I read an interesting post written by Cal Newport over at the 99% blog entitled “A Day Without Distraction: Lessons Learned from 12 Hours of Forced Focus.”
The author makes a significant change in his time management system, by adopting the practice of working only in 30 minute increments.
While the 30 minute block is an arbitrary one there are some powerful lessons that he shares from scheduling a day in advance, and then executing it accordingly. He calls the process he used “batching.”
At the end of the day, he finds himself in the flow state for extended periods of time, which is a must for professionals who do knowledge work. On the other hand, he has a hard time implementing the practice, as it flies in the face of many of his established and unconscious habits.
This echoes what I have found in my research, and say in my classes. The skill of Scheduling is critical to entering into the flow state in today’s working world. There are simply too many distractions to contend with, and it takes time and advanced planning to have all the items necessary in order to start.
Here’s the link once again: A Day Without Distraction: Lessons Learned from 12 Hours of Forced Focus.