Nice read! one of the most interesting ideas that I’ve successfully used was to have a no meeting day. That worked great for everyone. Another hard learned lesson was scheduling time, important meetings should be organized in the morning otherwise it might be hard to enter deep work.
Great article… It is very simple.. Master your calendar, or it will master you! 🗓️ Set the tone for your week by scheduling ahead—your future self will thank you. Theme your days for success: mornings for deep work 🧠, afternoons for collaboration 🤝, and evenings for correspondence 📧. Prioritize ruthlessly; when distractions arise, weigh their impact against your goals. And remember, it’s okay to press ‘decline’—your time, your rules!
I loved this tip, Kevin: “The first question you should always ask yourself is “Do I need to attend this meeting?”. Or perhaps to phrase it more helpfully, “Will my absence from this meeting ‘block’ any of my teammates from making progress?”. If the answer to the latter question is no, strongly consider declining the invite. ”
Love the tactical way to ask about attendance. Focus on helping others, but if they don’t need your help – save your time to focus on higher priorities.
A former startup I worked at had a “pick up your chair 🪑” philosophy, where at any point if you weren’t needed or finding value, you were welcome to leave.
It ended up creating a really healthy culture of debates, people asking really good questions, very clear meeting agendas, and high ownership and engagement.
"While you’re barely a paragraph into this article, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s already been at least one distraction"
yes! you guessed it right :)
I do all three and that helps. I also make certain days just meeting days and a couple others with almost none. I like to think of my work as a flight taking off. I need enough runway to get in the zone. If not, it is just a disaster.
Great tips!
Thanks for reading Lisa! :)
Nice read! one of the most interesting ideas that I’ve successfully used was to have a no meeting day. That worked great for everyone. Another hard learned lesson was scheduling time, important meetings should be organized in the morning otherwise it might be hard to enter deep work.
Great article… It is very simple.. Master your calendar, or it will master you! 🗓️ Set the tone for your week by scheduling ahead—your future self will thank you. Theme your days for success: mornings for deep work 🧠, afternoons for collaboration 🤝, and evenings for correspondence 📧. Prioritize ruthlessly; when distractions arise, weigh their impact against your goals. And remember, it’s okay to press ‘decline’—your time, your rules!
I loved this tip, Kevin: “The first question you should always ask yourself is “Do I need to attend this meeting?”. Or perhaps to phrase it more helpfully, “Will my absence from this meeting ‘block’ any of my teammates from making progress?”. If the answer to the latter question is no, strongly consider declining the invite. ”
Love the tactical way to ask about attendance. Focus on helping others, but if they don’t need your help – save your time to focus on higher priorities.
A former startup I worked at had a “pick up your chair 🪑” philosophy, where at any point if you weren’t needed or finding value, you were welcome to leave.
It ended up creating a really healthy culture of debates, people asking really good questions, very clear meeting agendas, and high ownership and engagement.
Great tips all around.
These are great time management tricks.
Blocking with hours in a row enables to produce deep work uninterrupted. Batching the meetings is another great one to avoid the start\stop effect.
Really helpful! Thank you!
"While you’re barely a paragraph into this article, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s already been at least one distraction"
yes! you guessed it right :)
I do all three and that helps. I also make certain days just meeting days and a couple others with almost none. I like to think of my work as a flight taking off. I need enough runway to get in the zone. If not, it is just a disaster.
Love the tips Kevin! You're right.
Scattered meetings -> means no work being done throughout the day.
Batched meetings -> we can have much bigger time to focus.
And having bigger blocks of focus time is where we actualy get stuff done.