Winning Calendar Tetris

Clean up your calendar and give your brain room to breathe

In December 2022, my weekly calendar looked more like the classic game Tetris than anything approaching a manageable schedule. Something had to give.

Calendar Tetris

I brought this on myself

I had developed a habit of saying ‘yes’ to every meeting invitation, following the advice of a former CEO. His life hack was to say yes to everything and then let his calendar resolve itself. Pre-Covid, most meetings required physical attendance, and the majority would get rescheduled, so saying yes to everything allowed him to appear amenable and he rarely needed to do any heavy lifting to free up a conflict. I took this advice, and it worked like a charm.

Unfortunately, once the world moved onto Zoom, meetings suddenly stayed where they were. Since nobody had to change location, nothing got cancelled. Almost overnight, the strategy of saying ‘yes’ to everything meant I really did need to be in four places at once. Having no thinking or preparation time between meetings meant that they were often adequate at best.

I tried adopting Microsoft Outlook’s Focus Time feature, automatically blocking up to two hours a day of focus time for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, I sabotaged myself by giving away this time cheaply, telling people to schedule over it. Instead of protecting myself, I trained my colleagues to ignore busy times in my schedule. Calendar Tetris got worse and my thinking time disappeared.

I struggled gamely on for almost two years, moving meetings at the last minute, shortening them, ducking and diving, constantly running to stand still. By December 2022, enough was enough.

The Great Reset

I cancelled every recurring meeting in my calendar. As a people leader, I had weekly check-ins with my direct reports, skip-levels in both directions, and numerous ceremonies for the teams and squads in my area. These had built up haphazardly over time, and had made a mess of my calendar.

Clearing my calendar allowed me to start again. I rescheduled my most important meetings (1-1s, skip levels), eliminating accidental clashes and giving me space to think. Ceremonies such as sprint reviews were either delegated to others to schedule, or put in for a time that worked for me repeatedly.

Give me a break

If any two meetings were back-to-back, I inserted a 15 minute break between them. I wanted to:

• follow the science showing your brain needs a cooling-off period between Zooms,

• give myself time for some movement breaks,

• ensure I could make enough tea to remain sufficiently caffeinated for the day.

Stress increases without breaks between meetings Image credit: Microsoft/Brown Bird Design

This reset would mean nothing without some self-discipline. I started to protect my focus time, and became way more effective as a result, both in meetings and outside them. I wouldn’t accept any meeting for a time already blocked in my calendar. For months, I kept a clean calendar, but then the bugs started creeping back in - a last-minute invitation here, a high-profile project there. I’ve had to compromise on my initially-strict approach and now take things one week at a time.

A week is a long time…

I no longer try to fix every conflict as it arises. Instead, I let the calendar do its worst in the coming weeks and spend time at the start of each week moving things around for that week, so that I only have one meeting at any time. The occasional unmissable (and unmovable) meeting still falls from the sky, but I am able to decline a number of meetings (offering a rescheduled option) so that my calendar is manageable and I’m seen as a reliable partner.

Here are some tips that I learned which I hope can help you.

Tips

1. Think about where you need to be

Think of all the valuable ways you could be spending your time. If that meeting really is the best use of your time, go for it. If not, don’t attend out of FOMO.

If you’re a leader and you are in all of your team’s meetings, you may think you’re an empowering leader or that you’re being accessible. Your team probably think you’re a control freak and have little or no psychological safety. Trust them to do it without you sometimes. You'll be amazed at the results.

2. Create space

Restructure your calendar. If you’re scheduling multiple meetings in a row, give yourself time between them. I found that scheduling 30-minute meetings for 25 minutes or reducing one hour to fifty minutes made no difference whatsoever as the meeting would invariably run up to the next call. Instead, I try to create real space between calls with a buffer of 15 minutes. It’s unlikely that anyone will insert anything meaningful into a 15 minute gap, and it gives you important mental breathing room.

3. Start with why

If you’re creating a meeting, or being invited to one, make sure you share an agenda, or at least the meeting’s purpose and then stick to it. Don’t drop extra topics in at the last minute. Respect people’s time.

“We have to stop focusing on agendas and minutes and rules, and accept the fact that bad meetings start with the attitudes and approaches of the people who lead and take part in them.” - Patrick Lencioni

4. Value asynchronicity

Prize asynchronous communication. Does your meeting need to be a meeting? If it’s an update, can it be sent by email or Slack? If it’s a conversation starter or sharing an idea, would a Slack channel be more effective for gathering views or feedback?

5. Plan ahead

Prepare. Show respect for the meeting and your colleagues by being ready for it. There are few things worse than spending the first 10 minutes of a 25 minute meeting refamiliarising people with the topic. It wastes people's precious time. If you're not ready, postpone the meeting. You and your team deserve better.

6. Take lunch

You deserve it. Once we started meeting in-person again, my colleagues and I remarked how we never had lunch at home. Take lunch. You need a breather. Just because you can turn your camera off and swallow a sandwich doesn't mean you should. Your body will thank you.

7. Delegate note-taking to AI

One of the big wins in recent months for me has been using the Zoom AI companion to take notes of meetings. Instead of having to write up notes myself, I can now review and edit the notes recorded by AI minutes after the meeting and share them with attendees. This has been a huge time-saver.

8. Keep at it

Like any change, it’s hard at first when you take hold of your calendar. You’ll find, just like in the game, you will have to start again from scratch occasionally. But if you don’t decide what’s valuable and schedule your time accordingly, someone else will do it for you. Persevere. It will be worth it. You can win Calendar Tetris - keep going, one block at a time.