Have any of you managed to successfully time-block entire weeks on your calendar?
Here’s the backstory to this question.
This year, I decided to take “time off” between Xmas and New Year…
… and I got more done that week than any other week in 2023.
Nobody was as surprised as me.
Taking time off for this week is not new for me.
I normally take this week off every year, and give this week off to all my team members.
What this means is that it’s normally the ONLY week every year I don’t have at least 10 hours of meetings. That is not the high end, that is the minimum. Most weeks I have 15-25 hours worth of meetings and coaching calls with clients.
Sure, I work 50-60 hours a week so there is still time in between, but the mental energy needed to shift gears between leadership meetings, podcasts, and coaching calls and doing daily work takes its toll.
I just hadn’t realized how much.
So here’s how I came to this realization.
In 2024, for the first time in my life, I decided I would start to build a personal brand.
I plan on working on this for the next 2-3 years.
What is my personal brand going to be about?
I honestly have no idea yet. For now, I am just going to post thoughts and experiences and see what people are interested in, and take it from there.
The problem with this plan is that – like Bilbo Baggins when he leaves the Shire for the first time – I have no idea what I’m doing.
So, I decided to spend a few hours during this week where I had no interruptions and no other commitments to try to figure some of it out.
The results blew me away.
In the 4 work days – Xmas fell on a Monday so I did not work that day – I got more done than I felt like I did in the entire month of December.
The time went by in a blur.
It was only after the week was done and the dust settled that I had time to look back and see the glorious “productivity carnage” caused by my focus that I had a chance to reflect.
One thought passed through my mind.
“This is what I am capable of. How did I forget that?”
You see, over the past few years, my role in my companies has moved from what feels like doing things to managing.
I was told this was the natural progression of a business owner.
You don’t do things, you just manage people who do things and get more leverage for your time and experience.
Now, I don’t disagree with the general premise. But I wonder…
… did I take things too far?
When did my week become 20+ hours of meetings and almost no time to actually do deep thinking and produce results myself?
People always say “What got you here won’t get you where you want to go next”, but are we taking it too literally?
At least for me, I think I – unconsciously – took that to mean stop doing what you did before and do something else to get to the next level.
But now, after taking a “week off”. I think I may have made a mistake.
It may not be about changing what you did in the past and doing something new that gets you to the next level.
It may be simply evolving what got you here to adapt to the new conditions.
So what I am going to start doing in 2024 is taking more “time off”.
Much more.
I’m going to work with my EA to arrange that I only have external meetings every other week instead of every week.
I define “meetings” as anything that takes my mind off of doing deep work – in the way Cal Newport defines it – on projects.
I normally try to squeeze deep work in the 1-2 hours a day I don’t have calls. Up until last week, I thought it was working. But now that I have gotten back to deep work for what may be the first time in years I know it was not.
I don’t know if this will work. Maybe I’ll be lured back by the siren song of “just this one meeting this week”.
I’ll keep you updated on the results.
Have any of you successfully blocked out days, or better yet, weeks on your calendar for no calls and meetings?
What are some of the techniques, rules, or guidelines that worked for you to make this happen?
Leave a Reply