Take Back Control of Your Calendar

Read time: 5 minutes

Do you ever feel like you're perpetually playing catch-up in the whirlwind of the workday?

Overwhelmed by the relentless onslaught of meetings, calls, and emails that leave you with mere scraps of time for actual work—or worse, encroach into your personal life?

Well, if you do, you’re not alone.

Surprisingly, a staggering 82% of individuals lack a robust time management system, according to research.¹

When I first became a manager at Google, I felt overwhelmed and stretched too. The nature of my work underwent a seismic shift.

Gone were the days of solely managing downward to my portfolio of customers as an account executive. Suddenly, I found myself navigating a complex web of responsibilities:

• Downward, towards my team and customers

• Across, engaging with sister teams and cross-functional partners

• Upward, in communication to my leadership

This multidirectional juggling act significantly expanded my time commitments and 3x’d the number of meetings I was in.

I constantly found myself logging back on at night to catch up on the day’s work.

It wasn't until I proactively adopted targeted time management techniques that I reclaimed control over my schedule and began to make a substantial impact.

In today’s issue, we’ll talk about some actionable techniques you can implement to build a time management system that will turbocharge your productivity.

Get ready to take back control of your calendar!

Let’s dive straight in.

Effective Time Management Systems and Deep Work

In our constantly connected world, achieving true focus feels like a superpower.

Studies show that the average employee gets interrupted a staggering 11 times every hour, devouring around 2.1 hours daily in distractions.²

On top of that, trying to multitask further diminishes productivity by up to 40%.³

This relentless barrage of distractions makes deep work more crucial than ever.

But what exactly is deep work?

It’s the ability to concentrate intensely on complex tasks.

By strategically carving out distraction-free time, we can unlock a state of peak performance, boosting our quality of work and reclaiming control of our schedules.

Take Back Control of Your Calendar

Here are 6 calendar optimizing tactics I personally employ to improve your work schedule and reclaim your time back from the chaos:

1. Color Coding

Color coding is your ticket to clarity. By assigning different colors to different types of tasks, you'll instantly spot priorities and balance your workload like a pro.

I personally like using:

• Green - for deep work tasks

• Blue - for defensive time blocks like my commute time and daily workout

• Red / Orange - for internal and customer meetings

• Purple - for training and self-improvement

Ideally, you have a good balance throughout the week between green and red/orange. Too many meetings can leave little time for actual productive work.

2. Planning Ahead

Create a recurring calendar hold at the end of your work week and title it “Next Week Planning.”

Spend that time solving your next week's schedule puzzle–rearranging and optimizing your different meetings and calls to free up dedicated blocks for deep work.

Spending 10-12 minutes planning your day can save you two hours of time.

3. Meeting Batching

Group your meetings together vs having them staggered throughout the work day. This will free up longer uninterrupted stretches for deep work.

Here is an example of a non-ideal work day:

And here is that same day optimized for batched meetings to make room for deep work:

4. Defensive Time Blocks

Add your own defensive time blocks to your calendar to protect important parts of your weekly routine.

To play really strong defense, slap a “DNS” on there (Do Not Schedule), so people know not to book over those times.

I put these in place weekly:

• 1 hour Deep Focus

• Lunch

• Workout

• Commute to and from work

• Other time blocks like: Study, School/Daycare drop off/pick up

5. Have a Daily Meeting Cap

This has helped me avoid meeting fatigue and allow me enough time for some deep focus.

Move meetings to other days as you plan ahead to maintain your productivity threshold. Mine is 7 meetings per day (it probably should be lower).

6. Shorten Standard Meeting Times

End 30 minute meetings 5 minutes early and longer meetings 10 minutes early to give yourself a mental break.

Here is your brain in back to back meetings with no breaks vs with short breaks in between:

Did you know you can make ending meetings 5-10 minutes early your default in Google Calendar?

It’s called Speedy Meetings under Settings > Event Settings > Check the box for Speedy meetings.

Here’s what deploying all these tactics throughout the work week might look like:

Implementing these tactics will not only fine-tune your schedule but also ignite a chain reaction of focus, efficiency, and overall well-being.

Picture an optimized week, where stress is minimized, balance is restored, and your productivity soars.

That's the power of reclaiming control over your calendar.

Welcome to the elite league—the 18% who wield the power of a robust time management system to amplify their productivity.

Thank you for reading,

-CJ

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1  https://www.zippia.com/advice/time-management-statistics/

2  https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN13452627/

3  https://www.apa.org/topics/research/multitasking