securehas.blogg.se - Reclaime me free

Working in a geographically dispersed company managing teams across many timezones, I have made peace with the fact that I will need to work late or come in early on specific days. Ideally, you’ll end up with blocks of meetings grouped together instead of scattered throughout your day. Do be self-aware, though: if you’re the sort of person who simply can’t take more than two meetings in a row, honor that. (Though it still happens – more on that below.) This way, I have a fighting chance at getting in all my interactions with those teams without having to stay late.

So I always book meetings with my local colleagues in the morning before the cross-over time with Sydney kicks in. For example, I’m based in the US but work with teams in Sydney a lot. If you regularly work with teams in different time zones, make sure you schedule meetings thoughtfully. Then work through other meetings you own. Last, tackle your meetings. If you have a bunch of 1-on-1 meetings you need to run each week, group them together and run them back to back. Do you need to drop kids off in the morning? Or leave by a certain time? What about that standing appointment with your chiropractor? Mark those on your calendar so you don’t end up with clashes.

Next up: recurring tasks or activities that absolutely have to happen at certain times. More time for deep work is the whole point of de-fragging your calendar, so stake your claim by putting in those deep work blocks, then try to make everything else fit around it. First, decide whether you’ll be better off doing your deep work in the mornings or afternoons and note everything you’ll need to reschedule to accommodate that. If you want to create blocks reserved for deeper work, you need to organise your days into categories of work. Categorise how you intend to use your time each dayĭoes your calendar typically look like this? Random meetings stretched out across the day with little 15-30 minute gaps interspersed everywhere? There’s no time for any kind of real work, which is incredibly frustrating. Remember, it’s an investment – not a tax.

Regular maintenance is critical for maintaining calendar sanity. Recurring meetings will drop off, new ones will appear, and you’ll need to reshuffle things.

Ongoing maintenance. Once every quarter or so, you will likely need to spend 1-3 hours to review and reorganise your meetings.

Yes, more clashes may come up during the following week but at least you will start the week with a clear, clash-free calendar. Block out 30 minutes on Friday afternoon to review your calendar for the following week.

Initial organisation. The first time around, expect to take 1-3 hours getting fully organised, depending on the number of recurring meetings you attend.

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty mechanics of rearranging your calendar, here’s what you should mentally prepare for: Newsflash: if you want your schedule to work for you, you need to devote time to organising and maintaining it on a regular basis. Looks simple and easy – like, “Geez, Alastair, what’s so special about that?” But the simple elegant finished product is the result of a whole lot of sausage-making. Lunchtime – yoga or meditation, as well as scarfing down some lunch.Īfternoons – deep work on projects, etc., then take meetings with Sydney-based people.Įvenings – family time (though exactly when “evening” starts varies by day, as you’ll see below). Morning – drop kids off at school, commute, and pack in my meetings with US-based people. Like turning lead (a calendar overrun with meetings) into gold (a schedule neatly organized into blocks).Īt the risk of spoiling the surprise, this is roughly how my days flow: In reality, it’s more alchemy than sorcery. Now, a few years on, my colleagues suspect I figured out a magic formula that adds extra hours to the day. One of the best things I ever did for my productivity was to re-think the way I manage my daily schedule, especially when it comes to meetings. Prior to that, I never had any meaningful time for deep work that required intense thought.