By Marissa Willits

Like many parents, once quarantine began, our daycare closed and we had a 1 year old and a 3 year old at home with us, and things changed.

When I say things changed, I mean changed like the Chicago bulls in '99 without Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. It was a mess. We are a mess. In every form of the word. 

As much as I would like to write a bitter diatribe against COVID-19 and the reign of terror Murphy's Law has had over our house since early March (!), I'll bite my tongue. There is enough negativity in this world, and my grumbling and complaining won't make my life or anyone else's any better. So … I choose to focus on what I can control, which is how to maximize my productivity at home using some unsolicited advice I took from one of Lonna’s heroes, Ann Handley of Marketing Profs.

If you don’t know her already, Ann is a writer, digital marketing pioneer, Wall Street Journal best-selling author and partner at Marketing Profs. Her recommendation came from a compilation of suggestions made for teams to optimize productivity while working from home.

It’s called time zoning. Let’s learn more!

What is time zoning?

I first stumbled upon Ann’s advice while scrolling marketing experts on Twitter, where she tweeted about the importance of productivity.

Time zoning means you set your priorities a week ahead and schedule a zone of time for each task. The goal is that you get to a point that you can manage your day instead of your day managing you. This is a concept I am familiar with, as time zoning is similar to time blocking, a practice I used prior to quarantine. 

What does time zoning look like?

Time zoning is a priorities-based productivity scheduler. You dictate your top priorities, and then, declaring eminent domain-esque power over your calendar (your day), you stake that priority's claim to a time slot on said day. 

Ann recommends time zoning the current week before rather than day by da because it eliminates any important-but-not-urgent priorities that might pop up early on Monday morning. Therefor, you’ll be less likely to drop everything for an unexpected task that doesn’t rank super high on the list of importance.

She also recommends using color codes so you know that some items are non-negotiable. A writer, Ann color codes her writing time hot pink, so she knows that's Hot (Pink) Writing Time. 

Examples:

If you are a writer, you make time to write. 

If you are a small business consultant, you make time to market your business.

If you are in sales, you block off time to follow up on leads. You add in other zones as needed.

From our examples, you could add zones for editing, billing, thank you cards, etc. 

Does time zoning work?

I mentioned earlier that I had already implemented a form of time-zoning pre-COVID-19 using a much more vigilant time-blocking method called “Monday: Hour 1,” taught by Brook Castillo of The Life Coach School. 

Without going too far into detail, I was having tremendous success with it!

Instead of blocking time for priorities, I would block time for anything on my to-do list.

Phone call? Put it in my calendar. Cancel a subscription? Put it in my calendar. Spend 30 minutes mindlessly trolling the internet while I eat standing up? Put it in my calendar.

And anything that wasn't completed in the allotted time got added to the calendar again. 

Ann's method is a little more COVID-friendly because it has leeway 

If, say, you have a client or personal emergency on Tuesday afternoon, you can move your writing time to Wednesday morning.

In “Monday: Hour 1,” you can't do that. You would already have things scheduled for Wednesday morning. You would also have free time scheduled so you could take from your free time, but then you would be taking from your free time. And during this pandemic, "free-time" is not really a thing. That's simply the time when we feed ourselves disgusting leftovers, or, you know, shower and maybe, just maybe, brush our teeth. 

Time zoning works. It's just a matter of if you do well with leeway or you let it take advantage of you. Time zoning during COVID works. If you get lost in the news about whatever new disaster is happening, you have your zones and you can rearrange them however you need to. 

Got kids? Read on

Time zoning or time blocking during a pandemic with children still works, it's just a different story. 

The other day, for example, I had zoned out time for three different things:

1. Check and respond to emails - 2:00 - 2:30

2. Create a post on Facebook - 2:30 - 3:00

3. Write this post - 3:00 - 5:00 

I was supposed to have 3 hours this afternoon to work on things. I got 30 minutes. 

What happened?

I was reading and responding to emails as scheduled during nap time and then my husband came in the house to tell me that he would no longer be able to give me my allotted 3 hours. He was now preparing to leave the house and not return until after dark. Although I know this is the nature of his work, unpredictable and subject to change, I nevertheless became filled with a silent rage that I communicate with a passive-aggressive "Ok, fine."

I scrambled to get to the "important" emails. 

2:20 - First kid up from nap. He watched a video about Sloth Bears while I scrambled to get through the rest of my emails. Some would have to wait. I started my Facebook post.

2:35 - Second kid up from nap.

I got them a snack and let our 1-year-old eat yogurt and berries BY HERSELF (which, if you don't have kids, is something you just don't do unless you love tons of extra work and cleaning a thousand things) so I could finish my post.

Post done.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of spending a ton of time setting up a some-assembly-required, bitchin' independent play area, only to find that they were not happy and smiling like the children on the box; instead, they’re easily bored and want to play with my office chair (the one I’m sitting in).

Evening comes, I'm an hour behind on dinner because I spent 40 minutes trying to text the beginning of this article to myself while my kids played in our garage with vacuum attachments. They were happy and quiet. I had to.

Then we proceed with dinner, bath, and bedtime, which for our three year old, bedtime is an hour-long affair. He is lights out at 9:15 p.m.

9:30 - I start writing after cleaning some things up from dinner, draining the bathwater I forgot to drain because the kids were fighting at the end of the bath, and eating a handful of chocolate chips.

I'll finish this in the morning. Or maybe the afternoon. 

Real life may not be entirely zone-able

My 1 year old has allergies (we all got COVID tests so I know it's allergies) and has been coughing. She flops like a fish when she sleeps so you have to go in there when she flips to her belly and flip her back or she'll cough until she wakes herself up. I've been in there a half a dozen times or more since 9:30. It's 11:22 p.m. I could work until 5 in the morning without stopping and not be caught up. But our daycare is closed. I have the kids tomorrow. I have a few hours zoned out for my work. Maybe I will use them to slash my husband's tires so he can't leave again. 

End result: time zoning sort of works. Yes, I had three things I wanted to do and I did them, but I had to manage them more like a crisis than a planned list of to-dos.

My three takeaways 

1. There are dozens of productivity methods out there but you need to find the one that works for YOU. 

Time zoning is too fluid for me, but I appreciate the emphasis on priorities, as that is key in how I schedule my time as well.

2. Priorities matter. 

What are you filling your calendar or your day with? Is it with things that are important to you, that bring you joy or grow your business? If not, realign. If you're spending your entire day on doing little things that don't move the needle, add some needle movers to your calendar.

If you don't know what those are, schedule some time to find out. As my friend Rachel Hollis likes to say, "Keep the promises you make to yourself!"

3. Productivity is not a measure of success for me. 

Time zoning or time blocking has made me feel really productive. Trying to work from home with my husband and two kids and not even being able to go to a park has made me feel really unproductive. (And like a complete and total failure at times, if I'm being honest.)

Quality results for clients. Quality time with my family. Those are things that are important. I work hard to get done what I believe I need to get done in a certain time allotted for work because I want to make time for certain things in my life, like family, or supporting friends who need me, but whether or not I pushed something off to the next day is not important to me. It used to be but it’s not anymore. 

Overall, thank you Ann, for the reminder that priorities are king and your schedule should reflect that. Time zoning works for a lot of people, and I’m thankful you colored in some Hot (Pink) Writing Time to teach us more about it.