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How to Use Your Calendar to Make Every Day Your Ideal Day
It’s all about creating the perfect template, then using it the right way
Sometimes I fantasize about an empty calendar. No meetings. No obligations. Nothing but time for my work, myself, and the people I care about.
Then I remember: I’ve already lived that dream, more than once. I had an empty calendar in 2015, while writing my book, Sprint. I had it when my wife and I were traveling in Central America and our only commitments were to each other. When we first moved to Milwaukee, there it was again — an empty calendar. Nothing but possibility.
And then I remember something else: The reality of an empty calendar does not live up to the dream.
When time becomes abundant
Time is a finite resource, and normally, it’s in short supply — something I learned firsthand during my time at Google Ventures, where I helped create the design sprint process. In a way, that makes it easier to use it well. When you only have a limited number of hours to spend how you’d like, you make the most of them.
On the flip side, when time becomes abundant, it can be challenging to make good use of it. If you’ve ever spent a Sunday evening wondering how the weekend got away from you, or blown a big chunk of money on an ill-advised purchase on payday, you know what I mean. When we’re faced with abundance, it breaks our mental framework for how to manage that resource, and we go bonkers.
That’s basically what happens to me when I have an empty calendar. My brain can’t handle the shift from scarcity to abundance. I get overly optimistic about what I can achieve, and then I set myself up for a spectacular fall down to earth as I waste all that time. I get distracted. I procrastinate. I wait too long to eat and forget to exercise.
The way around this, I’ve learned, is to create some structure for myself.
