The Balanced Calendar: How to Optimize Your Time
summary
Calls out three calendar types — 30-minute jam, all-day cram and triple-book — and three interruption busters — Pomodoro, regular do-not-disturb hours and office hours — and shows how to test changes with four metrics: flow time, throughput, quality (failure demand) and predictability. Recommends two-hour maker blocks, grouping meetings into mornings, declining or rescheduling a couple of invites, and using the 90th percentile to set realistic ranges. Example dataset shows throughput down while flow time rises, so run an experiment and measure.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00The problem with meetings
- 1:34The 30-minute jam
- 2:55The all-day cram
- 4:31Triple-booked meetings
- 5:55Maker vs manager schedules
- 7:25Designing for focus
- 9:28Optimizing manager time
- 11:42Rearranging the calendar
- 17:20Learning to say no
- 19:05Influencing with data
- 20:01Balanced flow metrics
- 28:44End-to-end workflow
- 29:49Conclusion
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