my five-step guide to using time blocking to take control of your schedule (and get your life back!). I use Google calendar to block my time (check out the example at the end of this post) but it can also be done the old-fashioned way using a pencil and planner.

Step 1: Add your fixed points and non-negotiables

Fixed points are tasks, activities, and events that aren’t flexible like your teaching schedule or mandatory faculty meetings scheduled by your Chair and Dean. Add these items to your calendar first. If you’re a parent, you will want to include pick up and drop off times, or any other hours of the day that are kid-times rather than work-times.

Non-negotiables are tasks, activities, and events that have more flexibility than fixed points, but their importance means that they come first. For example, finding time each day to go for a run is non-negotiable for me so I always block off time first thing in the morning to get my run in before I start my work day. If running first thing in the morning isn’t possible because of some fixed point (e.g., I am scheduled to teach at 8am), then I add block of time for running later in the day, before I schedule anything else.

Step 2: Determine your chronotype

Your chronotype (also known as your circadian preference) is your natural sleep, wake, work schedule as governed by your body’s biological clock. You probably already have some idea of your chronotype (are you an early bird or a night owl?), but you can learn more about it here.

For each chronotype, there is a different window of time during which you are naturally most energetic, alert, and productive. This is your deep-work zone. My chronotype is a “lion,” which means I like to go to bed early (I’m usually in bed with a book by 9:00pm), wake up early (typically between 5:30-6:00am), and my energy levels peak before noon. This is why I like to start my day with exercise, and do my best work between 8:00am-12:00pm.

It is important to determine your chronotype so that you can get a better understanding of which hours of the day you are rip-roaring and ready to go, and when your energy and concentration starts to wane. This will allow you to block your time in a way that maximizes your effectiveness and efficiency.

Step 3: List your A-tasks and B-tasks ‍

Next, sort your work activities into A-tasks and B-tasks. A-tasks are cognitively demanding tasks that require your full attention, whereas B-tasks can be done when you are more depleted or distracted. For example, reading a journal article is cognitively demanding, so it’s an A-task. By contrast, responding to email doesn’t require intense focus, so it’s a B-task. Most of the time (but not always!), research activities are A-tasks, and teaching and service activities are B-tasks.

Step 4: Fill-in the rest of your calendar

Next, schedule your A-tasks during your deep-work zone. For example, if you have a lion chronotype, like me, block off time for A-tasks before lunch. Whenever possible, I don’t schedule any meetings before noon, nor do I check my work email until 1:00pm.

Once your A-tasks are scheduled during your deep-work zone, you can add blocks of time for B-tasks like responding to email, grading quizzes, holding office hours, or attending meetings during those hours of your work day when you are less energetic and focused.

Intentionally dividing your time between A-tasks and B-tasks is one of the most important principles of time blocking. Completing B-tasks during your deep-work zone wastes valuable cognitive energy on shallow work, and doing so over time will undermine your productivity. So does switching between A-tasks with B-tasks. That means it will take you more time to complete the same amount of work. Who wants that?

Time blocking is effective because it allows you to devote your most productive hours of the day to your most cognitively demanding work, and discourages unintentional task switching.

Step 5: Add a weekly meeting ✍️

The weekly meeting is a time during each week when you fill-in and adjust your calendar for the coming week. Some elements of your weekly schedule will remain the same each semester (e.g., teaching schedule, lab meeting, office hours), whereas other elements may need to be adjusted based on what you need to accomplish during a particular week (e.g., write a referee report, analyze data), and any additional events, meetings, or tasks that may arise (e.g., grade midterms, attend a workshop).

I usually schedule my weekly meeting on Friday afternoon. I assess what I’ve accomplished during the previous week, and which tasks need to be carried forward to the following week. I add any new fixed points and non-negotiables, and repeat steps 3 and 4.

And that’s it!