Time Blocking in Practice: A Guide to the KR Calendar View

Time blocking is deceptively simple: divide your day into dedicated chunks for specific activities. Yet most people struggle to implement it because their tools work against them. The KR calendar view was built with time blocking as a first-class citizen.

Why Time Blocking Works

Cal Newport famously observed that "a 40-hour time-blocked work week produces the same output as a 60+ hour week pursued without structure." The math is compelling, but the psychology is even more powerful.

When you assign tasks to specific time slots, you eliminate the constant negotiation of "what should I work on next?" That decision fatigue compounds throughout the day, leaving you exhausted before you've done any real work.

"Every time you switch between different types of tasks, you pay a cognitive tax. Time blocking lets you batch that tax into a single payment."

The Anatomy of a Time-Blocked Day

Open the calendar view in KR and you'll see your week laid out in a familiar grid. But look closer—this isn't just a mirror of Google Calendar.

15-Minute Precision

KR's calendar operates on 15-minute increments. This granularity matters. Most people overestimate how long tasks take in hour-long blocks, but underestimate them in 15-minute chunks. The truth usually lies somewhere in between.

Click any empty time slot to create a new event or task. The system snaps to the nearest 15-minute mark, encouraging you to think in realistic, precise chunks.

Focus Time Blocks

Notice the purple striped blocks on your calendar? Those are Focus Time events—Google Calendar's built-in deep work indicator. When you create a Focus Time block, it signals to both you and your colleagues that this time is protected.

KR renders these blocks with a distinctive visual pattern so you can spot your deep work windows at a glance. Schedule your most cognitively demanding work—the key results that move the needle—during these protected hours.

Task Integration

Here's where KR diverges from standard calendar apps: your tasks live alongside your events. When you assign a time to a task, it appears on the calendar with a dashed border, visually distinct from meetings but competing for the same real estate.

This unified view answers the question that kills most time-blocking systems: "Where do my actual tasks fit between all these meetings?"

Implementing Time Blocking in KR

Step 1: Audit Your Existing Commitments

Before blocking time for new work, see what's already claimed. Connect your Google Calendar accounts in Settings and toggle on the calendars you want to see. KR pulls in events from work, personal, and any other calendars you choose.

The multi-calendar view reveals the truth about your available time. Most people discover they have far less unscheduled time than they assumed.

Step 2: Identify Your Peak Hours

Your energy fluctuates throughout the day. Most people experience peak cognitive performance 2-3 hours after waking. Others hit their stride after lunch.

Look at your calendar patterns. When are you consistently free? When do you have the fewest meetings? These windows become candidates for your Focus Time blocks.

Step 3: Block Your Deep Work First

Create Focus Time events during your peak hours before anything else fills them. These blocks are for your key results—the measurable outcomes that drive your objectives forward.

A practical approach:

• Block 90-120 minute Focus Time sessions (longer isn't always better)
• Leave 15-30 minutes of buffer between deep work and meetings
• Protect at least one Focus Time block per day, even if it's only 45 minutes

Step 4: Assign Tasks to Time Slots

Now pull your tasks onto the calendar. In KR, tasks can have both a due date and a scheduled time. Open a task and set a specific start time, or drag it directly onto a time slot in the calendar view.

The default task duration is 30 minutes—reasonable for most single tasks. Adjust as needed, but be suspicious of any task that "needs" more than 90 minutes. That's usually a project in disguise.

Step 5: Handle the Overlaps

Reality doesn't respect your perfect schedule. Meetings run over. Urgent requests arrive. Some days, everything stacks up at once.

KR's calendar automatically arranges overlapping events and tasks into columns, similar to how Google Calendar handles conflicts. This visual feedback shows you when you've overcommitted a time slot.

When you see too many overlapping items, it's time to make choices:

• Which of these is truly essential?
• What can be rescheduled?
• What can be delegated or declined?

Drag-and-Drop Rescheduling

Plans change. The meeting that was supposed to end at 2pm runs until 2:30. Your morning Focus Time gets interrupted by a production issue.

Instead of abandoning your time-blocked day, just drag blocks to new positions. KR preserves the duration and updates everything instantly. This flexibility is crucial—rigid time blocking systems break under pressure, but flexible ones bend.

"The goal isn't a perfect schedule. It's a schedule you can adjust without losing your mind."

Grab any event or task and move it to a new time slot. The 15-minute snapping keeps everything aligned. Your task due dates update automatically when you reschedule.

Visual Organization with Colors

Color-coding isn't just aesthetic—it's cognitive. When you can identify meeting types by color before reading the title, you process your schedule faster.

KR supports Google Calendar's full color palette for events:

• Use blue for regular meetings
• Green for 1:1s or personal development
• Red for deadlines or high-stakes commitments
• Purple for Focus Time and deep work

Your tasks inherit colors from their associated projects, creating visual consistency between your goals and your calendar.

The All-Day Events Row

Some commitments span entire days: conferences, vacation, deadlines. KR displays all-day events in a dedicated row above your time grid, keeping them visible without cluttering your hourly schedule.

Use all-day events as context markers. A "Q1 Planning Week" all-day event reminds you that your Focus Time blocks should probably go toward quarterly goal work, not routine tasks.

Common Time Blocking Mistakes

Over-Scheduling

Leaving no gaps is a recipe for failure. Build in 15-30 minutes of buffer time between blocks. These gaps absorb the inevitable overruns and give you mental breathing room.

Ignoring Energy Levels

Don't schedule deep work right after lunch when your energy dips. Match task difficulty to energy availability. Use KR's calendar to identify your natural rhythms, then protect your peak hours.

Treating Time Blocks as Immutable

A time block is an intention, not a contract. When circumstances change, reschedule without guilt. The value of time blocking is the planning process itself—it forces you to think about priorities and tradeoffs.

Forgetting Reactive Time

If your role requires responding to others—Slack messages, support tickets, unexpected requests—block time for that too. A "Communications" block from 4-5pm gives those interruptions a home instead of letting them invade your Focus Time.

Making It Sustainable

Start small. Don't time-block your entire day on week one. Begin with a single 90-minute Focus Time block each morning. Protect it ruthlessly.

Once that becomes automatic, expand. Add an afternoon block. Start scheduling your tasks instead of just listing them. Let the habit build gradually.

The KR calendar view will show you the truth: where your time actually goes versus where you intended it to go. That visibility is uncomfortable at first, but it's the foundation of improvement.

Your calendar isn't just a record of commitments—it's a tool for designing your days with intention. Time blocking transforms it from a passive list of obligations into an active strategy for achieving your key results.