Teamwork Tuesday #1: How to make time for the work that matters

[#1]

You know what is even better than tacos? Teamwork! (I'm talking about food tacos, not Taco 🙈)

The atlassian blog is full of interesting work-life balance and teamwork articles, and I thought it would be great to discuss some of the recommended practices with you! Kind of like an Atlassian blog book club 😁📚

And so "Teamwork Tuesday" officially begins. 💥

This week, I found this fascinating article, "How to make time for the work that matters".

To sum it up, the Atlassian Team Lab Anywhere team ran an internal study to research if restructuring your workday routine around your calendar leads to better outcomes. And the answer is... YES.

The problem?

Many team members feel constantly busy but struggle to progress in high-priority tasks due to overwhelming meetings and messages. This leads to starting important work late in the day when they are most exhausted.

So what was the fix?

Calendar Timeblocking 👉 Declining unnecessary meetings, scheduling unavailable times (like child drop off/pick up, lunchtime, dog walk, etc.), allocating open collaboration and focus times, and setting aside specific times for responding to messages.

What was the result?

- Participants made faster progress on high-impact work and had improved goal clarity.

- Timeboxing (allocating specific time blocks for certain tasks) proved effective.

- Calendar management, like declining meetings and dedicating time to top priorities, changed behaviors permanently.

If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of timeblocking. I blocked Monday and Friday for repeating tasks and planned focus work in the mornings, leaving space for meetings only in the afternoons.

Here is an example 👇

 

👀 How about you? Are you using timeblocking technique to increase productivity and focus?

[Amanda Barber]

I do some timeblocking, but think I could improve at this even more. I do like to plan out my next day's tasks the day before, but rather than schedule them, I simply have them listed. This works great when my energy level might not match what I anticipated during the time originally blocked - ha!

Looking forward to this series!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

I feel like I've been trying to do timeblocking but haven't been super successful with it.
Like everything it's something you need to learn, fail at sometimes, and learn some more.

The one thing I've become good at is blocking family time, which I'm really happy with :)

[Bill Sheboy]

Greetings!

In my experience, time-blocking (especially shared blocks) may have better impacts when it is used by an entire part of an organization *and* leaders sign up to do it also.

Not so good scenario I observed

Teams went "scrappy" and began scheduled time-blocking, communicated (i.e., told not discussed) that to stakeholders and sibling teams, and got to work.  But they did not first identify / resolve team dependencies and account for things like leader Gemba walks, HR interactions, etc.  Teams without buy-in started doing what they called "time-blocking", but instead became less focused and, frankly, mis-behavey.  The outcome was the blocks either got walked over, or disrupted by mis-aligned team priorities / dependencies.  Eventually, the wheels came off the bus and leaders ordered a halt to time-blocking.  Worse still, some leaders developed a mindset of "any meeting is a bad meeting; get your hands back on the keyboard..." and started calendar lurking to ask about any meeting longer than 15 minutes or with more than 3 people in it.  Productivity tooling was adjusted to prevent recurring calendar meetings from being scheduled.  Yikes!

Better scenario attempt I observed

A team considered and understood the impact of changes in their communication and responsiveness with a time-blocking model.  Teams that specifically wanted to try things like mobbing were diligent in preparing to eliminate or mitigate disruptions and just-in-time requests.  Non-removable things beyond the time-blocks were aligned as much a possible, improving the opportunity for all team members to use the blocks effectively.  Leaders bought in to help with focus-improvement, and also participated in and respected the time-blocks.  Measurement indicated fewer needs for re-work due to errors and improved team collaboration and reduced silos of knowledge.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Currently, I'm using timeblocking in my calendar to make sure no one schedules meeting so that I don't have a break for lunch! Not being humorous—I have a couple of medical conditions that cause issues if I don't eat. 

[ABR]

Hi, I, personally and professionally, have benefitted from creating and sticking to it zealously! While creating my weekly routine, I take time and consult with all stakeholders on my time and pencil-in at least half an hour time for the issues that might disrupt the routine.  This practice, that I created when I became a mom, has served me well and mostly happy with my life!

@Barbara Szczesniak So sorry to hear of your medical hurdles, take care of yourself! I've also been asked to eat at specific times and avoid fasting or meal skipping at all costs due to medical reasons.