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Time blocking your tasks can be a powerful way to plan, allocate, and protect time to work on your tasks. Time blocking is a premium feature that can be done using the AI Planner or manually. In this guide, we focus on manual time blocking, however you can learn about the AI Planner and how it can recommend and schedule tasks for you in this guide.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is a powerful way to move from managing your tasks in a to-do list, to planning them into your day. There are a lot of benefits to time blocking:
- Reduces the cognitive load of figuring out what to do next when tasks are already scheduled.
- Protects time from being booked by others (if scheduled tasks are marked as 'busy').
- Time bounds how long a task should take (though don’t be too hard on yourself if your estimate isn’t quite right).
- Reality checks your to-list. If you have more tasks then reasonably fit in your calendar, you will likely need to reprioritize.
There are two elements in Morgen that can be added to your calendar to time block:
- Frames, a deep layer template that can be added to identify what types of tasks you want to tackle when. These are usually recurrent and can be set up with task filters. In Morgen, these have a hashed background and a label on the right side.
- Scheduled tasks, which is any task in your calendar. These are easily distinguished from events as they are void of color and have an empty checkbox you can click on to mark the task complete.
To create Frames (which can be used alongside the AI Planner) to provide a powerful co-pilot for time blocking, learn more in this guide.
Manually scheduling tasks from your task manager
On desktop, you can open your task list from the checkbox in the left navigation. Then drag and drop any task directly on to your calendar.
If you specified a task duration when you created the task (either as a task property duration or using a duration tag in the name), the task will be sized for that amount of time when dropped into the calendar. If you haven’t set a duration, it will default to 30 minutes. You can adjust the length of the scheduled task by dragging the bottom of the scheduled task up or down.
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On mobile, open your task lists from the check mark in the menu at the bottom. Swipe right on any task to open the orange calendar icon. This will open a calendar view. Simply select the duration for the task, tap on the date, then select when in the day it should occur. Tap done to schedule the task.
Create a task right in your calendar
Alternatively, just like a calendar event, you can create a task directly from your calendar.
On desktop, simply click the location on your calendar where you want the task to be scheduled. The event/task widget will open. Select Task from the top right corner of the widget, or in the title, type ‘task’ then space to convert it from an event to a task.
Add all the associated details that will aid your planning in the task widget, including:
- Notes, including deep links to associated documents and plans
- Recurrence patters if this task should be scheduled on an ongoing basis
- The associated task list (otherwise it will default to your Inbox)
- The importance level
- Due date
- Whether the scheduled time should be set to busy to avoid double booking
- Any additional reminders you want added to your task
Since you've already created the task in your calendar, the estimated duration will based on the size of the task. You can also change that in the task details or by pulling up/down the bottom of the task frame in your calendar to resize it.
You will notice that when you drag a task from your task list into your calendar, it no longer appears in the task list and only on the calendar. If you prefer to also see the scheduled task within its task list too, simply select ‘Show Scheduled Tasks’ from the task manager settings. These tasks will now be displayed with a small calendar icon to signify that they have been scheduled. If the icon appears as stacked calendars, it means the task has multiple time slots scheduled.
Create and schedule a task from the command bar
Finally, on desktop, you can also create and schedule a task from the Morgen command bar. To do so, from the command bar create a task and specify the timing.
For example, I just typed “create task new guide today at 4pm for 30 minutes in work calendar” in the command bar, which scheduled a new task. Here's a guide with more detailed tips for using the command bar.
Create multiple work sessions for a task
Some tasks may be completed in one work session, however, other instances may take longer. In those instances, you may want to add more instances of that scheduled task to your calendar.
On desktop, the quickest way to do so is to copy and paste the task. Select the first instance of the scheduled task, copy it (CTRL C/CMD C), then click elsewhere in your calendar, and paste it (CTRL V/CMD V). The copied task will be of the same duration, but can be adjusted by moving the bottom of the scheduled task up or down. You can do this as many times as needed.
Alternatively, you can add recurrence rules to tasks, specifying the frequency of the recurrence as well as how many instances. This is done within the task widget can only be set once the first instance of the task has been scheduled in your calendar.
Note, recurrence patterns cannot be added from mobile yet.
Protect the time
Like events, you can choose whether to make your scheduled task busy or free. If busy, this time will no longer be seen as available in your Scheduling Links, Open Invites, or Team Availability, so long as they are scheduled in one of your Busy Calendars.
This can be changed in each task, but you can also set the default in your Morgen Preferences with Transparency of Scheduled Tasks.
Choose the calendar
When you schedule a task, it is now being added to a calendar. If you have more than one calendar connected to Morgen, you can decide which calendar the task belongs on.
In your Morgen preferences, you can choose a default calendar for all scheduled tasks. This can then be changed at an individual task level.
Set notifications for a scheduled task
For important scheduled tasks, you can add additional notifications to remind you that it’s coming up to be delivered on your desktop. You can learn how to set multiple notifications in this guide.
Find a scheduled task
Once a task has been scheduled, it can be quickly found using Morgen search. Simply search a key work from the task, pick past or present, and you will see a complete list of all possibly related tasks and events.
Once your task is complete
When your scheduled task is complete, click on the empty checkbox. It will now appear in the calendar with the checkbox and disappear from the task list. It will be listed in your task archive.
Want to learn more? See time blocking in action on Morgen:
