Time Blocking for PMs
A Product Manager (PM) oversees the entire product lifecycle—from ideation to launch and long-term vision. Because PMs collaborate with many stakeholders (engineering, design, marketing, business, customer support, and more), schedule management is one of the most critical parts of the job.
In a single day, PMs cycle through meetings and tasks with different teams while fielding requests from tools like Email, Slack, Jira, Notion, Figma, and others. In such a fragmented environment, deciding when you will go deep on which work—that is, practicing Time Blocking—is an essential way for PMs to stay focused and move quickly.
What is Time Blocking
Time Blocking is a scheduling method where you divide your day into blocks and assign specific work to each block. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey are often cited as people who maximize their time using this approach.
How I use Time Blocking as a PM at MOBA
I currently work as a PM at MOBA, managing end-to-end product projects and thinking about product vision. Everyone’s Time Blocking style is a little different, so I’ll share my personal approach as one concrete example.
1. Consolidate all work into the calendar
At MOBA we run projects across Slack, Notion, Figma, Jira, tl;dv, Google Workspace, and more. Work originates in a distributed environment, so bringing everything together in one place is the most important first step toward working productively.
When a request comes in, I don’t put it on a separate to-do list. Instead, I add it to the all-day section of my calendar. Since I visit my calendar most frequently (I have multiple meetings a day), I prefer to manage everything there. To avoid forgetting, I drop it in as soon as the request arrives (or at least within a few hours) and add just a few keywords or links—quick enough not to break my current focus.
2. Assign work to time blocks (Time Blocking)
Before I start the day, I take the items I parked in the all-day section and stack them into time slots—like building with blocks. I assign my most important work to the hours when I can focus the most.
Personally, I’m sharpest during the first four hours after I start work, so I schedule the must-finish items there. Knowing your own peak-focus window is a key part of Time Blocking.
3. Practice deliberate single-tasking
Avoid multitasking. Handling several things at once makes time budgeting hard and weakens deep focus. I aim for one task per block, on purpose.
4. Leave space between blocks
Real life happens: teammates ask for help, urgent issues pop up, plans shift. If you pack every minute, you’re likely to drop balls and break promises to yourself—ending the day feeling like work isn’t truly done. I keep about two hours a day unbooked so I can absorb the unexpected.
In the end, the goal of Time Blocking is high output, not a pretty calendar. Be careful not to get trapped in time management for its own sake. Keep ownership of your schedule, tackle one important thing during your best hours, and avoid needless stress by keeping flexible gaps between blocks—what I call flexible time blocking.