Leading by Design
Issue No. 8
We can get on top of Calendar Wrangling this year! Let’s do it!
Hey Reader,
Confession time – I absolutely used to wear busyness as a badge of pride and importance. In some roles, it was self-inflicted from a desire to have as much impact as possible and cram as much in. In others, there was meaning for me in how much people needed or wanted from me and my time. Like, did that made me a better human? Better leader? Better parent?
Then the pandemic hit.
We all experienced a shift in how we experienced time. If you got the gift of commute time back by working at home, some folks found better work-life balance over the past few years. I did not. I stepped up into my first VP role in March of 2020. My five month old daughter’s daycare closed and son’s school switched to distance learning. The initial solution was a kanban style board of who would have the baby, who was teaching (at times a grandparent over zoom!) and an attempt to make it work in shifts. However, my work calendar kept stomping all over attempts to time-block my caretaking shifts and my stress-levels continuously rose.
In hindsight, I had terrible (ahem, nonexistent) boundaries. I did not have enough systems in place to minimize meetings, utilize my team through delegation and draw a line when enough was enough.
Since then, I’ve experimented with systems and mechanisms that maximize the week with ruthless focus on impact instead of activity. Leaning into minimum-viable over perfection. Setting up sustainable habits that work for you and your brain, especially if/when you need to work with your neurodiversity. There are ah-mazing automations and AI tools available now which I am loving as an entreprenuer, but didn’t have access to as a corporate employee.
I’m going to share one of my faves with you right now, and invite you to join me in a short workshop-based course to redesign your week for your needs.
Reclaim Your Time
If you or someone you like struggle to get above water of daily noise to focus on meaningful impact, focused time and take bathroom breaks or eat, this will help!!
Tip 1: Batching Tasks and Small To-Dos
This is how I bust the ankle-biters. It is also where I’ve stopped responding to emails with self-imposed immediacy! Sorry not sorry. I star or denote emails that I intend to respond to, but are not of high importance to me that week. They are not aligned with my biggest impact item that week. Every Thursday I have a 90m block on my calendar for batching the small tasks that could suck up time. Tracking mileage. Reply to those low-priority emails. Calling the pediatrician. Rescheduling a non-urgent meeting. All of it goes on a separate task-list and I dust off the list during that time. I may even decide that some tasks are not worth doing anyway! (Shock horror, half of the list can be set aside without actual consequence, and if it becomes more relevant or impactful it will come back in time).
What do you think? Does this make you sweat or get anxious thinking of undone todos? Whose todos were they anyway?
I’m grateful to you for being here as part of my journey 💕 The replies, comments, shares give me wee signals to keep saying “hell yes” to this path.
Your coach and champion,
Alison
p.s. Spring Coaching Circles have a limited capacity and are available now. If you are seeking community and support, while networking with others in Design & Product fields, join the next Circle asap. 🥰
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