My calendar is out of control!

I can’t tell you how many times we hear this from business leaders, “I don’t control my calendar – everyone else does!”

Their exasperation is real. We understand.?

Customers, vendors, team members, family members, and who knows who else seems to want a block of time on your calendar and before you realize it – who have more meetings than you have week! And somehow you still have a full-time job to do – with no time left in your day to do it – any of it!

We’ve all been there. We try to start early, stay late, multi-task, delegate, and sometimes even ignore all the daily tasks to give ourselves a feeling of control. We have probably secretly asked ourselves, “How’s that working out for you?” – mainly because it is not.

Last week, we looked at the discipline of daily review (akin to watching game film) to incrementally improve each week in our disciplines of self-management.

This week, we are looking at the second of four disciplines related to maximizing our productive time: calendaring tools.

We can’t make more time. And, unfortunately, many of our efforts negatively impact us instead of providing positive benefits (multi-tasking, dumping instead of delegating, etc.). What was intended to save time, ends up wasting it…

“Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes, and the hardest to correct, is this waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material.”??????????????????????????????– Henry Ford

We have three key activities that allow us to manage our calendar instead of allowing it, or others, to manage us:

-???????Using a default calendar

-???????Doing weekly / daily calendar review

-???????Using focused 17-minute sprints

Using a default calendar simply means blocking out on your calendar those recurring tasks that you know need to be completed during the day / week (payroll, sales calls, customer service responses, etc.) – before you start booking other meetings into your day.

Weekly / daily calendar review is having the discipline to look at your upcoming week on Fridays, and day each night before you leave for the day to see if you are prepared for the activities. How much time do you waste thinking / worrying about an upcoming task instead of planning / preparing for it instead?

The last activity may be new to you, but I can tell you we love it – using 17-minute sprints.

The strength of these sprints is in their simplicity:

1. Get a to-do or project list and a timer.
2. Set your timer for 17 minutes and focus on a single task until the timer rings.
3. When your session ends, enjoy a 3-minute break from focused effort.
4. After 3-4 consecutive sprints, take a longer, more restorative 15–30-minute break from focused effort.

The sprints are the core of the method, but observe the three rules for getting the most out of each interval:

1. Break down complex projects.?If a task requires more than four sprints, it needs to be divided into smaller, actionable steps. Sticking to this rule will help ensure you make clear progress on your projects.
2. Small tasks go together.?Any tasks that will take less than 17-minutes should be combined with other simple tasks. For example, combine, "write rent check," "set vet appointment," and "read WSJ article".
3. Once timer is started, it must ring.?The sprint should be worked for the full time – no “quick checks” of incoming emails, team chats, or text messages. Any ideas, tasks, or requests that come up should be captured to address later. If the disruption is unavoidable, take your break and start again.?

Interested in learning more about effective use of sprints? Reach out to us, or reference one of these 2 resources:

-???????17 by Michael Heppell

-???????The Pomodoro Technique?by Francesco Cirillo

You must take control of your calendar if you want to be in control of your productivity, your outputs, and your life!

Only Action gets you closer to your dreams - do something today that your future self will thank you for."

- COACH RORY

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