Is time-blocking doing you more harm than good???

I see the following questions, or similar, come up all too often in the productivity groups I'm in.

Does anyone else struggle to keep the blocks simply because kid sleep is ... Has anyone else find their family won't get on board with the time-blocking? Who else finds time-blocking more stressful than just fitting things in? My answer is always "Yup". I used to time block when I was a uni student living on my own. It worked wonderfully. Only answering to me. Only having to navigate my motivation, my attitude, & my mindset.

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Then I started working as a nurse and tried using the method on my shift only to be frustrated eternally because patients didn't seem to want to follow my routine, buzzing and having pain, and so much (I'm not as callous as that makes me sound) - on the ward is just not a place that time blocking works... I also tried to bring it in at home, but shift work, and a very distracting new lover (now my husband), not to mention the 7 cats, also didn't make for time-blocking harmony.

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Then I had my first child. Then very quickly my second, and then the third, and then the 4th resulting in 4 kids under 6. NONE of whom would follow my timetable.

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It was at this point I realised time-blocking wasn't for every season or every person.

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For a while I lived in depression and despair not knowing what else to use, all the productivity experts seem to use some form of routine and time-blocking.

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Then I realised I could create habits and rituals that weren't time-dependent.

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Raising most Babies and Toddlers isn't the season for time-blocking. Working with a family which contains people who aren't time-blockers, especially if it's also not part of your own planning preference is like pushing a boulder up the hill. Skip forward a decade and I've realised there are 4 types of planning that can increase productivity. And there is a time and a place for all of them, and we all have our own preferences.

If you want to find out your primary planning preference and the best fit for you and your season of life then I invite you to book in for a "What Planner Style are You?" Quiz and Unpack. https://www.wisteriaenterprises.com.au/service-page/planner-style