Work Blog: Taking Time For Yourself in Outlook
Given that I've been posting here for more than 18 years, you'll probably be unsurprised to learn that I also do a lot of internal blogging at my day job. In fact, I've been doing so long enough that my blog posts have been hosted on three different internal blogging platforms over the years.
Most of my posts are project summaries and other internal items that are uninteresting to anyone who isn't working with me. Actually, since most of them are time limited they aren't interesting to anyone months later. However, a few of my posts are general purpose tips and suggestions that might have relevance elsewhere. Since I lost 20+ posts when the first of those three platforms was deprecated, I thought it might be worthwhile to save some of my better posts out here, and they might even come in handy for some of you. Of course, I'll suitable edit them to remove work-specific information, and LiveJournal doesn't handle all the fancy display options of our current blog platform so it might not be as pretty, but the gist will be there.
These will go up on Thursdays using the brand new tag work blog. I'll do it until I run out them, and then sporadically as warranted. This first post was from April 1, 2021. I had to cut 3-4 sentences and change some wording, but it's mostly intact.
Taking Time For Yourself in Your Calendar
If you're like me, you've got a swarm of meetings landing in your inbox every day. Actually, if you're like me, you're probably the person who is setting the swarm of meetings loose on other people (sorry, not sorry), but the outcome is the same. With all those meetings on the calendar and all the accompanying context-switching that happens as you move from one virtual meeting to another, it can be challenging to find time to do all the work you were supposed to get done for your next meeting! Let's see how your very own calendar can be used to lock down time to get your work done.
The principle is very simple. While all of us have accepted meeting requests from other people, and most of us have sent meeting requests of our own, a surprising number of people have never blocked off time on their calendar for themselves to get work done! Do you need some uninterrupted heads down time to:
- Focus on a challenging development problem?
- Get caught up on mandatory security training?
- Knock out that training course?
- Read through a specification and leave detailed feedback?
- Do anything complicated that requires focus?
- Do a lot of little easy things that have piled up in one shot?
- Get caught up on your email?
If these problems sound like your problems, block off an hour or two or four on your calendar as "busy" and get to work. If you really need to focus without interruption, you can even close your email and chat clients during that time! I personally have found this approach to be massively helpful. Depending on what I'm working on, I have days where as much as half as my time is blocked off to focus and get things done.
While blocking off time to work is a good start, giving careful consideration to WHEN you block off time can make this tactic even more valuable. For example:
- If you have a specific meeting that you always leave with action items, blocking off time after that meeting can give you time to start those action items while they are all fresh in your mind.
- Do you dread having a whole bunch of meetings in a row with no downtime between them? When a new meeting shows up on your calendar, try scheduling a block of time after it to recharge your social batteries before you dive into the next one.
- Most of us find that we're better able to focus at a specific time of day. For me, that's 3pm to 5pm. For you it might be in right away in the morning or right after you work out. If you can block off your personal "hour of power" for heads down work, you're going to be even more productive during that time.
- If you look at your calendar for this week and think "I'll never be able to block off time, I'm so busy," try blocking off time next week or next month when your schedule is currently less packed. Future you will thank you!
- Do you have tasks that have to be done regularly? No problem! Block off some time on a recurring basis.
One of the things I like about working here is that we're all willing to help each other out when asked. As such, I've encountered more than a few people who feel guilty for using this method because they are "not being available to coworkers". That's a laudable concern, but we often forget that making the time for do your best work is helping out. Very few questions can't wait an hour or two. You wouldn't hesitate to block off time to go to the dentist (well, assuming you don't hate the dentist), so don't worry about blocking off time to do work. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as scheduling a solo meeting!
There is one additional advantage of blocking time off this way. When most people are scheduling meetings they try hard to schedule them when everybody they need is available. If you have time blocked off to work, people are much less likely to schedule you into a meeting at that time unless they have no other option. This can help break the cycle of back-to-back-to-back meetings. Trust me, if we really need you there during your blocked off time, we'll reach out and ask. Of course, it's possible to abuse this by scheduling your entire day as blocked off time. I don't recommend this as a regular behavior unless you have a personal assistant to help sort out scheduling requests. Otherwise, when people do that every day, people tend to throw up their hands and schedule you whenever works for everyone else.
If this suggestion seemed super obvious to you, you're probably a really organized person, and you should send your productivity tips to me for potential inclusion in a future post. For everyone else, thank you for reading and don't forget to mash the Like button and subscribe to the blog. Comments are also greatly appreciated.
Most of my posts are project summaries and other internal items that are uninteresting to anyone who isn't working with me. Actually, since most of them are time limited they aren't interesting to anyone months later. However, a few of my posts are general purpose tips and suggestions that might have relevance elsewhere. Since I lost 20+ posts when the first of those three platforms was deprecated, I thought it might be worthwhile to save some of my better posts out here, and they might even come in handy for some of you. Of course, I'll suitable edit them to remove work-specific information, and LiveJournal doesn't handle all the fancy display options of our current blog platform so it might not be as pretty, but the gist will be there.
These will go up on Thursdays using the brand new tag work blog. I'll do it until I run out them, and then sporadically as warranted. This first post was from April 1, 2021. I had to cut 3-4 sentences and change some wording, but it's mostly intact.
Taking Time For Yourself in Your Calendar
If you're like me, you've got a swarm of meetings landing in your inbox every day. Actually, if you're like me, you're probably the person who is setting the swarm of meetings loose on other people (sorry, not sorry), but the outcome is the same. With all those meetings on the calendar and all the accompanying context-switching that happens as you move from one virtual meeting to another, it can be challenging to find time to do all the work you were supposed to get done for your next meeting! Let's see how your very own calendar can be used to lock down time to get your work done.
The principle is very simple. While all of us have accepted meeting requests from other people, and most of us have sent meeting requests of our own, a surprising number of people have never blocked off time on their calendar for themselves to get work done! Do you need some uninterrupted heads down time to:
- Focus on a challenging development problem?
- Get caught up on mandatory security training?
- Knock out that training course?
- Read through a specification and leave detailed feedback?
- Do anything complicated that requires focus?
- Do a lot of little easy things that have piled up in one shot?
- Get caught up on your email?
If these problems sound like your problems, block off an hour or two or four on your calendar as "busy" and get to work. If you really need to focus without interruption, you can even close your email and chat clients during that time! I personally have found this approach to be massively helpful. Depending on what I'm working on, I have days where as much as half as my time is blocked off to focus and get things done.
While blocking off time to work is a good start, giving careful consideration to WHEN you block off time can make this tactic even more valuable. For example:
- If you have a specific meeting that you always leave with action items, blocking off time after that meeting can give you time to start those action items while they are all fresh in your mind.
- Do you dread having a whole bunch of meetings in a row with no downtime between them? When a new meeting shows up on your calendar, try scheduling a block of time after it to recharge your social batteries before you dive into the next one.
- Most of us find that we're better able to focus at a specific time of day. For me, that's 3pm to 5pm. For you it might be in right away in the morning or right after you work out. If you can block off your personal "hour of power" for heads down work, you're going to be even more productive during that time.
- If you look at your calendar for this week and think "I'll never be able to block off time, I'm so busy," try blocking off time next week or next month when your schedule is currently less packed. Future you will thank you!
- Do you have tasks that have to be done regularly? No problem! Block off some time on a recurring basis.
One of the things I like about working here is that we're all willing to help each other out when asked. As such, I've encountered more than a few people who feel guilty for using this method because they are "not being available to coworkers". That's a laudable concern, but we often forget that making the time for do your best work is helping out. Very few questions can't wait an hour or two. You wouldn't hesitate to block off time to go to the dentist (well, assuming you don't hate the dentist), so don't worry about blocking off time to do work. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as scheduling a solo meeting!
There is one additional advantage of blocking time off this way. When most people are scheduling meetings they try hard to schedule them when everybody they need is available. If you have time blocked off to work, people are much less likely to schedule you into a meeting at that time unless they have no other option. This can help break the cycle of back-to-back-to-back meetings. Trust me, if we really need you there during your blocked off time, we'll reach out and ask. Of course, it's possible to abuse this by scheduling your entire day as blocked off time. I don't recommend this as a regular behavior unless you have a personal assistant to help sort out scheduling requests. Otherwise, when people do that every day, people tend to throw up their hands and schedule you whenever works for everyone else.
If this suggestion seemed super obvious to you, you're probably a really organized person, and you should send your productivity tips to me for potential inclusion in a future post. For everyone else, thank you for reading and don't forget to mash the Like button and subscribe to the blog. Comments are also greatly appreciated.