Take Control of your Calendar

The work day is almost over, your energy is low, but you made little progress on your to-do list despite being so busy. This is a common challenge for new managers.

Juggling your own work, supporting your team, joining more meetings, and making faster decisions. If you don’t implement a system, your calendar will run you.

The good news is that you can take control. Even small changes to your time management can help reduce stress, enhance productivity, and create space for your own professional growth.

Let’s explore some tips for managing your time and achieving your goals.

Step 1: Identify where your time goes

Before you can master your schedule, you first need to see where your time actually goes. You might believe your day is spent on strategic work, but a closer look may reveal it's spent responding to emails and taking last-minute meetings. To bridge this gap between perception and reality, you need an objective look at how you actually spend your day.

Track your time

Spend three days tracking your activities in 15 to 30 minute blocks. Use a spreadsheet, a time tracking app, or even a notebook. Be honest–the goal isn’t to judge yourself but to gather data. Label each task under broad categories like:

• Strategic work
• Team support
• Meetings
• Administrative tasks
• Interruptions

At the end of the three days, review your data and ask yourself:

• Where am I spending the bulk of my time?
• Does this align with my role and goals?
• What surprises me about how I spend my time?

With your time mapped out, you can identify the hidden inefficiencies that disrupt your day.

Step 2: Decide what’s worth your time

With your time data in hand, perform a simple calendar audit. The goal isn't to cut everything out, but to make conscious choices to protect your most valuable resource: your time.

Audit your calendar

Ask yourself these questions to identify opportunities for improvement:

• What tasks are truly important? Could you reduce work that doesn’t directly align with your team's goals?
• What can be eliminated or delegated? Could a team member handle certain clients or meetings?
• What can be batched? Could you handle emails and administrative tasks in a few focused blocks rather than bursts throughout the day?
• What’s missing? Are you making time for team check-ins, strategy meetings, or deep work?

Here is an example of a time audit:

A time audit example tracks activities in 30-minute blocks. Columns indicate if each task was urgent, important, or planned ahead of time.

The audit can help you pinpoint where to make impactful changes. But identifying priorities is only half the battle. If you've ever seen your calendar overrun by unexpected meetings and urgent requests, you know how easily deep work gets pushed aside.

Step 3: Protect your focus

Instead of leaving your schedule to chance, set aside time for your most important work.

Set and protect time blocks

This includes pre-scheduling blocks of time for what matters most.

1. Start with your priorities. What must happen this week to move your goals forward?
2. Create categories. Designate time for team check-ins, emails, administrative tasks, and deep work.
3. Block it in. Schedule 60- to 90-minute blocks for deep work and 30-minute blocks for responding to emails. Add team check-ins and other recurring meetings.
4. Create buffers. Add extra time around complex tasks or meetings to prevent any overruns from derailing your entire day.
5. Protect the blocks. Treat them like meetings. If something urgent comes up, reschedule your block instead of deleting it.

Online calendars are perfect for creating a block schedule.

Using different colors to categorize tasks can help you quickly distinguish between task types—like meetings in blue—and adjust the schedule as needed.

By blocking your time, you're not just organizing tasks; you're building a system that supports your growth as a leader and creates space for what truly matters.

Navigating common challenges

As you implement this system, it can be helpful to share it with your team and others. This transparency makes collaboration easier and reinforces your commitment to focused work. If you get requests that conflict with your blocked time, you can say things like:

• "I’ve blocked time to focus on a key priority. Can we connect at 2 p.m. instead?"
• "To give this the attention it deserves, I’ve carved out time later today. Will that work?"

To take control of your calendar, first track your time to find hidden patterns and inefficiencies. Next, audit your calendar to align your daily tasks with your most important goals. Finally, block your time to turn those priorities into action, protecting your focus and ensuring your critical work gets done.

Ready to get started? Block 10 minutes on your calendar today to begin tracking your time for the next three days. It might just be the most productive thing you do all week.