Calendar Management Tips

No matter what your 2025 goals are, there’s one thing that you should do at the start of the year if you want to be productive… Clean up your calendar!! 📅 If you don’t have control over your calendar, it’s nearly impossible to have control over your work and, therefore, your objectives. I am a firm believer that, even as a busy exec, you should have a good chunk of your week that is open by default. You need to have spare capacity built into your working system. For example, if an unexpected, exciting initiative comes up, you need to have the freedom to dedicate a couple of hours to it — otherwise it’ll get pushed down the road, and never get done. Similarly if a huge fire appears - you need to be able to dedicate some time ASAP to try to fix it. Over time, calendars naturally fill up — leaving you with less and less available hours — and it’s therefore important to regularly revisit your calendar, assess the lay of the land and restructure your week. Everyone is different - but the ideal end state for me is having a big chunk of free time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That way I always know that I can work on something within ~24hrs if I need to. To help me get there - here are four things I do: 1. DELETE SOME MEETINGS ENTIRELY This can be difficult but usually I have at least 1 or 2 meetings that can be cut completely. Be considered but ruthless here — it’s amazing how often other people will be thrilled to have the meeting cancelled. 2. REDUCE THE CADENCE OF SOME MEETING It can be easy to settle into a routine of weekly calls, but are they always necessary? Review your recurring meetings and identify those that could be less frequent. Instead of meeting every week, consider switching to fortnightly meetings (or move from fortnightly to monthly). You can supplement this with email/Loom/Slack updates in between if useful. 3. SHORTEN MEETINGS If you can shorten 4 weekly calls by 15 minutes at the start of the year, you’ve bought yourself an extra hour per week, or ~48 hours over the year. That's a whole extra week of work 🤯 4. CLUSTER MEETINGS This approach is often overlooked. If you’re unable to cut or shorten meetings, spend time re-working your schedule so that your meetings are all bunched together. You’ll suddenly see big patches of daylight appear in your calendar — in which you can do deep, focused work without constantly having to interrupt your flow to hop on a Zoom call. Calendar hygiene may seem super simple and obvious to some, but it’s amazing how many people neglect to do it and lose control of their weeks, months and, ultimately, years. This is some that I try to tidy up every 6 months or so as calendars naturally evolve to be messy. If you have any other top tips for calendar management, let me know! 👂

At the end of 2023, I hated my calendar…. So I ripped it apart, and started fresh. Here's what I did to make my calendar work for me, not the other way around. 1) Map out your dreams - created a new calendar in gcal - literally called it my "Calendar Map" - and planned out what my dream week would look like. Thought about what I wanted in a great week (for me that was time for deep work in the afternoons, a couple mornings where I don't have calls before 10am, stacking my 1:1's next to each other, etc). Everything went in there, from workouts, to networking calls/coffee chats, to recurring team meetings and 1:1s. If it's not on your calendar, you're not prioritizing it. 2) The Purge - In January, Stacker went through a Calendar Purge. Inspired by Shopify, we deleted ALL meetings on everyone's calendar, and then 24 hours later allowed people to repopulate, but it gave everyone a chance to rethink each meeting, and equally importantly gave me a chance to reorganize things according to my calendar map. 3) Refresh - There were 2 really important things when it came to repopulating my calendar    a) question everything - does that 1:1 need to be weekly, or could it be bi-weekly? is that recurring meeting we set up 6 months ago still necessary?      b) use the map - 1:1s used to be sporadic throughout my week, now I have a block of them, which allows me to better prep and mentally show up for people. My calendar used to look like a zebra with random 30 minute free blocks interspersed between meetings. Now I have blocks for calls, and blocks for creative/deep work. I can't stick to this 100% of the time, but it has made scheduling things a lot easier, and acts as a good reminder/reinforcement of what I aspire for each week to look like, versus just succumbing to whatever gets thrown my way. Would highly (HIGHLY) recommend this to anyone who feels like their calendar runs them, and not the other way around. Inertia is strong, and a refresh can help shock the system.

One of the delegates on my course last month shared that her executive has 42 one-to-one meetings every month. Let that sink in. That’s more than two per working day. And that’s before you factor in board meetings, team meetings, client meetings, email, strategy, travel, decision-making, and let’s be honest, basic breathing room. How is any other work getting done? This isn’t uncommon. Calendars fill slowly and silently, one well-meaning meeting at a time. But when no one is stepping back to assess the full picture, the result is calendar chaos - and strategic paralysis. That’s why quarterly calendar audits should be standard practice for every high-level assistant. Not just to tidy the calendar. To protect time. To align effort with outcomes. To make sure the calendar reflects your executive’s business priorities, not just the demands of others. Here’s how to do it: 1. Export or map the last three months of the executive’s calendar. Track every meeting. Categorise each entry. Use labels like: • Strategic leadership (vision, planning, innovation) • Operational oversight (status updates, project check-ins) • People management (1:1s, coaching, development) • Stakeholder engagement (clients, partners, board) • Execution time (thinking, prep, decision-making, writing) • Admin & low-value meetings (logistics, approvals, unnecessary invites) 2. Analyse the data. What percentage of time is spent in meetings? How many are high-value? How many could be shortened, delegated, or removed? 3. Compare it against priorities. Does the time spent reflect what the business needs from your executive this quarter? Or is the calendar working against their actual goals? 4. Present a brief report. Show the patterns. Make smart recommendations. Propose alternatives: consolidated meetings, alternate cadences, delegate handovers. 5. Have the conversation. “This is how your time is currently being spent. Is this how you want to be spending your time next quarter? If not, I can help you reset it.” Because this isn’t about scheduling. It’s about performance, clarity, and leadership bandwidth. Assistants - if you’re looking for ways to operate at a higher level, start here. Because the calendar is where your executive’s strategy impact lives or dies. 🔁 Repost to share 👉 Follow me Lucy Brazier OBE for administrative profession related content and inspiration.

As CPO, I went where my calendar dictated. Then I’m sneaking glances at my email and Slack, and growing more stressed at more work accruing elsewhere. I was reactive. Each meeting spawned more follow-up meetings because I wasn't well prepared, or the right people were not present. To truly spend most of my time on my top priorities: 1️⃣ Make a top-down view of time spent that reflects your P0/P1’s. What initiatives, decisions, or strategies are they responsible for driving? 2️⃣ Divide your list into three sections: P0’s (only I can do), P1 (critical priorities that I cannot miss), and P2 (important to get done). 3️⃣ Assign a percentage of your time to each section: If your time spent reflects your priorities, this is what it should look like in aggregate. 4️⃣ Ruthlessly clean your next month of meetings. Delegate where you are not critical. Combine similar conversations. Shorten or reduce meeting frequency. Delete…and ask for forgiveness — because you’ll end up asking for it anyway on the day when you are triple-booked. Remember, if you are struggling with time management, the first step is not to open your calendar to ad hoc edit, but to map out your true priorities to set a strong foundation for your adjustments. 

"Sorry I'm late for our call. My last call ran over." Let me tell you why this phrase needs to disappear from your vocabulary: As an Executive Assistant who manages countless calendars, I've seen the devastating impact of poor time management. Here's what happens when you don't protect your calendar: 1. You constantly apologize for being late 2. Your entire day becomes reactive 3. Your stress levels stay elevated 4. You lose credibility with clients 5. Your work quality suffers The solution? It's simpler than you think: → Protect your energy windows → Block 90-minute chunks for deep work → Set firm boundaries for meeting end times → Add 15-minute buffers between ALL calls → Schedule breaks (yes, actually schedule them) What most leaders get wrong: • They say yes to back-to-back meetings • They treat their calendar like a suggestion • They ignore their natural energy patterns • They try to maximize every minute I've helped dozens of executives transform their schedules, and here's what I know: Your calendar is the most powerful tool you have. But only if you: • Learn to say no • Treat it with respect • Build in breathing room • Honor your commitments The results speak for themselves: → Happier clients and team members → Better meeting outcomes → More focused work → Increased productivity Start treating your calendar like the powerful asset it is. Your future self will thank you. Ready to take control of your time? Let's connect and make it happen. I'll see you in the next meeting - right on time.

Your calendar tells the truth about your leadership, even when no one else will. When I ask leaders to show me their calendar, I can tell in 30 seconds if they’re leading or just reacting. Most calendars look like a traffic jam. Meetings stacked on meetings. No space to think, no room to breathe. That’s not leadership. It's survival. That’s why I built the Operational Excellence framework. It strips everything away and gets to what matters. And we start with your calendar: 1. Audit your meetings and track where your time actually goes. 2. Align your time to the priorities that matter most. 3. Cut low-value meetings and recurring noise. 4. Build in recurring routines that protect focus. 5. Block time every week for strategic thinking. When leaders run this reset, they stop being the “get-it-done guy” and start being the strategic driver. If your calendar doesn’t reflect your priorities, neither will your results. #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #HighPerformanceLeadership #CareerStrategy

At one point in my career at Amazon, I was overwhelmed. My calendar was full, I was running from meeting to meeting, and yet my most important work wasn’t getting done. My manager stopped by and asked about my top priority: filling three open engineering roles. I admitted I’d barely made progress. She asked how much time I was spending on recruiting. “A few hours,” I said. She told me to spend at least 30% of my week on it. That sounded impossible until she showed me her calendar. Every priority was color-coded. Recruiting was yellow, one-on-ones were blue, leadership meetings were red. A quick glance showed exactly where her time was going. I copied the system, and quickly realized half my week was on things that mattered, but not on the things that mattered most. Once I re-colored my calendar and made time reflect my priorities, I found the hours I needed. And it made it very easy to audit my time occasionally to see if it was going where I wanted. The lesson stuck with me: my calendar should reflect my judgment about priorities, not just everyone else’s invitations. To learn more about prioritization and time management, read this article.

From chaos to control: The system I used to manage an L7 PM schedule at Google (without burnout) 👇 Senior roles come with a lot of perks—and even more demands. For most L5+ PMs, the calendar is the first thing to fall apart. Here’s the system that kept me sane: 𝟭/ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀. Block off mornings or afternoons for focus time. No exceptions. 𝟮/ 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. Every meeting request should answer one question: 𝘿𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙? If not, it’s a no. 𝟯/ 𝗥𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆. Your calendar isn’t static. Audit it every Friday to adjust for the next week. Prioritize ruthlessly and cut the rest. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁? You control your time, not the other way around. --- If you found this helpful for regaining control over your time: 1. Follow Alex Rechevskiy for more posts on product management, leadership, and career growth. 2. Share this post to save it for later and help others find it as well.

In high-growth startups, speed is an asset—but without structure, it quickly turns into misalignment. As an Operator, one of the most effective ways I drive clarity, protect focus, and help teams operate at their best is through time blocking. It’s not about squeezing more into the day. It’s about making sure time is aligned with priorities—at every level of the business. Here’s the system I rely on: 1. Color-code by theme. Strategy. Deep work. Ops. People. Life. I scan my calendar and instantly know whether I’m working on the business—or buried in it. 2. Block proactively—not when it’s already too late. If it’s important, it gets time before the week fills up. This protects priorities from becoming afterthoughts. My weekly calendar is blocked and prepped before Monday morning. 3. Move blocks—don’t delete them. Structure should flex. But if it mattered enough to schedule, it matters enough to reschedule. 4. Let your calendar mirror your role. Some weeks require decisions. Others demand space to solve root issues. Time blocking evolves with the company. 5. Make space strategic. I block time for walking 1:1s, solo beach treks after work, and actual thinking. Because clarity is a leadership advantage. Time blocking isn’t a productivity hack. It’s a leadership discipline. And in fast-moving environments, it becomes cultural. Your calendar should reflect your role in driving the business forward—not just surviving the week.