A week in my life
My use of seven days, analysed
Word count: 640
Read time: 3 mins
I ran an analysis of my own calendar through the prototype I’m working on and which is likely to be called PreciousTime. I’m sharing it here in order to:
Invite any ideas any of you have about how this can be improved
Indirectly suggest ways you might better use your calendar and your time.
Offer (for those that provide especially helpful feedback) a similar analysis of your calendar (I’m sorry, I can’t offer these out to everyone anymore).
My own thoughts on the below:
Just two meetings’ prep timeboxes is unusual for me. But this was a useful reminder to practice more what I preach.
The medical challenge was not helpful at all—what does it mean to ‘balance your medication schedule’?!
And how dare it question the OTAAT acronym!
Calendar Analysis
Overall score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
The following report and recommendations are based on a single screenshot of your calendar. This kind of input is useful for getting results fast. But the text displayed in a screenshot may be truncated or ambiguous. So some of the assumptions and calculations below may not be 100% accurate. Use with care and caution!
* Enriching/growth activities are proactive, voluntary and to do with self-development, such as meditation, reading, exercise, learning, creative pursuits, and social connections. Reactive appointments (like medical visits) aren't included.
Five Recommendations
Here are a few suggestions to improve your calendar and time management and ultimately make your life more intentional and fulfilling. Get a few of these done and you'll notice the improvement in next week's report.
Add more preparation time before meetings. You have 24 meetings but only 2 dedicated preparation timeboxes. This might be causing you to join meetings less prepared than you might be. Add 15-30 minute preparation blocks before important meetings to review materials and gather your thoughts.
Implement buffer time between meetings. Your calendar shows many back-to-back meetings without breaks, which can lead to burnout and reduced effectiveness in later meetings. Add 5-10 minute buffers between meetings to allow for mental reset, bio breaks, and smooth transitions.
Break down larger timeboxes. Some of your timeboxes (like "escuela español" sessions) are quite long at 1.5 hours each. Research shows effectiveness diminishes after about 45-50 minutes. Consider breaking longer sessions into smaller chunks with short breaks between them.
Balance your medication schedule. I notice "medications-stretch-cold press" appears multiple times daily, which is good for consistent health management. However, try to standardize these sessions at similar times each day to build stronger habits and ensure you never miss them.
Clarify ambiguous event titles. Some events like "OTAAT" or abbreviations might be clear to you but create cognitive load when scanning your calendar. Use more descriptive titles that make the purpose immediately clear at a glance.
Next week
Your calendar shows excellent overall time management with an impressive overall 5-stars out of five score which is calibrated against other knowledge workers. You're demonstrating strong intentionality by timeboxing a high percentage of your waking hours, including evenings and weekends. Continue balancing work commitments with enriching activities like exercise, language learning, and socializing. For the week ahead, consider how you might create more preparation time before meetings—pick a couple of meetings which could use some extra prep. Next week I’ll offer a comparison vs this week.
Marc
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Hi Marc, I read your book but not clear about one thing.
When you time box daily items on your calendar, do you keep them on your to do list until they are done and then check off? If yes, does it mean that you keep a daily list on your task manager or word document? thank you