In case you’re new around here, most of what we do here at DaSilva Life is help business owners get organized. And a big part of that process means taking a deeper dive into time management. That usually starts by asking questions like:
Throughout this process, we start to focus a lot on time management, and how ClickUp – our go-to project management tool – can help. Typically, that’s done through things like automations and integrations. But there’s also a super underrated topic that is a total game-changer: time blocking.
Now, if you’re thinking that utilizing time blocking is just another thing you have to do for your business, hear us out. Time blocking isn’t about adding more processes or more tasks to your plate. This is about using your systems and tools to their fullest and utilizing every single feature to get the most out of them.
Because at the end of the day, we’re all about making our tools work harder for us so we can spend our time in other important areas of our business, right? Watch the video below to see how I use time blocking inside ClickUp, or keep reading to learn more!
So first thing’s first: Why time blocking?
As a business owner, it’s important that you set time aside for all aspects of your business and personal life. And part of that means protecting your time. Because if your calendar is typically jam-packed with client meetings, team meetings, and everything in between, you’ll have a much harder time carving out time for other things, like:
Time blocking also helps you be more productive in your day-to-day, so you know the exact tasks or projects you’re working on. This way, you’re not re-writing your to-do list every day, becoming overwhelmed, or forgetting important things. It’s all right inside the same tool you use for everything else!
So, now that we know why it’s important to use time blocking, let’s take a look inside ClickUp to set up our time blocking. All it takes is a few simple steps to integrate this into your ClickUp! And the results? Nothing short of amazing.
First thing’s first: Creating a daily time block! This is a task list where you can organize all of your daily tasks into three status categories: To-Do, In Progress, and Complete. Since this will likely be your personal to-do list, you probably won’t add assignees and due dates. But you can keep them there if you want!
Next, you can add additional columns to each task, all of which can help you stay on track and view your daily tasks however you want. Those columns include details like:
Once you add those details, you can change your status view to organize tasks by priority or time of day!
Next, it’s time to zoom out a bit and create a weekly planner! This is a task list just like your daily time block, only it’s grouped by each day of the week. But to make it look and feel even more like a planner, I love to view this list in board view, which creates a weekly layout.
In this view, you can quickly drag and drop tasks from one day to another, which is a huge time saver. You can even set assignees, add due dates, and update the statuses of each task – all within the same view!
Pro tip: If you want to add some weekly planning to other areas of your life, you can easily duplicate this list and use it for things like meal planning or workout schedules!
Finally, I love to have a ‘currently working on’ list, which is a running list of all the things I’m currently working on – whether it’s by week, month, or quarter. This is also another task list with the same type of flow as your daily time block and weekly planner, in which you can group tasks by category, status, or priority.
Of course, you can add other details like start and end dates, but this is just another great way to visualize everything you have going on from a 1,000-foot view to make sure you stay on track!
And there you have it! Even though it takes some time upfront, time blocking within ClickUp can make a world of a difference. Remember: time blocking is all about streamlining your time management and protecting your precious time. How you use that protected time is up to you, but don’t forget that you’re allowed to set time aside in your business instead of filling up every spare minute you have.
And if you’re ready to become a time-blocking pro, I have some ClickUp templates that are ready to go – all you have to do is plug and play! Everything I just walked through above is right inside my ClickUp Time Blocking Bundle for $17, which has three ready-to-go templates, including:
This entire bundle is ALSO available inside our Systems School Template Vault, which is a one-stop-shop membership to give you all the resources you need to get organized and keep it that way. Including 45+ ClickUp Templates!
