Why I Started Using Routine.co to Timebox Writing
Every Thursday morning, I sit down to write something — a post, a tweet thread, a brain-dump doc labeled “why isn’t productivity software actually productive.” I tell myself I’ll spend 90 minutes on it. But 3 hours later, I’m reading my 14th Notion API changelog and haven’t written a single sentence. 🙂
I used to write inside whatever tab was already open: Google Docs, Notion, even Slack drafts. I was constantly bouncing between ideas, rewriting introductions, switching tools to “optimize” my process instead of actually working. Then I tried Routine.co — not as a to-do app, but as a way to lock writing into my calendar like an unskippable meeting.
Routine isn’t just another calendar. It acts more like a lightweight command center — you connect Google Calendar, your tasks (either manually or synced from Todoist or Notion), and then you timebox them directly inside your schedule. It’s the first place I’ve used that combines writing tasks with an actual time budget *and* makes it visible like a sticky note on my day.
Here’s what finally clicked for me: instead of writing when I “felt inspired,” I started dragging a task called “Write blog post: Button doesn’t work again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” into a 10am–11am block. Once it’s on the timeline, I mentally treat it like showing up to a dentist appointment — not exciting, but can’t be skipped.
Dragging Writing Tasks Into the Calendar Is Weirdly Effective
The hardest part of using Routine.co honestly isn’t learning the tool — it’s overcoming the awkwardness of scheduling your own ideas like they’re dentist appointments. It feels artificial at first to put “Write intro paragraph” from 10:30–10:50, but it helps kill the perfectionism loop. You now have an artificial container to guilt-trip yourself in real time — and I mean that in the best way.
Let’s break it down: say you have a vague task like “write update for client X.” In most apps, that becomes either a bullet that stares at you forever or a 60-item checklist no human could possibly finish today. In Routine, I schedule it as a 45-minute block at 9:15am. That’s it. That’s the whole plan. Routine lets you:
– Write task titles that are full sentences (like “Write version 3 intro again because yesterday’s sucked”) and move them hour-by-hour
– Drag and drop those tasks directly into empty calendar slots
– See everything from both task and calendar view — you’re always reconciling what you *want* to do (tasks) vs what you *actually* have time for (calendar)
Sometimes I’ll schedule 90 minutes and finish in 30, and I’ll laugh at myself. Sometimes it takes longer and I schedule whatever’s left for next Tuesday. But either way — unlike my old setup — it actually gets done.
There’s a minor bug that still drives me nuts: when I click into a task that’s already scheduled, then hit “Reschedule,” nothing happens unless I manually drag it out of the calendar first. There’s no error message. No UI feedback. Just… nothing. I’ve sent feedback to Routine’s team twice now and I’m holding out hope 😛
Making Timeboxing Work When You Are All Over the Place
If you’re like me, you don’t write in a vacuum. You’re probably running errands between sentences, fixing bugs in Zaps that won’t stop looping, and watching some runaway OpenAI function spam your Airtable base with duplicates. You’re chaotically multitasking *while* trying to be a thoughtful human who creates words.
Timeboxing helped, but only after I adjusted how I approach it. Some practical tweaks that really helped:
1. I only schedule 2 writing sessions per day, max — one in the morning, one after lunch. Otherwise I blow past stamina and start writing like a robot.
2. Each block is 25–60 minutes, depending on how much caffeine I’ve had and whether I’m writing original words vs editing
3. Every writing task is labeled super clearly — not “Draft post,” but “Write rough section on disappearing webhooks”
4. I keep a floating “idea bank” in Routine’s inbox and drag from there when I plan the calendar for the week
5. I never mark a block as “complete” unless I shipped *something* — even if it was just writing an ugly draft I’m going to cleanup tomorrow
6. Sometimes I cheat and reschedule the block live while I’m writing. If I hit a groove, I just extend it. No one’s watching, you can’t get in trouble 🙂
One hidden feature in Routine I didn’t expect to use so much is Focus Mode — hit Shift+Space and it hides everything else except the tasks you’ve scheduled for now. It’s not deep focus in the hardcore neurohacking sense, but it’s kind of like clearing a whiteboard. For 25 minutes, I don’t see the rest of the week’s chaos.
Also worth noting: Routine doesn’t push writing tasks to external tools like Notion or Docs — so you won’t find your drafts archived anywhere automatically. I learned this the annoying way when I finished a paragraph draft *inside* Routine’s note and then accidentally deleted it thinking I had moved it to Notion. There’s no undo. Be careful.
When Things Go Wrong With Your Routine.co Timeblocks
I’d be lying if I said this thing always works flawlessly. Timeboxing *sounds* simple: assign time, do the thing. But there are days I open Routine and see all my pastel-colored tasks lined up like an ideal day — and then do something completely unrelated.
One recurring issue: if you change your Google Calendar color scheme, Routine sometimes ignores the new colors and overlays your personal tasks in random hues until you refresh the app manually. It doesn’t break anything, functionally, but it completely ruins the visual logic I depend on (“red = do not miss, yellow = maybe”). It’s like someone erased your post-its and redrew them in crayon.
Another bug I hit twice now: duplicating a task
inside a weekly recurring block results in *both* blocks showing the duplicate next week — essentially spawning a copy in every future week unless you manually prune them. I only noticed this when I checked my task list a week ahead and saw the same rough draft scheduled four times.
For a couple weeks, I used an Apple Shortcut to auto-import writing triggers from Reminders into Routine. That worked okay until Routine updated its import rules and stopped recognizing tasks without due dates, meaning the Shortcut silently failed. Didn’t notice for three days.
Error log at the time:
“`
Input task missing deadline. Ignored from import.
Context: Reminders → Routine
Error code: 403-Missing-DueDate
“`
…which I obviously didn’t see because Routine doesn’t show these in-app. You’d have to inspect the sync process manually, which I only figured out by comparing memory backups.
So yes, some of this feels duct-taped. But I’d rather work inside something honest and glitchy than a perfectly polished system that doesn’t flex at all. Writing is chaotic. Tools should forgive you for being human.