Why I Started Blocking Time to Write
Look, I’m not the kind of person who naturally keeps a tidy calendar. My Google Calendar used to be a mess — random events, two-week-old reminders still pinging me, and duplicate all-day tasks that I definitely wasn’t doing. But what finally pushed me into caring was this: I kept sitting down to write blog posts and ending up debugging a Zap for three hours instead. 🤦♂️
So I started time-blocking. Not just meetings or appointments — I began treating writing itself like it was something you had to show up for. Like a client call. Like jury duty.
At first, I just created one big 4-hour block that said “Write Blog Post.” Classic mistake. I’d open the doc, scroll through my old notes, maybe drift into Notion to copy over a broken template, then remember I needed to fix a broken webhook from three days ago. The block would end, and I’d have a title and a to-do list. No writing.
Then I learned: time blocking only works when each part of your writing process gets its own realistic chunk of time. Trying to write, edit, outline, and set up screenshots in one giant block isn’t ambitious — it’s setting yourself up to fail. So I broke my day down further.
Breaking Writing Into Discrete Calendar Tasks
This is what really made the difference for me. I started mapping out each stage of my writing as a separate Calendar event. I use these five now:
– “Research + Notes (start with chaos)”
– “Outline Fast (don’t overthink)”
– “Write Ugly Draft”
– “Screenshot + Formatting Run”
– “Edit / Trims / Internal Links”
Each one is its own time block — usually between 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the blog. And here’s the key: I never put them all on the same day unless I’m forced to. If I know something is going to take focus (like jotting down real debugging screenshots or re-testing a broken automation), I spread the blocks out across two or even three days.
Also, I label them red. Not a friendly color. Red means “don’t schedule over this, past me is serious.” 🙂
Making It Easier to Start Writing Inside the Block
One weird trick that helps: I include tiny, sarcastic subtext in the Calendar event name. So instead of just “Write Draft,” my event name is usually something like:
“Write Draft (you already researched this stop opening new tabs)”
This sounds silly, but it’s basically a message from past-me to future-me, written in the tone I respond best to. The vibe is like those sticky notes you leave on the fridge about cleaning the blender. Slightly aggressive, but caring.
Each event also has a short description with copy-paste links to what I already started. That means the Google Doc, the Notion outline, or even the saved ChatGPT thread with the horrible first-pass outline I’ve now completely ignored. Everything I need is in the description, so I don’t go hunting.
How I Deal With Overlaps and Last Minute Collisions
So here’s the thing — Google Calendar doesn’t warn you when you move something important into the middle of a writing block. It’ll just let that 20-minute “quick meeting” land smack in your draft session. I ran into this all the time. The fix wasn’t technical, it was social.
I started labeling all writing blocks as “Busy” and made myself decline anything booked on top of it, even if it was just a 10-minute check-in. I used to think I could just recover the time. I couldn’t. Once a writing block is Swiss-cheesed with pop-ins, it’s gone. You don’t resume mid-thought. You decide to check your analytics dashboard for “a sec.” Bye, focus 😐.
When I absolutely have to move a block (life happens), I don’t just slide it an hour forward. I cancel it and manually re-add it later, in a spot where it actually makes sense. That way, I have to think about where the new writing session best fits — not just “move it later and hope it still works” (spoiler: it never does).
Using Task Dependencies to Avoid Creating Calendar Junk
One thing I tried that didn’t work was syncing all my writing tasks from Todoist into Google Calendar using Zapier. I thought automating task > block mapping would keep me on track — instead, I filled my calendar with ghost blocks for drafts I wasn’t ready to write. Turns out writing isn’t like errands. You can’t just throw the draft block onto the day after you added the idea.
Eventually, I made a compromise system:
– Todoist holds all blog post ideas as simple one-line tasks.
– Only when I promote a task to “Ready for Drafting” (using a specific label), a Zap schedules a 90-minute block for “Outline + Draft Start” about two days out.
– Then I manually slot additional blocks on later days, depending on how I feel about the topic.
This way, I only get real calendar events when a blog is moving forward. Otherwise I’ve got calendar clutter like “Finish Draft About AI Podcast Ideas from April” that just makes me feel behind.
What Happens When I Skip or Cancel a Calendar Block
The first few weeks I tried this, I would cancel blocks all the time and then feel guilty. But here’s where time-blocking changed my mindset: if I skip a writing block, I treat it like I missed a meeting. There’s no shame, but I need to reschedule it. That keeps the structure alive.
So I made a calendar rule for myself: If a writing block gets skipped, I can’t delete it unless I reschedule it immediately. Rescheduling can mean “move to tomorrow” or “postpone to next week,” but I have to decide right then. No open loops.
I also use orange as the color for rescheduled blocks. That way I see how many times something has been punted. It’s a good little nudge — when everything on Wednesday is orange, I usually fix whatever upstream planning mistake got me off track.
Timers and Sound Cues That Actually Help Me Write
I used to think timers were only for pomodoro types who write essays with nice tea and no Slack open. (Not me.) But I found one twist that actually works: instead of using a timer to end a writing session, I use timers to get me started.
Here’s what I do.
– Start of writing block: I set a two-minute phone timer and write nothing.
– Instead, I open the Google Doc and stare at it.
– I tell myself: “you don’t have to write, just wait.”
By the end of two minutes, something usually feels too dumb not to start typing. It’s like this trick delays my panic about starting. Kind of a low-stakes dare from past-me.
Another thing I did — I recorded little chime sounds (yeah, like bell sounds) and set them as recurring Calendar reminders two minutes into my block. It’s just a gentle nudge that says “hey, you should probably be typing now.”
Fixing the Google Calendar Bug That Tricked Me
For weeks I thought my blocks were syncing wrong because every time I moved one, the color didn’t carry over. Turns out, Google Calendar on desktop loses your custom event color (not calendar color) if you reschedule with drag-and-drop but not when you edit the event manually.
So when I dragged my red “Write Blog Post” block to Thursday, suddenly it looked purple. Which made me assume I’d duplicated or created a new event from some other calendar. Took me forever to realize: this was just a color assignment glitch. Manual edit restores color, drag-drop strips it.
My fix? I now avoid dragging cultured-color blocks and instead hit “Edit Event” > change time > save. It’s one extra click but helps future-me quite a bit.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ adds up.
Real Writing Happens One Block At a Time
There are still days when I throw out half the outline, start three rewrite drafts, or crash a tab trying to screenshot Airtable filters. But when I respect the writing blocks I’ve scheduled — even as just a placeholder — I get more done. Not because I’m more disciplined, but because anytime an event says “Write Ugly Draft,” the decision’s already been made for me.