What’s inside
- Block types with a color each: Deep (focused project work), Shallow (email, admin, quick calls), Meetings, Buffer, Personal.
- A base week — the default pattern you repeat, e.g. deep work 09:00–11:30 Monday to Thursday.
- This week — the base week with real tasks written into each block.
- Change log — a line for each time you moved a block, so you can see which ones never survive.
When to use it (and when not)
Time blocking pays off when you have more open time than meetings and that time keeps disappearing into email. Writers, developers, designers and students with self-directed study tend to benefit most.
It works badly when most of your day is reactive — support queues, on-call, a front desk. There, block only one protected hour and leave the rest open. For the reasoning behind the method, see time blocking explained.
How to use it
- Draw your base week. Put recurring meetings in first, then one deep block per day in your best-energy hours (90–150 minutes).
- Add two shallow blocks per day, for example 11:30 and 16:00, so email has a home.
- Add buffers of 30 minutes after long meetings and before end of day.
- Fill this week. Each deep block gets one task, not a list. Shallow blocks get batches.
- When the plan breaks, redraw it. Move the block to a new time; do not just skip it. Log the change.
- On Friday, read the change log. A block moved three weeks in a row is in the wrong place.
How Needt fills it in
Needt treats your calendar events as fixed and fills the gaps with tasks. Give a task an estimate and an energy level — “refactor checkout, 2h, high energy #Shop” — and auto-scheduling puts it in a high-energy window around your meetings. Shallow tasks with low energy go to the slower hours.
The redraw step is where Needt saves the most time. When a block gets interrupted, the remaining blocks shift and Needt lists what moved; you accept or adjust. Or ask:
Block two hours of deep work every morning this week for the Website project and put admin after 16:00.
Using Google Calendar only? See time blocking in Google Calendar.
A worked example
| Time | Mon | Tue | Wed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00–11:30 | Deep: homepage copy | Deep: shop checkout | Deep: client report |
| 11:30–12:00 | Shallow: email | Shallow: email | Shallow: email |
| 13:00–14:00 | Meeting: team sync | Deep: copy edits | Meeting: Lumen |
| 14:00–14:30 | Buffer | Client call (to 15:00) | Buffer |
| 16:00–17:00 | Shallow: invoices | Shallow: orders | Personal: Spanish |
