Time Blocking Google Calendar (STOP Wasting Time)

About this video

David explains time blocking in Google Calendar as a remedy for open, unplanned time that gets filled by email, social media, and other people’s requests. Citing Deep Work expert Cal Newport, he says people fail to get things done either because their plan is unrealistic or because they have too much to do and get distracted; the fix is to focus on what is most important today to advance weekly, quarterly, and annual goals. He demos blocking the 19th on the night before, placing a to-do list beside calendar.google.com and turning tasks into timed events: ordering printer paper, bookkeeping, writing a contract for an ABC partnership, lunch, brainstorming new donut flavors, and pulling report data into a spreadsheet. He then improves the novice version: move high-brainpower work to your most productive time (his mornings) and menial tasks to the post-lunch slump, schedule a dedicated slot to check email and Slack, insert recovery breaks such as a 15-minute walk after a 90-minute meeting, and adapt when a task overruns by shortening lunch or deleting a less important task. Finally, he creates separate calendars for goal-oriented actions (green) and active recovery breaks (purple), leaving everything else gray, and adds a repeating weekday task of no more than 15 minutes at day’s end to plan tomorrow, stressing progress over perfection.

Key takeaways

• Block tomorrow the night before by moving to-do list tasks onto Google Calendar with explicit start and end times.
• Align demanding tasks with your peak-productivity hours and move menial work into low-energy periods like the post-lunch slump.
• Deliberately schedule time for email and Slack and insert recovery breaks instead of working straight through.
• When a block overruns, adapt: shorten lunch, drop a less important task, or add another slot rather than abandoning the plan.
• Use separate color-coded calendars for goal-oriented actions and active recovery, and end each weekday with up to 15 minutes planning the next day.

Episode details: published October 8, 2024 · 7:54 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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