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Most of us were never taught how to effectively manage our professional calendars.
The default "strategy" for the majority of people is to accept all meeting invites without question and then use the time between meetings to work their priorities, or even worse, on email (not a priority).
If you're in this majority, then you are allowing other people's priorities to demand attention ahead of your own responsibilities. Since this is your calendar, it should first and foremost serve your needs. Here's how you do it…
Turn-off auto accept
You may be using the auto-accept feature as a means of being more efficient. The problem is that the seconds you save by not reviewing an invite cost you 30 minutes to an hour in meetings you don't need to attend. Turn-off auto-accept and assess each invite to determine whether you need to attend.
Assessing Invites
At some level, it can feel good to receive a meeting invite. It suggests that we're important enough to be included and that perhaps our perspectives are needed. To reclaim our calendars, we need to put those notions aside and question the value of our attendance. Here are some of the questions I will run through my head when receiving an invite…
Is there a clear agenda or goal for the meeting?
Does the topic or focus of the meeting align to my priorities?
Am I needed for contribution or decision?
Can I delegate attendance?
Deep work
Your calendar should support your priorities. For this reason, I recommend scheduling "focus time" on your calendar to work on your most critical items. This doesn't need to be daily, 2 to 3 times a week is sufficient. I personally have 90 minutes blocked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings when I'm most productive.
Even though you may not be "meeting" with others during this time, treat it like a real meeting. Start on time and stay focused on the topic at hand. Be careful not to fall into the habit of scheduling over these sessions or using the time to work on low-priority items such as email.
Meeting Audits
As with anything, it's easy to fall back to old habits. To combat this, take time once a quarter to review all of your reoccurring meetings to determine whether they still align to your priorities. If they don't, proceed with determining what meetings to cut or delegate.
As we've covered before, you might also include a personal time study.
This Week's Action Items:
Turn off the auto-accept feature for meeting invites.
Define the criteria that you will use to be more selective with which meetings you accept.
Schedule time for deep work and protect it at all costs.
Conduct a meeting audit and/or personal time study
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