🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

Take a look at your calendar for the past week. How many meetings did you have? Did you have enough time for focused, productive work? How did the flow of your day impact your energy and motivation?

💡 Concept

A crowded calendar can make it hard to get meaningful work done. Auditing your calendar is a simple but powerful way to take back control of your time. By reducing meetings and optimizing your schedule with strategies like time blocking, the Pomodoro Technique, and deep work sessions, you can create more opportunities for focused, high-quality work.

Here’s how to streamline your schedule and boost productivity:

🗓️ Evaluate and reduce meetings.
Take a close look at your recurring meetings. Are there any you could eliminate, shorten, or turn into email updates instead? Use the Placeless Taxonomy to help you determine which meetings could be adjusted or eliminated.  Consider setting aside specific “meeting-free” hours or days to protect your focus time. Be sure to communicate your availability to your team so everyone can collaborate more efficiently. You can do this by making your calendar visible to your team members, or adding your availability details to your team working agreement. 

⏱️ Use time blocking to structure your day.
Time blocking is dividing your day into chunks of time dedicated to different types of tasks. Start by grouping similar activities together—such as putting all your meetings in the morning, scheduling focused work for the afternoon, and reserving a specific time period for completing email and admin tasks. Setting boundaries around your time allows you to dive deeper into each task without constant context switching.

⏲️  Try the Pomodoro® Technique for focused bursts of productivity.
The Pomodoro® Technique is a great way to tackle larger tasks without burning out. Work in focused 25-minute sessions, called “Pomodoros,” followed by a 5-minute break. After four Pomodoros, take a longer break. This method helps you stay motivated, sustain energy, and continue to make progress on big tasks.

🔍 Allocate time for deep work.
Deep work is uninterrupted, focused time for tasks that require significant mental effort. Schedule deep work sessions for projects that need sustained concentration, making sure to turn off notifications and go offline if possible. Even an hour or two of deep work each day can make a big difference in your productivity.

🎬 Take Action

Next time you’re planning your week, try the following steps:

• Use the Placeless Taxonomy to review your meetings and cancel or shorten any that aren’t essential.

• Block off specific times for different types of work, such as focusing on projects or responding to emails.

• Try using the Pomodoro® Technique during a few of your work blocks to stay focused and energized.

• Dedicate at least one block of time to deep work, free from distractions.

Auditing your schedule can help you protect your time and get more done—with less stress!

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn how to audit your calendar in the Async at Work course. 

✅ Check In

🎁Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.