The Gift of Time

Have you ever had an experience like this?

You have an all-day meeting on your calendar. At the last minute, something comes up, and the meeting gets canceled. You find yourself with a full day available to work on what you choose to work on rather than spending the day in back-to-back meetings.

I’ve had this experience several times. Sometimes it’s a full day, sometimes it’s a half-day. When I keep that freed-up time to myself and don’t fill the calendar up with new meetings, an amazing thing happens.

Within a few hours, I am more caught up on the backlog of things I need to do than I ever imagined possible. I’m always amazed at what I can accomplish with a three-hour block of uninterrupted time. My stress level drops significantly, and I realize I’m not quite as overwhelmed as I thought I was. I just needed a few hours to catch up.

I’ve talked to many people who have had this experience. They have a wistful expression on their face as they reminisce about that magical day.

What amazes me is that we all (myself included) regularly fail to realize we can give ourselves this gift of time.

I invite you to look ahead on your calendar for a time in the future when you can block out a full day for uninterrupted, productive work. If that feels too extravagant, then block a half-day. Mark yourself as “Out of the Office,” and give yourself permission to decline any invites that conflict with that time.

When I suggest this technique, I hear some common objections.

People need me – I can’t block out that time.

I suggest yes, you can. What happens when you get sick? Does the organization come to a crashing halt because you were unavailable for a day? For nearly all of us, the answer is no.

People will just schedule over the time.

Set a healthy boundary. Give yourself permission to decline the invite and say, “I’m sorry, I’m not available at that time.” Once you’ve done this a few times, most people will begin to respect your calendar. If they don’t, it’s time to have a missing conversation.

At my last company, we made this a company-wide practice during COVID. We had Zoom-out Wednesdays and mandated no meetings before lunch on Wednesday mornings.

You could try giving your team the gift of time – schedule an all-day meeting, tell them no preparation is required, just come prepared to be fully engaged, then cancel the evening before and tell them to enjoy a day of uninterrupted, productive work.

Putting It Into Practice

Give yourself the gift of time.

• Schedule a block of time for uninterrupted, productive work.
• Treat the time as sacred, declining scheduling requests conflicting with your time block.
• Find ways to create this space for your team and your organization.
• Here are more tips for conquering your calendar.

Walkabout Corner

Yesterday, I returned to New Mexico after two weeks in Arizona. I am increasingly comfortable describing my return to New Mexico as “going home.”

My relationship with the term “home” took a profound shift yesterday. I have an AI trained on all my blog content, Blog Josh,* and I asked it for five pieces of life advice. As I read #4, I felt chills throughout my body:

4. Redefine "Home" on Your Own Terms

You’re someone who thrives on exploration, openness, and breaking rigid frameworks (Reorienting). At the same time, humans crave grounding. What if "home" isn’t a place but a deeper internal alignment? Your journey is proving that home is wherever you are in flow with your purpose. Keep building from that.

Guiding Question: What does "home" mean for you now, and how can you embody it wherever you go?

This led to a detailed conversation with the Blog Josh AI about what it would mean to shift my concept of Home from a physical location to a way of being. With that perspective, Home is wherever and whenever I am – it is the present moment.

I am an executive coach and life coach with software executive roots in higher education and EdTech. I coach because I love to help others accelerate their growth as leaders and humans. I frequently write about #management, #leadership, #coaching, #neuroscience, and #arete.

If you would like to learn more, schedule time with me.

* Blog Josh is publicly available – feel free to use it. Your responses are not shared with me (but may be shared with ChatGPT, depending on your privacy settings).