In our 2025 Executive Productivity survey, we found that most executives are only productive for 60-70% of their workday. The rest gets eaten up by busywork.
Time blocking has gained popularity as an effective time management method for good reason. Business leaders need a better time management solution. They can't keep relying on overstuffed schedules and haphazard management.
It offers a straightforward, repeatable time management action plan, ensuring you never waste time figuring out your next task. Time blocking also provides you with more focused time to do the deep work that will truly move the needle for your company.
Unfortunately, time blocking can be one of the most tedious time management systems to implement. It requires proactively managing your calendar, understanding where your time goes, and effective delegation.
But, when done right, it can save time, reduce stress, and help you refocus on the work that really matters.
Fortunately, you don't have to do it all alone. A virtual assistant can help you master time blocking by handling the tedious daily management for you. Once you design your dream schedule, they'll help you make it a reality.
Here's how to get started.
Map Your Daily Energy Levels
One of the most significant advantages of time blocking is that it helps you organize your day according to your natural energy levels.
By focusing on strategic projects during your peak concentration times and scheduling less demanding meetings and tasks during periods of distraction, you can achieve better results more quickly.
Start with a time audit. Map how your energy levels fluctuate throughout the day.
If you've never thought about this before, spend a few days and pay attention to the hours that you accomplish the most and the ones that you're more tired and distracted. Are you a morning person? Do you prefer midday meetings? Would you rather block your afternoons for heads-down work? Figure out what works best for you.
Once you understand your energy flow, make a rough hourly schedule.
Let's say you feel the most focused and energized in the mornings and late afternoon, and experience energy dips midday.
You'd outline a schedule that looks something like this:
- 8 AM -10 AM: Deep work and strategic or brainstorming meetings
- 10 AM - 12 PM: Medium-focus work and other meetings
- 12 PM - 1 PM: Lunch and relationship-building meetings
- 1 PM - 3 PM: Medium-focus work and other meetings
- 3 PM - 6 PM: Deep work and strategic or brainstorming meetings
Pass Scheduling to Your Virtual Assistant
Once you've outlined your preferences, pass them off to your assistant. They'll need to know:
- Your preferred working hours
- What meetings or meeting types are urgent (i.e. a customer call is always a priority or your morning standup can never be scheduled over)
- What meetings are low priority
Over time, they'll get familiar with your calendar management — ensuring you always end up in the right place at the right time.
There are two easy ways to clarify your priorities:
- Tell your VA directly when you're making the request. This works if you're asking them to schedule a meeting outside of an email thread with a contact.
- If you're scheduling within an email thread, use a symbol or other inconspicuous hint to let your assistant know what kind of meeting it is. For example, when our CRO wants to schedule an important meeting, he'll say, "My assistant @Ana will coordinate for us." If it isn't urgent, he'll leave out the @ sign, and she knows to schedule during one of his lower-priority blocks of time.
Offloading scheduling will allow you to spend your peak hours on the projects that drive your success.
Decide If You Prefer a Batched or a Varied Schedule
After mapping your energy levels for the day, enhance your productivity by choosing to batch tasks or vary your schedule during your most energetic periods.
Task batching is when you work on similar tasks back-to-back, so your day is divided between a few categories of activities.
Studies show that task batching improves productivity by allowing you to focus intently on one task at a time rather than frequently switching between activities that require different perspectives and knowledge.
Still, task batching isn't for everyone.
If maintaining focus on the same type of work for hours is challenging, consider partial batching with smaller time blocks of similar activities during the day or follow a varied schedule where you address projects based on their priority, no matter how similar they are.
A virtual assistant can help you implement any of these options by scheduling meetings according to your preferences, organizing activities within your task management software, and adding project agendas to your time blocks.
Create a List of Recurring Blocks that Need to Be on Your Schedule
Once you've set up your virtual assistant with scheduling preferences that maximize your productivity, give them a list of recurring activities to always include on your schedule.
This includes both fixed events, such as team meetings, and flexible items, such as time blocks for routine tasks.
Although this step appears straightforward, consider your workload more carefully to make sure you identify all recurring tasks you currently handle and those you'd like to include in your schedule. Your calendar will never be truly rigid; emergencies happen, and priorities shift, but you can use a mix of busy and "free" blocks to give every moment of your workday a purpose.
Here are some of the activities people often forget to include when time blocking:
- LinkedIn/professional networking
- Breaks
- Learning/professional development
- Catch-up time - occasional fires are inevitable, so you should leave room in your schedule to respond and stay on track
- Planning - weekly, monthly, and quarterly planning meetings, preparation, and brainstorms
And a variety of other recurring activities you need to do to keep the rest of your work moving forward.
If these tasks aren't already on your calendar, give the list to your virtual assistant, along with any other context and preferences for when you'd like to work on each activity.
During the first few months of using a virtual assistant for time blocking, sync with them weekly to stay aligned on priorities.
If your responsibilities change frequently, consider making the sync permanent to help you adjust your schedule for your main projects each week.
Armed with this information, your virtual assistant will time block your schedule so you go through each day knowing what you should be working on and when.
Looking to hire a virtual assistant? Read how to leverage a VA with Prialto.