For planning meetings, a calendar is great. But time-boxing my other work sets me up for failure.
Because when the hours are the measure, every hour counts as equal. It turns my creativity into arithmetic that I cannot live by.
We measure in linear Newton time. But we live in psychological time. However closely each of us is in sync with the linear clock, we have all experienced the asynch: an hour that went by in a moment and felt like a fresh breeze. An hour that felt like a bad movie in slow motion, with plenty of time to regret your choices.
Which hour you get depends on what fills it. Tasks and activities you are good at and enjoy pass in minutes. You get more done in them, and they can leave you with more energy than you started with.
Tasks and activities that drain you, or fight something you are still learning, feel heavy and can take the rest of the day with them. Same 60 minutes on the clock. A completely different price paid from your energy bank.
Whether or not you colour-code meetings and tasks in your calendar, consider the impact of psychological time. While the hours fit, you might still end with a “not enough time” experience.
If your days and weeks keep overflowing, it is not proof that you plan badly or lack discipline. You may simply be counting every hour as equal when they never were.
Take 10-15 minutes over the weekend to reflect on these questions:
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Looking back at this past week, which one activity energised you the most, and which one drained you the most?
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Thinking about those two, how could you do more of what energises you? What would help you diminish what drains you?
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Considering next week, what is the one change to your calendar that would make the biggest difference?
I am always interested in where these questions take you.