🚩 Tactical Memo 008: Time Blocking for Leaders Who Can’t Find Time

In partnership with

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

Download the free guide

Read time: 7 minutes

Welcome to Tactical Memo, my newsletter where I share frameworks, strategies, and hard-earned lessons for leaders navigating complex environments.

If you’re looking for my cheat sheets and deep-dive guides, the vault is linked at the bottom of this email.

The Briefing: Today’s Focus

• Why Time Blocking Usually Fails

• The New Rule: Time Is Strategy, Not Logistics

• A Tactical Playbook: Building a Calendar That Holds Under Pressure

• What’s Happening: General Updates

• A Reader’s Question: Rescuing a Collapsed Calendar

Why Time Blocking Usually Fails

Time blocking is one of the most recommended productivity hacks in the world. If you follow LinkedIn advice, it’s supposed to solve everything from distraction to overwork.

But here’s the truth: most people who try time blocking quit within three weeks.

Why? Because they use it like a glorified to-do list instead of a strategic operating system.

The three common failure modes:

1. Micromanagement by the hour.
   People block every 30 minutes with specific tasks. The moment one meeting overruns, the whole day collapses like dominoes.

2. No room for chaos.
   They fill 100% of their time with “planned work.” But leadership is chaos by definition. Without buffer, a single crisis detonates the whole system.

3. Defensive scheduling instead of offensive strategy.
   They use blocking to “get more done,” not to protect the work that matters. They end up with pretty calendars full of low-value admin.

My view: time blocking is not about control. It’s about power.
Your calendar is not a logistics tool. It’s a weapon for defending priorities against everyone else’s agenda.

The New Rule: Time Is Strategy, Not Logistics

Think of your time as the budget of your influence.

• A CFO wouldn’t scatter money randomly across 100 line items just to look busy.

• A general wouldn’t spread troops evenly across the entire front line just to be “fair.”

• So why do leaders scatter time across every meeting, request, and distraction that comes their way?

The hard truth: if you don’t weaponize your calendar, someone else will weaponize it for you.

Time blocking done right is not about squeezing more in. It’s about enforcing scarcity: making sure the 20% of work that drives 80% of outcomes gets the calendar protection it deserves.

A Tactical Playbook: Building a Calendar That Holds Under Pressure

Here’s the field-tested process I use with executives and project leaders:

Step 1. Define Non-Negotiables

Before blocking anything, list the 3–5 outcomes that, if achieved, make the quarter a win.

Examples:

• Secure board approval for a funding package.

• Deliver the policy proposal with zero revisions.

• Build alignment between three rival departments.

• Launch a pilot with measurable results by Q4.

Everything else is noise.

Step 2. Convert Outcomes Into Block Categories

Don’t block tasks. Block categories.

• Deep Work: Analysis, strategy, decision memos.

• Influence: One-on-ones, stakeholder briefings, coalition building.

• Operations: Reviews, sign-offs, approvals.

• Recovery: Thinking walks, exercise, unstructured time.

Categories scale. Tasks change hourly. Protect categories, not checklists.

Step 3. Build the Strategic Week Template

Anchor your calendar around recurring slots:

• Mon AM: Deep Work (set the week’s priorities).

• Tue PM: Stakeholder influence (cluster meetings).

• Wed AM: Team alignment (coaching + sync).

• Thu PM: Operational reviews.

• Fri AM: Reflection + reset.

This rhythm removes 90% of “when should we meet?” chaos.

Step 4. Enforce the 70% Rule

Never book more than 70% of your week. The remaining 30% is your chaos buffer.

Without this, your system dies by Wednesday.

Step 5. Assign Work by Energy Curve, Not Clock Time

• High energy → mornings → strategic work.

• Mid energy → afternoons → alignment + decisions.

• Low energy → late day → admin, approvals, quick wins.

Stop wasting prime cognitive hours on email.

Step 6. Defend the Blocks Publicly

Announce your operating rhythm to your team.

Script:

If you don’t teach people how to use your time, they will teach you.

Step 7. Reset Aggressively

At the end of each week, move unfinished work forward.
Never let a dropped block vanish. That’s how strategy dies in silence.

What’s Happening – General Updates

🙇 September 8th marks the start of my third cohort of AI-Powered Project Management. This course shows leaders how to combine project execution with AI, and equips you with the exact playbooks you need to stay indispensable. It’s ranked the #1 Project Management course on Maven Learning and carries a 4.8/5 student rating.

P.S. Register before September 1st and get an advanced copy of my Leadership playbook scripts. Ready-to-use scripts for tough conversations, alignment, and high-pressure leadership moments.

The Briefing: Reader’s Question

Q: “I’ve tried time blocking three times. By Wednesday, my calendar is wrecked from back-to-back fires, rescheduled meetings, and demands from my boss. I end up giving up. How do I make this work in real life?”

A: This is the classic collapse pattern. You’re not failing. Your system is failing. Let’s fix it step by step.

1. Diagnose the Failure Mode

• If fires keep blowing up your blocks: You didn’t leave enough buffer.

• If your boss overrides you daily: You haven’t aligned your rhythm with theirs.

• If meetings eat the calendar: You’re scheduling reactively, not batching proactively.

2. Insert Chaos Buffers
Block 90 minutes daily as uncommitted capacity. This is where fires go. If no fire comes, use it for secondary tasks.

3. Align With Your Boss’s Calendar
Ask: When do you prefer updates? Then lock that slot every week. By pre-committing, you avoid random interruptions.

4. Run the “Rapid Reblock” Rule
If a fire consumes a strategic block, immediately rebook that block within 48 hours. No exceptions. Strategic work must move, not die.

5. Batch & Defend Meetings
Cluster meetings into dedicated windows. Example: “All one-on-ones Tues PM.” This prevents meetings from bleeding into strategic hours.

6. Debrief Weekly With Yourself
Ask: Which block survived? Which block died? Why? Adjust the template until survival rates improve. Within three weeks, your calendar becomes resilient.

The key isn’t perfection. It’s durability. A good time blocking system bends under chaos but doesn’t break.

Cheat Sheet Vault

p.s… As promised, click below for my free cheat sheet and infographic vault

👉 Access the Vault Here

Until next time,
Justin

✍️ From the Desk of Justin Bateh, PhD
Real-world tactics. No fluff. Just what works.