You can't spend all day in meetings

💌 246 words ⌛ 1 minute

You can't spend 100% of your day in meetings as a manager. The nature of your role requires you to be able to react to outside events. To not lose your cool you need to plan margin into your calendar to respond to those events.

Why it matters:
If your calendar is always full, every unforeseen event will result in tension or stress. This will influence your work, your decisions, and your relationships. In other words, living without margin has a major negative impact on every aspect of being a manager.

Dig deeper:

• Be serious about your time. Don't let other people fill your calendar with their priorities. If you put margin in your calendar don't hand it out freely.

• Two strategies:

  • Strategic Blocks: Mark off "buffer zones" in your schedule for the unplanned. These aren't breaks or wasted time—they're your secret weapon against the day's chaos.

  • Wise Scheduling: When planning a meeting, allocate a little more time than you think you'll need. This isn't inefficiency; it's proactive planning for the inevitable overlap or overrun.

• The first method is more explicit. You don't risk using up your margin in the appointment itself. Start with the first one and experiment with the amount of margin you need.

• If you don’t need your margin, go use it for something you have put off for a while.

You learned about margin in your calendar. Now, how can you apply this to your finances, emotions, relationships, and health?

-- Daniel