Designing calendar boundaries
Your calendar is the default. If you don’t block time for deep work, recovery, and focus, it will fill with whatever other people want. Boundaries aren’t selfish—they’re how you show up when it matters.
Block before you’re asked
Put deep work blocks on your calendar before anyone invites you to a meeting. If your calendar says “Focus” at 9am, you have a reason to decline. If it’s empty, you’re fair game.
Name the blocks
“Blocked” or “Busy” is vague. “Deep work” or “Writing” is specific. When you name it, you know what you’re protecting and why. So does anyone who sees your calendar.
Protect the edges
No meetings first thing in the morning. No meetings last thing before you leave. Those edges are prime time for focus and wrap-up. If you give them away, you lose the bookends of your day.
Calendar design is system design. Your calendar should reflect the life you want, not the one you’re defaulting into.
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