By implementing some simple calendar management practices, people of all professions can regain control over their time. When you manage and direct time before it is spent, it is much easier to focus on what matters.

JZ (author) learned this trick from his friend Graham Jenkin. In 2008, Graham was JZ’s boss at Google (AdWords Redesign Lead), He managed something like twenty people, and he gave each of them personal attention and true support.

Everyone wondered where Graham found the time, and most people (including JZ) assumed he worked really long hours. But they were wrong. In many ways, Graham had the typical schedule of a corporate manager. Each day was packed with meetings. But there was something unusual about his calendar: From 6 to 11 a.m. each day, Graham had scheduled time with himself. “That’s my time. I wake up early, get to the office early, hit the gym, grab breakfast, then work for a couple hours before my meetings begin,” Graham said. “Don’t people schedule over it?” JZ asked. “Sometimes they try, but I just tell them I’ve already got plans.” Ten years later, we still use Graham’s trick to make time for our Highlight.

Get into the habit of preplanning: Preparing for the upcoming day or week offers a high-level view of critical tasks and gauges how much time is left for additional commitments.

Work in time blocks: It is helpful to understand how much time tasks actually take and only schedule that amount of time to complete them — no more, no less.

Plan personal time: Adding time for outside interests and unforeseen events to a busy schedule makes it easier to manage time and stay on schedule.

Create reminders: They are mini assistants that keep busy people on track and focused on the right things throughout the day.

Let AI do the hard work: AI can determine how much time someone spends on repetitive tasks over time and recommend how much time to block off for them.

Tuesday (29%), followed closely by Wednesday (25%), was the most popular day for meetings; meanwhile, nearly half of respondents (47%) thought Monday was the worst, with most others (40%) selecting Friday.

After shifting to working from home, weekly meeting time suddenly jumped 10%. This translates to an average of three additional meetings per week per employee.

To collaborate at work, Baby Boomers are most likely to use in-person meetings, while Gen X and Millennials use emails and Gen Z use chats.

For the average length of meetings, 49% were between 30 minutes – 1 hour, 37% were 1-2 hours, 7% were less than 30 minutes, and another 7% were over 2 hours.