How to add more time to breathe and think in your schedule with a calendar audit

How often do you stop and think about how you spend your time? Like, really think about it?

I try to do this at least once a quarter. I do what I call a “calendar audit,” where I ask myself questions such as: Do I like how I'm spending my time? Am I being efficient and effective with my time? Do I have enough time to think, strategize, and execute? Do I have enough time for the things I need to do and the things that are important to me at work and outside of it?

Regular calendar audits have helped me be so much more intentional with my time. Before I started doing them, I would find that I was always so “busy,” but I wasn’t necessarily busy with impactful things. I was also way overscheduling myself to the point where I was completely run down and exhausted by the end of the day.

It got especially bad during the pandemic. When we went on lockdown and all of my speeches and meetings moved to virtual, I would schedule things back to back to back with literally no time in between because I didn’t think I needed any. I wasn’t leaving my house, so I didn’t need to allow for travel time, and I figured that virtual speeches and meetings would take way less energy than in-person ones, so I didn’t need as many breaks. (Oh, how wrong I was!!) Packing my schedule like this made me feel like I couldn't really be present for anything. I was always so focused on ending my sessions on time so that I could get to the next one, and I brought that distracted energy into the next meeting. I never had time to jot down my thoughts or take care of next steps, so all of those to-dos just piled up until the end of the day. It was overwhelming, and it left me feeling so frazzled and disorganized.

It shouldn’t surprise you that all of that back-to-back scheduling led me straight to burnout. When I finally hit rock bottom, I knew I had to start doing things differently, or I would never break this toxic cycle.

The first thing I tried was scheduling buffer time between meetings. That helped for a while, but because I wasn’t fully committed, I went right back to scheduling meetings that started and ended at the same time. 

Looking back on it now, I can see that adding a few breaks here and there in my schedule was never going to be enough. I’ve since learned that the only way to avoid those back-to-back cycles is to be proactive about taking charge of my schedule. These days, I block out break time on my calendar months and months in advance. I avoid scheduling meetings that start and end at the same time as much as possible. I set boundaries around my personal time. I fight the urge to just “get it done” when I have so much left on my plate at the end of the day but no energy to do it. I call this creating more “margin” in my life.

I think we could all benefit from having more margin in our lives, so I want to dive deeper into the steps I took to get there with the hope that they will help you, too:

• Saying “no” with compassion: Saying no is hard. Plain and simple. But I don’t think that turning something (or someone) down should come with any guilt, especially if you are doing so to protect your peace and boundaries. I also believe that you can say no and still be compassionate. Here’s an example: I recently had to decline an opportunity to be a guest on a podcast. I said something like, “I would love to do this. However, I made a commitment to myself to honor my capacity, and I don't have the capacity for it. I want to be honest with you, especially because I am such a big fan of everything that you're doing, and I love watching your success.” Even though I was letting this person down, I did it from the heart. I was honest and clear about why I couldn’t do it. And you know what? They understood!
• Managing meetings: First things first: A lot of meetings can be emails. We all know that. When I do my calendar audits, I ask myself if the meetings I have scheduled are critical and essential. If they're not, I decline them (compassionately, of course). For the meetings I have left, I make sure that I have at least 15 minutes between the end of one and the start of another, but 30 minutes is ideal. That gives me enough time to stop a meeting, think about it, take action on things, have a meal or a snack, look at my notes for the upcoming meeting, and center myself before I go into the next meeting so that I can be truly present. With how limited my time is, I inevitably have days where I do have back-to-back meetings. But on those days, I schedule longer breaks of 60-90 minutes somewhere in the day.
• Thinking and executing time: Part of my audit includes evaluating the time I have for thinking and executing. I want to make sure that I have all the time I need to take action on my priorities and goals, and I pay attention to where I put that time on my calendar. For example, I know that scheduling thinking time at the very end of the day is not the best for me. I’ll get better results if I do it in the mornings or the middle of the day. Before I really thought about this, I would put off all of my thinking and executing time until the very end of the day when I was no longer at my best. But that’s me. You might have a ton of energy at the end of the day! I encourage you to think about when you do your best work and make sure your calendar aligns with that.
• Regular readjustments: Every Friday, I look at my calendar and ask myself if there's anything I need to readjust for the upcoming week. That might look like changing meeting times, shortening a meeting, canceling or moving an appointment or flight, etc. Sometimes, I'll take an hour-long meeting and say I only have 30 minutes in an effort to really make that time count because I've learned that however long a meeting is scheduled is how long it will take. There have certainly been times that I got as much done in 30 minutes as I would have in an hour because I was more intentional and focused.
• Minute of silence: Something we’ve done on our team for years is offer a minute of silence before we start our weekly meetings. The purpose is to help people get centered and focused in case they’re coming straight from another meeting or from being in deep-work mode. We don’t always need it, but it’s nice to have the option in case we need a little more margin that day.

Those are my best tips for creating more margin, but there are so many ways to do it! For example, I’ve worked with teams that start their meetings at five past the hour to allow some buffer time. Some teams don’t schedule meetings after certain times so people can have more thinking time. My executive coach never schedules meetings on Fridays so that he can have executing time at the end of the week to wrap things up. He also waits to have meetings until noon on Mondays so that he can catch up from the weekend in the morning and have time to get organized for the week.

Want help with your first calendar audit? We’ve got a brand-new resource just for you! It includes reflection questions that will help you figure out how you’re currently using your time and how you can make adjustments so that you can get the most out of the hours you have. Click here to download it!

Whatever you need to do to create more margin in your life, I hope you do it. We all have so many demands on our time and energy, and there’s only so much that we can take on. If nothing else, I hope this post reminds you that it’s important to protect your time. You can’t pour from an empty cup!

Big hugs,

Kristen

P.S. EXCITING NEWS! Our Human Leadership Program is now pay-what-you-can! If you’ve watched us share about the program and have wanted to join but cost has been an obstacle, I hope you’ll take this opportunity to sign up and join us! And if you’ve already taken the program, it would mean the world to us if you could share this news with your friends and family. All of our program dates for 2023 are now live on my website.

I truly believe that authentic, human leadership can change the world! And that we can build a better world at work . . . together 🧡 Will you join us?