My 3-7 Time Blocking Method to GET EVERYTHING DONE (UPDATED*)

If there was a time blocking method that could help you get everything done, would you use it? Here's the thing, deep down you know that you are that girl and capable of being that productive woman fulfilling her potential. You just need a system that helps you bring her to life. The problem is so many of us get obsessed with setting up the perfect, most pretty time management system, but then never actually use it. My 3-7 method is unlike any other time blocking system on the internet and it will take you from overwhelmed and hustling backwards to efficiently getting things done. So in this video, I'm going to teach you my updated 3-7 time blocking method, the key to successful hybrid planning, and how to actually be consistent with this system. To start, let me show you how to stop killing your productivity with this huge time blocking mistake. So we all know that feeling of waking up on Monday with anxiety about all the things we have to get done that week and think, hmm, let me take a look at my calendar so I can get an idea of all the things I need to do this week. That will calm me down. However, the pretty and rigid time blocking schedule that you set up for yourself in your iCal that was supposed to bring you peace has only made you feel more overwhelmed and more overstimulated. And that's because you're doing time blocking the wrong way if you're just using it in your digital calendar. The magic happens when you use a hybrid system. Now in my original video, I shared all the reasons why, but here's a quick recap. Firstly, it's just too overwhelming to the eye. Your mind starts to tune out and gloss over it when it's all in your digital calendar. Also, a rigid schedule in your digital calendar isn't realistic for real life. That's why we really need to use a hybrid system that works with our brains in our real life. But how do we create one? Let me show you that next by diving into my updated 3-7 time blocking method. The key to efficient time blocking is very much like the key to efficiently organizing a home. Everything has a home and there's no guessing where things go. And in my 3-7 time blocking method, there's no guessing on where to schedule something. It's all about compartmentalizing for success because what's killing your productivity is not having structure, letting work bleed into your personal life and vice versa, and that decision fatigue of constantly having to decide where to schedule things. So here's how to use my 3-7 time blocking method to compartmentalize for success. First, let's start with the three block. So why three blocks? Having those three blocks, which is the three in my 3-7 method, it helps you contain your priorities and it puts boundaries around work. It also helps you save brain power because when you're planning, you know exactly where to put things and it helps you protect your energy. So the three blocks are your morning block, which is for you and your family, your work block for your career and your business, and your evening block, which again is for you and your family. And it's just like a sandwich with those most important bread pieces that hold it all together at the beginning and the end of your day, which are your morning block and your evening block for you and your family. Then we come to our routines, the seven in my 3-7 method. So within your morning block are two routines. Your early morning routine, which is where you wake up before your family and have some you time. That's for you. Your morning routine, which is for the family. It's get everyone off to school, get you off to work and your cleaning routine just to kind of reset the house before the day began. Then in your work block, you have your a.m. work routine. This is where you do your batch work for whatever that batch date is and you do your work routine. I try in my morning a.m. work routine, no more than three to do's or tasks. And usually, typically I like to use this a.m. work routine for one to two deep work tasks. That's really ideal. Then you have your lunch routine. This is where I eat, and I also use this time to run errands. If I take the full hour, usually dropping off orders from my shop. Then you have your p.m. work routine. This is your second batch work block where you do in the day. If you come back from lunch and you can batch tasks that are really much better for the afternoon. I like to put my emails in this batch, checking my emails, doing things like that. Things that are less sort of deep work, but the things you still got to get done. I'll put those in my p.m. work routine. And then the fourth routine in our work block is my wind down work routine. This is where I capture any tasks that I might have written down on post-it notes. I plan for the next day. I take a look at, you know, what I actually got done that day and I kind of organize my desk, shut things down before closing up shop and putting a bow on my work block. And then in your evening block you have your routine number seven, which is your evening routine, which is for you and your family. The way mine goes is I cook dinner and then after dinner I have my little cleaning routine to close out the day, close my kitchen, do my last clutter check. Then I have my kids bedtime routine and my evening routine, which consists of some self-care and some pleasure. And here's the update I have for you. I created a 3-7 time machine to help you apply this method to your own life. So this is a custom GPT that's going to help you organize your own life's needs into the seven routines of the three block. When you're done with this video, click the link below in the description so you can start using it. But before you do that, now that you know how to apply my 3-7 method, there's something you need to do before even time blocking to make this actually work and let me teach you that next. When I first became a mom, I slipped back into my old pattern from undergrad. Hustle, burnout, recover, repeat. Even though I'd learned healthier habits in grad school, the pressures of being a working mom pulled me back into toxic productivity really. I was unrealistic with my time, I was constantly overworking, and my family suffered as a result. It took my husband sitting me down for a wake-up call before I finally committed to finding a better way. A sustainable hustle that prioritized myself and my family. It's what I call my BBB method. So the first step in my BBB method that freed me from toxic productivity was a simple method I call booking. Booking means scheduling your non-negotiable commitments first so you always have clarity and control. So let me show you exactly how you can do this for yourself. So there are two non-negotiables that you're going to book each and every week that are going to help you. One, accept the reality of your time limitations. Two, prioritize what keeps you and your family going. And then three, not let things fall between the cracks like missed meetings and skipped meal prepping. And those non-negotiables are going to be your must-do's and your weekly routines. And these will be the things that you book in your digital calendar and transfer to your weekly paper planner each week. So you have them in your digital calendar as a placeholder, as a recurring event, and then when you're planning your week you're going to transfer them. I use my Monoambition planner for my paper planner, but you can use whatever paper planner that you like. But just make sure that you are using that hybrid system. Okay, let me explain the non-negotiables that I just mentioned that you're going to move from your digital calendar to your paper planner each week. Must-do's are going to be those appointments or meetings. Those are things that have like a clear consequence if you miss them. Then the second type of non-negotiable are your weekly routines. These are going to be things that keep you and or your family healthy, organized, and energized. For me, some of those things that are included in my weekly routines that are weekly non-negotiables include my getting things done weekly review, which you can get for free below, my weekly planning, my bookkeeping meeting, my weekly home blessing, zone decluttering, meal planning, meal prep, FaceTime with my mom, and washing my kids' hair. So now that you have those negotiables locked in, you're probably wondering what about everything else on my endless to-do list? That's not all I have to do. Let me show you exactly how to handle those tasks next before we even jump into the time blocking. So imagine that you're doing your laundry and you're washing one piece of clothing at a time. If you did this, you'd be spending all day running back and forth, you'd be completely exhausted, you'd be probably completely overwhelmed, and you'd probably have clothes scattered everywhere. Batching is like waiting until you have a full load. You group similar little clothes together, you wash them at once, and suddenly laundry will become manageable, efficient, even satisfying for some. But just like laundry, batching your work task transform overwhelming to-do list into clear, manageable chucks. So let me show you exactly how to batch your tasks the right way so you can finally gain your time back. I use batching in two main ways, weekly batch days and reset routines. And I've covered reset routines extensively in another video. So today let's focus on those weekly batch days. Weekly batch days eliminate that anxiety of your never-ending to-do list because even if you forget to plan, you always know what's exactly next because you know this day of the week I do X and this day of the week I do Y. I will put on the screen my current ideal weekly batch day and here are a few tips to create your own. Number one, I want you to audit. I want you to list all your essential tasks and deep work that you must complete weekly. And then second, prioritize. Identify tasks that truly move the needle towards your goals. And then three, create those themes. Group similar tasks together on themed batch days like admin days, content creation days, client days, etc. By the way, I do have a free workshop coming up called Finish the Year Strong where I will be sharing tons of free time management resources to help you reach your goals by the end of the year. So be sure to sign up at the link in the description. So once you have your batch day set, each week when you're planning your week, you're going to move items from that week's to-do list to the appropriate batch day around those non-negotiables that you've already set first in our booking. So then, after you have your booking and your batching, the last step in my BBB method is to use the 3-7 time blocking method to time block your day down to the hour, which might seem like overkill, but especially for my neural spicy folks out there, I want you to give it a try. Once you organize your day down to the hour like this, you will see how much mental peace it really creates for you. Now you know how to contain your day using my 3-7 time blocking method, but you'll still be living in chaos if you don't know how to tame the mental clutter that pops up throughout the day, which is why I want you to watch this video next to learn how I organize my entire life and business in Notion. And don't forget to sign up for my free workshop, Finish the Year Strong, linked in the description below. And until next time, cheers to planning, manifesting, and enjoying your dream life. Namaste.