Use Time Blocking to Build a Low-Stress Business
One of my dreams for Knapsack is to create a predictable business that will make my life better, not stress me out.
When I was first starting out, I overcommitted nearly every single week. Tell me if this sounds like you:
I didn’t want to say “no” to new projects. I also didn’t want to say “no” to new ideas that I had. And being an optimist, I thought I could get more done in a week than is humanly possible.
This stressed me out. I often found myself in a time-crunch to meet more obligations than I should have agreed to. And letting people down really bums me out.
Then I accidentally discovered something called time blocking.
I started setting aside specific days for certain tasks, and putting big projects on the calendar–and it truly changed everything for me. Now my business is predictable, stable, and very low-stress.
Below, I break down how we’ve time blocked time for our entire team. I think it will work for you too!
But first things first.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is the practice of blocking out time on your calendar for each task or project you commit to. This way you know that time is already taken.
You can time block one project or task at a time, or you can take it a step further and create a time-blocked schedule.
Inside our weekly schedule
At Knapsack, we’ve time-blocked nearly everything we do based on a weekly rhythm.
My team and I absolutely love it because we know that we always have enough time to keep all of our promises and get the essential projects and tasks done.
We’ve divided our week in a way that allows us to batch small activities like meetings in order to protect large chunks of focused time so we can be more productive.
Here’s what a typical week looks like:
Monday - Meetings
We have a maximum of 6 meeting slots available each Monday. Usually we’ll have 4 sales meetings, 1-2 project meetings and sometimes other types of meetings. Meetings are scheduled on the hour and are typically 30-45 minutes long to give a few minutes of buffer time to prepare for the next meeting.
Tuesday - Client Projects
Tuesdays are meeting-free focus days. Each person on our team has one single client project that they’re focused on for the whole day. This helps us accomplish way more than we would be able to in a day that is interrupted by meetings. That’s one reason we’re able to build a website in one day.
Wednesday - Meetings & Support
Wednesdays are similar to Mondays, with one exception. Our design team is focused for the first half of the day on completing support tickets from our clients. Instead of answering tickets throughout the week, we batch our requests which saves time and keeps our support plan at a very reasonable monthly cost.
Thursday - Client Projects
Thursdays are identical to Tuesdays. This gives us two full days per week to focus entirely on billable work. That may not sound like a lot, but in my experience two hyper-focused days yields far better results than 5 fragmented days that are constantly interrupted with meetings.
Friday - Internal Projects & Retrospective
On Fridays we are closed to the public so that we can focus on making Knapsack a better company. Every Friday from 10-Noon we review any issues that came up from the week. In the afternoon we take action to fix those problems. This includes doing things like improving our processes, trying out new tools, and improving our professional skills.
During lunch on Fridays we do a weekly team retrospective where we talk about our personal high points and low points for the week. This helps us stay connected as a team, solve problems, and support each other.
If you’re interested in doing this for your team check out our podcast (The Friday Habit) or download our guide to setting aside Fridays to work on your business.
Start time blocking your business
Here are a few next steps you can take:
Start with blocking out large projects on the calendar
Look for recurring weekly tasks that you can schedule
As patterns emerge, batch small tasks together
Block off large chunks of time for focused work
This concept has truly changed my life for the better.
Let me know how it works for you!