Introducing Day Blocks

I made another app, and I can almost guarantee that this one isn’t for you. But it’s definitely for me, and if the internet has taught me anything, it’s that I’m never the only one like me. So maybe it’s for you, too.

Day Blocks is about time budgeting

I like to get things done. I also like to watch the best moments from The Wire on YouTube for several hours in a row without realizing it. So I got in the habit of budgeting my time.

I start with the end

First, I set the end of my day, or my work block, or whatever, so I know exactly how much time I have available.

Then I make a list

This is pretty much a todo-list, except I guesstimate how much time I want to spend on each thing. At the top of the screen I can see how much time I have left to spend.

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Then I add some ‘flex time’

Days never go the way we expect. Having some buffer in the budget lets me stay on track overall without having to constantly rearrange the whole day.

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Then I get started

In Day Blocks, I just tap the thing I want to be doing right then. When I want to stop doing that thing, I tap a different block. This let’s me jump around between things I want to do, but helps me see how much time I still want to spend on each thing.

This is a real budget, so the total time in the blocks must equal the time remaining in my session. So when I start a block, any budget or deficit in my “Unassigned time” gets added to the block I tapped.

My watch helps

On my watch, I have a complication showing me what I want to be doing, and how much time I have left, which can help me climb out of that YouTube rabbit hole, even if I’m just about to watch Omar testify again.*

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*Okay, I’ll finish watching this one, but then I’m getting right back to work.