Time Blocking like a School Day

Do you ever feel like your days are filled with tasks, but you still struggle to decide what to work on first? Maybe every morning starts with a long to-do list, constant interruptions, and the exhausting mental effort of figuring out what deserves your attention next.

The problem isn't always that you have too much to do. Often, it's that your work lacks a clear rhythm. Without a reliable structure, every decision requires energy, context switching drains your focus, and it's easy to fall into reactive mode instead of making intentional progress.

In this episode, Lisa revisits one of the podcast's most popular productivity coaching sessions and explores how creating a schedule inspired by the familiar rhythm of a school day can help you reclaim focus and reduce decision fatigue. Drawing from her coaching conversations with Lauren Yee, she explains how assigning recurring "subjects" or themed focus blocks to your week creates a flexible framework that supports deeper work without becoming rigid or restrictive.

You'll learn why school-style time blocking works so well for many people, how playful and personalized labels can make your schedule more engaging, and why transition periods between activities are just as important as the work itself. Lisa also shares practical tips for adapting this approach to different lifestyles, including entrepreneurs, caregivers, people with unpredictable schedules, and neurodivergent brains.

This week, episode 327 of the Positively Living® Podcast explores how using a school-inspired approach to time blocking can reduce decision fatigue, improve focus, and help you build a schedule that feels both structured and sustainable.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover how a school-day framework can simplify your weekly schedule.
• Learn why recurring themed time blocks reduce daily decision fatigue.
• Understand how context switching impacts your focus and productivity.
• Explore why batching similar work together helps your brain work more efficiently.
• Learn how assigning "subjects" to your week creates clarity without rigidity.
• Discover why playful labels can make your schedule more engaging.
• Understand how naming your work intentionally helps you connect with its purpose.
• Learn why transition periods between tasks are essential for maintaining focus.
• Discover how "passing periods" can reduce overwhelm and prevent burnout.
• Explore the difference between working in your business versus working on your business.
• Learn why your schedule should be built around your real life—not your ideal one.
• Understand how flexible time blocking can support unpredictable schedules.
• Discover why reviewing and adjusting your schedule is part of the process—not a sign of failure.
• Learn how curiosity and experimentation create more sustainable productivity systems.
• Explore why this approach works especially well for people who crave structure but resist rigidity.
• Discover how themed scheduling can benefit neurodivergent brains by adding novelty and engagement.
• Learn how to identify the five to seven major categories of work in your week.
• Understand why you don't need to schedule every hour to experience the benefits of time blocking.
• Discover how starting with one themed day each week can make the process feel more approachable.
• Learn why creating a schedule with rhythm, variety, and flexibility leads to greater consistency and less overwhelm.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Positively LivingⓇ and Lisa at https://positivelyproductive.com/podcast/

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Episode 124: [Strategy Call] Using School Themes to Time Block with Lauren Yee

Episode 125: [Strategy Call] Follow Up to School Style Time Blocking with Lauren Yee

Episode 245: Themes: The Simple Time Management Trick You Need

Episode 273: How to Make Time Blocking Fun

Episode 274: Manage Your Time Better with Proper Transitions

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Transcript

Lisa Zawrotny: 0:20

Think back to a school day. You didn't wake up and wonder what subject you tackle first. The structure was

handed to you: 0:27

first period math, second period English, lunch at 1130, gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or block day two as they do in my kids' school. It wasn't glamorous, but it was clear, and that clarity removed a surprising amount of daily friction. Adult schedules, by contrast, tend to be a pile of undifferentiated tasks with no built-in rhythm, unless we work together and we try to put a structure in place that will help. You are listening to the Positively Living podcast, I'm your host Lisa Zorotne, founder of Positively Productive Systems and a productivity coach certified in positive psychology and stress management. Join me as we explore ways to live a more proactive, positive life with episodes on productivity, self-awareness, mindset, entrepreneur life, habits and systems, simplicity, fun, and more. I understand overwhelm personally as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, wife and mom to kids and cats, and as a caregiver. I'm here to help you choose what's right for you, so you can do less, live more, and breathe easier. Sound good? Let's get to it. Welcome to the Positively Living podcast. I'm your host Lisa, and I'm going to start today's episode with a confession. I've always liked the back to school season. I know. When I was in school, it was like an academic new year with new clothes and school supplies and a clean slate. Pun definitely intended. I've always liked the fall season in the Northeast for its crisp air and colors, but the added aspect of starting over with fresh routines and a chance to get organized again has always been appealing to me. I think the lifelong learner in me felt that energy as well, so I kept it going. After school was long over, I'd still celebrate the post-Labor Day shift. I'd get myself new office supplies and revise my daily routine. And now I appreciate that routine that comes with back to school for my teens. If you feel similarly, even if you haven't set foot in a classroom in decades, you're in good company, and you can still use that appreciation in how you approach your life now. This idea is what originally brought Lauren Yee to me for a strategy session years ago, and I thought now would be the perfect time to revisit her two episodes that would become two of the most fun strategy sessions I've ever done on the podcast. In episodes 124 and 125, two consecutive episodes, I worked with Lauren to build a time blocking system rooted in school day rhythms. She was creating a framework for her personal and business life using school as the inspiration. She named her classes. She built her schedule like a course catalog, and it worked for her. The concept resonated with listeners too, and they continue to find and appreciate those episodes. Today, I'm revisiting the core idea, sharing what we did, and offering tips on best practices. If you'd like to try it too, I think you'll love the original episodes and the full coaching conversations. In every strategy call, you get to hear how I coach without edits, and be in the moment with the client and me. In Lauren's first episode, I coached her to design the structure based on this idea she had, and in the second, we did a follow-up to see how it was working and what could be adjusted. I recommend checking out those episodes when you have a chance. I'll link them in the show notes, but this episode does stand on its own and will give you what you need if you want to try this as well. Let's start with why this concept clicked for her and for so many people in the first place. Think back to a school day. You didn't wake up and wonder what subject you tackle first. The structure was handed to you: first period math, second period English, lunch at 1130, gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or block day two as they do in my kids' school. It wasn't glamorous, but it was clear, and that clarity removed a surprising amount of daily friction. Adult schedules, by contrast, tend to be a pile of undifferentiated tasks with no built-in rhythm, unless we work together and we try to put a structure in place that will help. Normally, though, you're dealing with a rolling list that grows faster than you can shrink it. Every morning, you're up making micro decisions about what to do first, what can wait, how much time to give each thing, what has. To move in place because something's changed, all of that creates decision fatigue, and that adds up fast. It's one of the reasons people end up feeling so exhausted so quickly, and add to that a lousy night's sleep, which apparently is a requirement for a lot of adulting, and the struggle is inevitable. What school-style time blocking does is give your week a repeating framework of subjects or focus areas that you slot tasks into, rather than scheduling each task individually. It doesn't have to be a rigid period-by-period breakdown unless that works for you. It's more like theme days. Tuesday mornings are for writing. Wednesday afternoons are for clients. Fridays are for admin. The structure holds the week, and you fill it in so it works best for you. And it can also change week to week as well. There are a few reasons why this kind of approach can work for you. For starters, the research on context switching tells us our brains don't love jumping between unrelated tasks. We think we do, you know, that we can juggle multiple things, but really, there's too much of a cognitive cost every time we switch tasks or we switch modes. It's a bit like turning on the heat and then opening the door repeatedly, or like holding the door open when you look in the fridge because you're determined to find something to eat and you have to stare at the contents, and then you close it and then you open it again, like it's going to be different next time. Batching similar work together the way themed time blocks naturally do reduces that cost and lets us go deeper into what we're doing. And another reason this might work for you has to do with Gretchen Rubin's four tendencies and specifically obligers. They are the largest group within her framework by a significant margin, and they need external accountability and consistent structure to show up and make things happen, and that's what this gives. This is why school schedules and groups work so well for them, and why they can feel so lost when that stops. In the first of the two sessions, Lauren and I worked on why her previous attempts at time blocking hadn't stuck. Her digital calendar felt abstract and lifeless to her, and she kept slipping back into reactive mode, getting in there, putting out fires, doing things as they came up, as opposed to intentionally and strategically. She remembered that school worked for her, and that it kind of felt fun and interesting and creative. So approaching her current schedule the same way felt like a fun, concrete path to being more proactive. She created classes for her week, specifically named focus areas that felt more playful and personal than a generic task list. She was tricking her brain into engaging with this content as opposed to feeling like you have to was more like a get to. And in the second session, she came back to report that it worked. Now it wasn't perfect, and it wasn't a rigid structure, and that's the whole point. What it did was it gave her permission that she'd been missing to actually spend time on things that mattered, including the smaller, often postponed tasks that kept falling through the cracks. When we talk about life balance or life harmony, and kind of touching upon each of the things that we need to get to and want to get to, this is what we're talking about. So the school style structure helped her do that. She tracked her experiment, reflected on what she'd learned, and started adjusting. So we went through what she could do next to make it even better and to keep it going. That follow through is the part that so many people often skip, and it made all the difference. This is why we did two sessions and two episodes, so you could see how the process works, not only to create change but to sustain it. As a coach, I was reminded how effective framing can be when we did this. Calling something Content Wednesday or Creative Day instead of the day I have to write stuff changes how your brain approaches it. It signals intent and provides purpose. It takes the guesswork out of it and helps you understand why you're doing what you're doing. When you are clear on what needs to be done and why it needs to be done, that is a powerful combination. And if any of this sounds familiar, perhaps you've listened to episode 245 on using theme days, which is the broader concept at work here. Themes give the day its purpose, and school-style blocking narrows the theme down to help you better define the work. The school metaphor tends. To work especially well for people who need a familiar and more tangible anchor, assigning classes rather than categories invites you to engage with the structure rather than simply complying with it. Both approaches share the same core logic. When you know what a given block of time is for, you spend less energy deciding what to do with it and more of your energy doing it. I've worked with many clients over the years who incorporate themes and time blocking into their schedule. Here are some tips for making it work for you. First, start with your real life, not your ideal life. I know when we create schedules and routines, we have such optimism, and we want to do certain things in a certain way. But you have to work with what you're given. It's tempting to design the perfect school schedule with a beautiful course catalog, tidy subjects, and logical flow. But if you're a caregiver, if you work a hybrid schedule, or you have ADHD. If your week is genuinely unpredictable for whatever reason, you need to build the structure around that reality, and that might mean shorter blocks, fewer subjects, or more flexibility built into each and every one. This is where my idea of flex blocking comes in, which I cover in episode 273 on time blocking. You want to name your subjects in a way that means something to you. Generic labels like deep work or admin can work for some people, but making labels specific to you and how your brain works tends to be the better choice. Lauren named hers in a way that felt right to her. You might use something similarly playful, or you might prefer functional labels-labels that are specific to what you're actually doing. Now, I know for me, I will have a self-care day, and then when I have admin work, that admin work is actually labeled working on my business versus in my business, and that's a distinction that a lot of entrepreneurs need to make. It is one thing to work in your business; you work with clients, you respond to inquiries and things like that, as far as what people need. But working on your business is when you create the content and you are proactive in terms of your strategic plan and your vision for where you're going. So when I say admin, I actually label it as working on my business, and so that's an important distinction that tells my brain what I'm trying to achieve during that time, so whatever you're trying to accomplish, remember there's no rule. The only test is whether the name makes you want to show up for the block of time and to know what you're doing during that time. You want to build in passing periods, so to speak, within the structure of school time. See, this piece is something we forget, or we think maybe I can just skip it, but it's not optional. School schedules don't send kids directly from one class to the next without a break. There's transition time. You have to get to your locker. You have to have time to walk, maybe go to the bathroom, and then get to the next class. Now, I will admit, I've noticed schools have shortened transition time in recent years too much, in my opinion. That's a different conversation for another time. But this transition time we're talking about is something that you can change in your own schedule, and I highly recommend it. Transition time is essential. It's a buffer. It's a reset. It's a reorientation. It's an opportunity for you to check your nervous system and to show up for your next appointment or task calm and ready and focused. And if you're wondering why this beautiful schedule you create keeps collapsing, lack of transitions could be the reason. I cover them in depth in episode 274. If you want to learn more about that, and you want to expect to adjust this, Lauren's follow-up episode was partly about the adjustments she made after her first week, and that's the whole point. The schedule you design on day one is a hypothesis. It's not a final answer. To take the school metaphor further, be a scientist when you do this. Build it, run it. Notice what happens without judgment. You're being curious here, and then refine as you go. Wash, rinse, repeat, and remember: none of what you find that doesn't work for you is a failure. Course correction is part of a sustainable and realistic productivity approach. As with anything we talk about on the podcast here, this approach isn't a universal fix. It's not for everyone. Time blocking in general works better for some personalities and life situations than others. It tends to work really well for people who feel scattered across too many types of tasks and need a way to contain the chaos. It works for people who respond to structure but maybe resist rigidity because the subject framework gives you a container without saying exactly what goes inside it. So that flex blocking part that's really helpful for those who rebel a little against the structure, but know that they need it, and it tends to work better for people with some degree of schedule control. If your days are externally driven, responding to other people's needs most of the time, your schedule shifts constantly. You are working for someone that tells you where and when you need to be. Well, the anchor points to doing something like this for the rest of your personal schedule might need to be smaller or more flexible in some way. There might need to be a different kind of structure where you use a portion of this idea, maybe it's not like full day, but it could be half day blocks, or it could be the way that you block out your weekends or your time off. So shift to something like a college structure, maybe where it's like a once a week kind of thing. The flexible time blocking and themes can still apply, but you may need to adjust them, and for neurodivergent brains, my ADHD folk, the playful framing can be a genuine asset. So keep this in mind. Anything that adds a sense of novelty, right, and keeps things new and fresh, it gives personality and a game-like structure to otherwise neutral tasks. That can really help with your engagement. The school metaphor is a great delivery point for that. If you want to try this, start by writing down the five to seven main types of work or focus that you do in a typical week. Now, I want you to think of types of work, not specific tasks. Now, if you want to start by writing down the specific tasks, you may be able to reverse engineer the categories from there. But you're trying to think of types or categories. Then see if you can assign each one a day or a block. You can keep this loose. Don't schedule every hour. Just see what it feels like to have a named container for each area, and figure out where it would make the most sense to put it. This is where we play with other productivity ideas, like when you do your best work, what kinds of internal productivity rhythm you might have, what's going on in your day where your focus and your energy are better. You can also start even simpler. I know we're talking about the school day approach, but it's okay if you want to back up even further and approach your week with like overarching themes. Just going for the theme concept and even starting with one day a week. For example, for me, Tuesdays are self care days. Now, if I were talking about it in this context, what's the closest school concept, probably a field trip day, right? Not quite all day recess, but definitely a field trip where it's a little different from the rest of school, and it gives me permission to be open and to do things differently than my normally structured day. If you're really liking this idea, you're intrigued by it, you want to play a little bit with how you can still get things done, and you'd like more support. Be sure to check out the episodes that I mentioned in today's episode. I've put them in the show notes. That's Lauren's two strategy sessions: the Theme Days Framework One and the One About Transitions. And as always, I welcome you to connect with me so that I can support you. Let me know what you thought about the episode. Let me know if you have questions. We could start with my clarity call. It is a great place to begin when you're brand new. You want to try out coaching, and if you want a similar strategy to Lauren, we could talk through it during that session. We can set up a structure to start, and then move you into async coaching for accountability, where we use a messaging app to share ideas and feedback during the times that work best for you. You can find that and all other coaching options at positivelyproductive.com/coaching. This season is a natural time to build or rebuild your structure. The school year energy is everywhere you look, and I encourage you to use it to your benefit. Design a schedule that has a rhythm, variety, clear beginnings and endings, and enough passing periods in between that you can actually make it from one class to the next. Try it, and remember: for this project, effort counts, and showing up is always worth full credit.