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💡 The Big Idea: An Interesting Twist to My Time-Blocking Routine

Time-blocking is the simple practice of budgeting your time.

• Start by putting your meetings and appointments (the things that are non-negotiable)
• Slot in your most important tasks
• Continue until every hour has a job

The benefit of time-blocking like this is that you’ve pre-determined when you’re going to do the things on your task list.

Time-blocking is the most important productivity technique on the planet. It’s the key to being intentional with how you spend your time.

For a long time, I’ve been time-blocking my day using a fancy notebook and a fountain pen. I believe time blocking in a separate analog tool helps me stay focused when I go back to the computer to do my work.

But recently, I added another element to my time blocking routine that I call Block Priming. And it’s made possible by an app called Morgen that integrates directly with my Obsidian vault (where I keep all my tasks).

Morgen x Obsidian: A Dynamic Time Blocking Duo

Morgen isn’t just a calendaring app. If I had to describe it, it’s a scheduling app that helps you figure out when you are going to take action on your important tasks.

One of the advantages of Morgen is that it integrates with many different task management applications. For example, you can import your tasks from Notion, Todoist, Clickup, etc., and schedule them by dragging the tasks onto your planning calendar.

A few months ago, the folks at Morgen started working on an integration that pulled in tasks from Obsidian. But not just any tasks — tasks that were formatted for use with the Obsidian Tasks plugin. This is what I decided to use when I went all-in with task management in Obsidian and created my Task Dashboard in Obsidian Canvas:

With the integration, you can now:

• Pipe your tasks into Morgen and have them show up in the Tasks sidebar
• Drag those tasks onto your calendar as you plan your day
• Check the task as complete in Morgen and have the status sync back to the original task in Obsidian

It’s pretty cool. And it’s perfect for an Obsidian nerd like me.

Except for one thing: I time-block my day using analog tools.

But I did find a place for this in my time-blocking workflow.

Block Priming: An Effective Shutdown Routine

One of the struggles of being a knowledge worker who can work from anywhere is that, well, I tend to work from anywhere.

It’s hard for me to draw a line between my work day and the rest of the day. If I feel like I have more to do, I tend to just pick up my laptop and start working.

I feel like this was a lot easier when we didn’t have smartphones, and we couldn’t access the Internet all the time. We would go to a different location (the office), and then when we got in the car to go home, we were done.

It was a lot easier to leave work at work.

One of the things that can help when ending your work day is a shutdown routine. This is where you close the open loops and clear the decks so you can start fresh the next day. You might add things to your task manager or clear your inbox.

And I’ve always struggled with this.

But I found a weird way to finally start getting some consistency with my shutdown routine using the Morgen Obsidian integration.

At the end of the day, I go into Morgen and I check off the tasks I got done. (I don’t like going into my planning tools during my workday. Whenever possible, I’ll go to the analog system during the day.)

In addition to checking off the things I got done (which then sync back to Obsidian automatically), I’ll look at the next day and do some Block Priming:

• I’ll look at the meetings and events I have coming up tomorrow
• I’ll review the important tasks that show up in the Due Tomorrow section
• I’ll drag those tasks onto tomorrow’s planning calendar, pre-deciding when I’m going to get those things done

This only takes a couple of minutes, but it helps me disconnect from work and be present with my family for the rest of the day. I no longer worry about those things once I close the laptop lid because I’ve already decided when they’re going to get done.

Note that this isn’t a full time-blocked plan. I’m not giving every hour a job here. I’m just looking at the big blocks I have available and deciding when I’m going to do the three most important tasks for tomorrow.

Then, in the morning, I look at this plan for the day, transfer everything I see in Morgen to my analog time-blocked plan, and finish giving every hour a job. Once I’m done time-blocking my day, I transfer my three most important tasks to a notecard that I prop up on my desk and work off of throughout the day.

My Block Priming ritual actually makes the time-blocking I do in the morning even more efficient because I have fewer gaps in my schedule to figure out. And in the rare case where things have gone sideways since I shut down from work the night before, I give myself permission to change things as needed.

But most of the time, the pre-time-blocking work I do simply means it’s even easier for me to hit the ground running the next day.

BTW, if you want to see the Morgen x Obsidian integration in action, I just published a YouTube video that walks through the whole thing.

😎 Something Cool: Discbound Ugmonk Analog

I mentioned that I transfer my three most important tasks to a notecard that I prop on my desk and use as my to-do list during the workday. For a long time, I was using a blank notecard that was fountain pen-friendly.

But recently, I’ve been trying the Ugmonk Analog cards again, thanks to the new Discbound version.

Just like the Discbound Heirloom journal, where I do my time-blocking, this uses solid brass discs that let you easily pop cards in and out. I still don’t use the full Analog system, but I do love this as an analog complement to my digital system.

If you want to check it out, it’s $19 for the Discbound system with a month’s worth of cards (30 Today cards, 2 Next cards, and 1 Someday card).

📣 Announcing the Practical PKM Cohort 4!

The next Practical PKM cohort is officially open!

It’s basically a PKM bootcamp where we work together to craft a personalized PKM system you can trust to turn chaos into clarity and do your best creative work.

I’ve got a fancy new webpage with all the details if you want to learn more.

A couple of important details for this time around:

• It goes for 4 weeks and kicks off on Monday, January 27th at 1pm CT (11am PT, 2pm ET)
• I’m including a FREE copy of LifeHQ for everyone who joins this cohort ($297 value)
• I’m also including 1-year of access to The Library and ALL my video courses ($500 value)
• The cost is $200 off this week only ($797, goes up to $997 next Monday)

You can find out more here, and if you want to join, click the button below.

📚 Book Notes: Anti-Time Management by Richie Norton

We recently covered Anti-Time Management by Richie Norton for Bookworm, and I ended up enjoying this one a lot more than I thought I would. I don’t really care for the complicated visual associated with the core time tipping framework, but there are some really interesting ideas in this book that directly challenge the traditional views of time management and work-life balance that dominate a lot of the typical productivity books.

If you find yourself frustrated with a lot of the standard productivity advice, you might really dig this one. And if you want to download my notes for this book, click here.

— Mike