Calendar, Calendar, who's the fairest of them all!
Designing your time for ultra efficiency for super performing teams
Firsts, first - who needs a calendar and why
The role of the humble calendar was meant to organize our time.
At first, it wasn’t about efficiency at all, it was about the availability of resources and it was designed in a world where email was meant to be async and the real time communication had still not taken off(think slack, WhatsApp/other messaging) and that the journey of communication lasted only a single stack(think - origin to - destination platform being the same.
But a lot has changed since. The people we usually talk to now, are often outside of our direct scope of work, and often across channels(Linkedin, telegram, whatsapp etc).
A typical journey of time-blocks now can start from Linkedin → sharing calendly/other(s) → email → coordination over What’spp ++) but most importantly, it was designed for a physical world where people had to physically meet so calendars were meant to block time for far out in future. The unit thus was time, and not energy.
The transition to attention economy (..but the world has changed, dramatically )
But with a remote-first world, with breaking boundaries of timezone, the transition to attention economy, the endless stimulus of notifications and other workplace & lifestyle disruptions mean that we operate in a fragmented focus capacity and it is not going to change anytime soon. Which is why we need better tools to help manage our least elastic resource - our time(and focus)
But, before that, why am I qualified to write on this topic ?
Since 2012, I have spent a considerable amount of time being efficient with my time, and also growing my network. Specifically, any given week, I talk to ~16-20 new people outside of my core network and area of work. Adding up with outside of work meetings - this is about ~28+ hours of conversations every week. To put this context, assuming a 40 hour work week, this is about 70% of as much as that - which means that over a period of time, I have created processes and hacks to make the most of the lifecycle of a meetings to anchor around a state of flow.
That meetings should be about joy rather than getting facetime of X people together towards some goal that no one in the rooms.
Can a calendar give you a state of flow ?
My obsession with time first began with defining processes to experience a state of flow. What first meets the eye is tools - calendly/cal.com - but I went further. Here are the systems I use
Calendar grooming + async notes
This is similar to backlog grooming. Unless really pressing, ~50% of my calendar has blocks that are already in place the week before. This helps me plan the upcoming week and do the most important part. Send the context of WHAT I would like to discuss. A typical note looks like this
Attached is a draw.io - to see the range of thinking
1/ validate our goals of E13N
2/ Want your inputs on broad approach during the call
3/ Optional any tooling we shud evaluate for this (we have our list, but you know SaaS better)
4/ any specialists who can give us 30 mins to brainstorm and for you to make those connects
In this instance since this was a plan review, I shared a draw.io diagram of the agenda(a ppt would do as well, but ppt’s/ docs not full scape & clogs the thinking as linear) and “blocks” that mention the plan I want to brainstorm on. This helps the other party to see the rigor that has gone so far, but also use it as a TOOL to find the blindspots in my thinking. The cumulative time doesn’t go away, essentially it is shifted “offline”, where I end up using the energy & flow better. Plus, this also removed the need for notes, follow ups & overall better decisioning, esp if its not 1:1, but n:k participants.
In others, I often share async context in long form/bullets. In one instance for example, I wrote a full 9 pager, ahead of an hour call. This discussion was a lot pseudo-functional, in the context of co-working with a peer - and this helps people deliberate and the context is not lost/ mis-heard after the meeting.
Eat your frog time(s)
Design your day around deep work. For me, personally, this is the end of the day, after putting my daughter to bed. I review my team’s work, so I do not feel rushed, use Notion like a Ninja to organize my say and also cross-functional tasks that I want the team to prioritize in upcoming days. In short, I do an insane amount of planning and this is how you get 10x done, resourcefully because of the clarity of what needs doing. The act of writing also forces me to think without any mental fog, or trivializing the task. It helps me cut through the dark. That’s quite a lot of frog eating !
Deep work : The most important/challenging ones, possibly when you have the most energy.
Doesn’t have to be earliest in the day.
Time Sprint blocks - 10/15/30 minutes
My day has ~10/15/30 minutes block and is a series of sprints, with some focussed deep time too. I have discovered this my hit & trail. For example, if I need to give a lot more quick inputs multiple times during the week to someone/group of people in Team - we do 10 minutes and usually put it at around the same time. Note that for some people, this may feel like a “Standup”, but our format of execution is very different and this serves as a vehicle to move people together in the flow.
The reason standups do not work is because of monotonousness and that people write it off as an everyday thing. While it makes it predictable - but also annoying on a few axis. Which is why changing the format works so well, because of it consistency + fluidity.
Color Coding & batching hacks
Batching for low context switch & color coding are old hacks, so I won’t repeat this. I use this to know how I am spending time on growing my people, self , N/W ‘ing, managing stakeholders, deep work & R&D, building company etc
Original source here
This screenshot is not my calendar. Mine has ~10/15/30 minutes block and may day often is a series of sprints, with some focussed deep time too.
Time spent measuring hacks
In my first startup I wanted to make sure I was spending good amount of time on Business development. I used Google calendar time spent extension for the same
Reflection & goals - People first teams, not calendars
In the measurement above, I also add spillages and shorter than planned meetings - that give me perspective to how I under/overplanned
Quick feedback post the group meeting - Make it a Large one!
What works for me is to extend a functional meeting to a (planned) 1:1 post that and I do this esp. for key hires. This makes sure that people are still in the state of flow, without inefficiencies & awkwardness that usually comes up with regular 1:1’s. What I have learnt is that people find it hard to talk 1:1, without forcing functional updates to fill in. Functional meetings stepping into 1:1’s / quick catch ups are designed to leverage the state of flow/energy/dynamics of people.
Most impactful one, for the last
Effective communication - Not just for yourself, but also your team. If you are spending a lot of time in non impactful banter and choosing the medium of the conversation - could be simple live “sublime/text pad notes”, or local plaintext browser that I load and type along
data:text/html, <html contenteditable> <Title>Notepad</Title>
Psychological safety & professional honesty - eg : I often tell to my team “Maza nahi aaya” - and in that I cut short the rest of the discussion. Sure its a cost to not cover the work that has been done, but it makes everyone aware of the fact that for 5 people in review in a 30 minute meeting - it is 150 minutes of everyone’s time , plus, minus odd time to context switch.
Save the state - I use tab snap - that takes the snapshot, saves it, so at the end of the day, my browser is clean, without the hoarding of tabs that are a productivity drain.
The lifecycle of a meeting
Before → During → After
Before : Get the time efficiently, manage the time buffer, keep people “on time”, with context, share the context(asycn)
During : Capture the notes , follow up, close + private notes for easy recall.
After : Follow from where you last left. Intelligent time spent with people, on things etc.
Designing the product - some unmet gaps in current products
Getting the time on
1/ A calendar that does not see the full blocks of free time - I personally do not want people to see my full schedule. Applies for settings where you want to tone down/equalize power equation. Eg - Investor conversations and the signalling problem.
2/ A way would be to stack the calendars - but only move further along(in days) when no previous match was found - this can be a setting - and only applies in 5% of cases. In these 5% people end up artificially putting the blocks - making it hard to find a schedule in 1st block
3/ Meetings are created unequal and some meetings may be more flexible on my calendar to move - need a visual way to communicate this -esp relevant for meetings that need to be done sooner - without expressing the anticipation that I want to talk to you sooner) - should be mutual
4/ Meetings spill and in a perfect world we would be putting 5-10 mins cushion to catch breath + context. Also need ways to indicate this visually on meetings that are "prone to spillages" - to let the party choose and be respectful of their time. Essentially this, but in calendar. (Calendly now has a way to mark “buffer time before & after”) - and intelligent one should know I am not active on my laptop, or in another meeting - and automatically sends a note - reducing the overwhelming experience of sending an update while you are wrapping up the next.
5/ An intelligent calendar - a selection that is context & batch aware of the other meetings around the day. There are some conversations (on phone) that I can take when I am mobile(can walk with my headphones on). Some needs a more focussed desktime, other just update - where I can have my second in command lead the most of meeting, and I can see only the focal point of most things to cover. Having a way to communicate this
6/ Enter Pomodoro : A timer ticking on the meeting - to remind backward of time to cover the topic/agenda. The mind becomes more efficient(non verbose), and moves away from that awkward weather questions. A good way could also be just automatically “popping a random question/meme” to engage and have a light hearted laugh.
Fun note: I use Pomodoro with Forest app to help me get into deep working state soon. Current progress : 3 streaks in a day.
Efficiency of facetime
7/ Pre-meeting context - Allowing the parties to see different information in the invite. So, you and I are talking for the 1st time, I have private notes in some app about you+ how I want to structure that conversation. For the organized mortals :)
For now, I use my private notion for this, and will often link the invite to the same. Side effect is one additional hop.
What happens in a meeting, doesn’t stay in just that meeting
8/ Imagine seeing reels. More like the TV series of “…here’s what happened the last time. This could be selectively recorded and played, or flashed from the notes(if any) captured during the next meeting. In this case, the meeting is marked as a “set” of meeting. (Recurring is only a subset of the same)
That’s all folks ! I know this article possibly chopped off but my Pomodoro is done. Till next time !!
What are the things you wish you had from your calendar ? And your favorite time effectiveness hacks ?