Schedule Management Insights

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.

Every morning, leaders across the country face the same crushing reality. Sarah Martinez knows it well. She arrived at her office at 6:45 AM, coffee in hand, only to find three urgent emails, a missed call from a key client, and two team members calling in sick. Her calendar, already packed with back-to-back meetings, now needed to absorb their workload too. The irony wasn't lost on her: as teams get leaner, leaders spend more time doing and less time leading. The conventional wisdom fails us here. "Just delegate more," the experts say. But to whom? When teams are stretched thin, traditional time management advice falls flat. The real solution lies deeper, in the space between efficiency and reality. The truth is, most leaders are drowning in plain sight. They're running faster on the same hamster wheel, trying to solve tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's time management tools. Too often, a leader’s calendar isn't a record of their own commitments – it's a diary of other people's priorities. But there's a better way. Here are 7 unconventional strategies that actually work in the real world: 1. The "Energy Audit" Calendar: Your calendar lies to you. It shows time blocks but hides energy costs. Start color-coding meetings based on energy required, not just time consumed. Red for high-stakes dealings. Yellow for creative work. Green for routine tasks. Schedule around your energy peaks, not just open slots. The difference is immediate and profound. 2. The "Batch and Bank" Method: Look at your sent emails. How many times have you explained the same concept? Record these explanations once, then share them repeatedly. One-to-one becomes one-to-many. Your time multiplies. 3. "Productive Procrastination": Everyone procrastinates. The trick is making it work for you. When avoiding one task, channel that energy into completing another. Keep a list of important but non-urgent tasks for these moments. Turn avoidance into advancement. 4. "Decision Sprints": Decision fatigue is real. Combat it by front-loading your minor decisions. Twenty minutes each morning to decide the decidable. Your afternoon self will thank you. 5. "Template Everything": Recurring situations demand recurring solutions. Create frameworks for everything – meeting agendas, project reviews, even email responses. Complex becomes routine. Routine becomes automatic. 6. The "Power Hour" Principle: Be visible but unreachable for one hour daily. Your team will learn to solve problems independently while knowing you're there if truly needed. It's not abandonment – it's empowerment. 7. The "Future You" Strategy: End each day by preparing for tomorrow's first task. Fifteen minutes invested today saves thirty tomorrow. Your morning self deserves this gift. The best system isn't the most complex or the most innovative. It's the one you'll actually use. Start small. Pick one strategy. Master it. Then move forward. Your team is watching, waiting to follow your lead. Show them a better way.

Show me your calendar, and I’ll show you your priorities. Your effectiveness. Your values. Your leadership. I’ve coached a lot of executives and business owners over the years—and now, as a full-time operator and leader myself, it’s still one of the first things I look at when working with leaders. It always gets a double take. Partly because it feels personal—like I’m asking them to hand over something private. But also because it feels soft. Why would a coach start with a calendar review and not focus on the “hard business problems”? Because the calendar is the business problem. It tells me everything. Where your time actually goes. What you prioritize—or ignore. How you’re investing in your people. How you’re showing up for your family, your health, your team, your future. I’m not the guy who lives and dies by a rigid, color-coded, minute-by-minute schedule. But I am the guy who believes that if you don’t have a plan for your time, your time gets hijacked. And most leaders? They underestimate the value of their most limited resource—time—And overestimate their ability to drive results through brute force and short bursts of energy. So I ask: What matters most to you? Your team? Your customers? Strategy? Family? Faith? Health? Growth? Is that reflected in your calendar? Because if it’s not scheduled, it’s not real. And if it is scheduled—are you protecting it? Blocking time for 1:1s, customer calls, thinking, rest, date night, workouts, reflection, community, renewal. It’s one thing to put it on the calendar. It’s another to defend it. When your calendar and your priorities line up—you lead with clarity, consistency, and long-term impact. When they don’t—you lead by reaction and burnout. So take a hard look at your week. Your calendar is your leadership in motion.

Empowering Leaders with Time Management Skills I had the pleasure of conducting a highly engaging session with some of our organization's leaders on the crucial topic of time management. It was incredible to see the enthusiasm and commitment of everyone involved. In today's fast-paced world, especially with the advent of augmented efficiency through GenAI, it is more important than ever to be effective and to focus on doing the right things at the right time. Time is our most precious resource, and how we manage it can significantly impact our long-term goals and objectives. During the session, we explored the concept of Time Boxing, a powerful technique to help us take control of our time and achieve our goals. Here are some key takeaways and resources to help you implement these strategies: Understanding the Value of Time: Reflect on how you can make every day count in a way that aligns with your long-term goals and values. Strategic Time-Blocking in your calendar tool: Create time blocks to organize work, focus time, specific tasks, routine meetings, and more. This helps you maintain a structured yet flexible schedule. Dynamic Scheduling: Stay agile within your structured schedule by moving blocks without attendees and using priorities to decide what stays and moves. Achieving Indistractability: Harness focus in an age of distractions by understanding and addressing internal triggers, setting up external triggers, and making pacts with yourself to stay committed to specific tasks. Time Boxing in Action: Review your schedule regularly to ensure it aligns with your priorities and adjust as needed. Let's improve our workplace by effectively managing our time and achieving our goals to create a cleaner future. Together, we can make a significant impact! #TimeManagement #Leadership #Productivity #GenAI #FutureGoals #CleanFuture