Turning Time Clutter into Time Gold

Spring cleaning where you really need it: Your Calendar

It's easy to see the clutter that piles up in our lives--on our desks, in our cars, around our houses, etc.--and yet the place where the most detrimental clutter accumulates for leaders is on their calendars.

It's not uncommon that I hear leaders I'm coaching say something like, "I have 38 hours of meetings a week and THEN I have to do my job on top of that!"

Not only does this imply they're working well over 40 hours a week, but it also tells me that these 38 hours of meetings don't really feel tied to the actual WORK that they do.

You might relate to this, Leader, and that's okay. Standing meetings, project check-ins, and the ubiquitous touch-base can creep into our calendars over time until the majority of our working hours are spent running from one place to another (physically or digitally) to get updates and stay in the loop. It happens! 

Let's name this phenomenon: 

Time Clutter

It's sneaky--Time Clutter usually creeps in subconsciously over long periods of time. And the worst part of Time Clutter is that it is INVISIBLE. Instead of eating up space, this type of clutter eats up our TIME and our ENERGY. Time Clutter can suck the life out of leaders! And while many people are willing to pause and clean off their desk from time-to-time in service of greater efficiency and peace, the thought of doing the same with their calendars feels paralyzing.

So today we're going to go through some gentle Spring cleaning to help you de-clutter your calendar and reclaim your energy and effectiveness as a leader. And we're going to make it EASY and ACTIONABLE!

Now, it's important to note: There is no right or wrong way to build one's schedule. It's all about what works for you as an individual. And I want you to be really honest when you ask yourself this: "Is my calendar working for me?"

If your answer to that question was a resounding "NO!" or even a more neutral reaction (or heck, even if it was a solid "Yes.") there's an HUGE opportunity here to refine and revise your calendar in service of yourself and those you lead.

The top 5 advantages of time decluttering your calendar are:

1. More focus for high-impact work (strategy, decisions, deep work)

2. Less overwhelm and burnout (more margin, steadier energy)

3. Stronger boundaries and leadership presence (clearer “yes/no,” less people-pleasing)

4. Better decision quality (fewer rushed choices, less cognitive overload)

5. Higher meeting quality and team effectiveness (only essential meetings, clearer outcomes)

So let's take a look at YOUR calendar, shall we?

I want you to pull up your calendar and print a copy so we can mark it up.

Step 1- For each event on your calendar, mark each of them based on your gut reaction to it with either with a :) a :| or a :(.

Do this quickly and without over-thinking. We're going strictly off of vibes here and will look more deeply in future steps.

Once you're done: What do you notice? What is the balance of  :) meetings vs. :| meetings vs. :( meetings? At a high-level glance, this will start to show you areas for opportunity in your calendar.

Meetings marked with a :) are ones we want to keep. They add ENERGY into our lives. There's something occurring here that propels you forward.

Meetings marked with either a :| or a :( are areas of opportunity for clean up. They are not necessarily bad or unnecessary, and there's something worth taking a deeper look at in these categories.

Step 2- Let's look at these  and  meetings.

Score each meeting on its PACE: On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the highest), how impactful is the meeting in terms of:

1. Purpose: The meeting has a clear objective and question to answer each time.

2. Attendees: The right people are in the room to accomplish the task at hand. Everyone who is invited participates in the process.

3. Conversation: The discussions in the meeting are substantive and require dialogue and decisions. Updates or FYI's are saved for email.

4. Efficiency: The objective gets achieved in the time allotted. The meeting lasts only as long as it needs to. 

Again, don't overthink this. Go with your gut. Give a numeric score for each meeting on its Purpose, Attendees, Conversation, and Efficiency.

In general, if your score is above a 6 in each of the PACE categories, this is a sign that things are working well! If you notice one or more of the categories is in the 4-6 range, there's opportunity here to make some changes that would raise that score. If the values fall in the 1-3 range, it's a good indication that you need to pause and evaluate further before continuing.

The PACE scoring method gives you a ton of information and helps to identify the deficits quickly.

Step 3- Next, the cleaning begins! Let's start by identifying the meetings that can be easily removed.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Could this meeting be replaced with an email? Hint: If the Conversation score was low, there's a good chance a regular update email could replace it.

2. Does this meeting still have a clear purpose? If a meeting is no longer useful, it might be time to let go of it. 

3. Could someone other than me attend and achieve the same goal? If you're not actively making decisions or participating, you might not need to keep it around at all.

If you answered YES to any of these for a meeting, it's a good sign that these meetings are creating some Time Clutter for you. 

Start with the meetings that could be removed. Are there any meetings that could end or shift into an email that you notice right off the bat? Mark these. Start the conversations with the other attendees to change course TODAY. Start with the easiest and build momentum from there.

Revolutionize the Time Clutter into High-Impact Performance

Just because you ranked a meeting low in the PACE scores doesn't mean that it automatically needs to be removed. Sometimes meetings ARE important and necessary and they are missing these critical components.

This is where you can REVOLUTIONIZE your Time Clutter.

Look at each one: What was the lowest component in the PACE score? It might be more than one category, and this will reveal to you the areas for improvement.

Ask yourself for each category: "What would need to be added or removed in order to bring the score to a 10?"

Now, it might never be a 10--sometimes meetings can be less than a 10--but what if it COULD BE? What would need to change?

Maybe you need to have less people involved, or a certain stakeholder needs to be added for it to actually be effective. Maybe the meeting has gotten stale in terms of purpose and you need to start each meeting by clearly setting up the question that needs to be answered in the time that day. Whatever it is, this is where you have the opportunity to turn your Time Clutter into GOLD.

With this process completed, you now have a clear roadmap of where Time Clutter is showing up for you. Now that you can see these spots, you have the opportunity to start making changes for yourself. It's time to get out of the mode of perfunctory and into HIGH-IMPACT PERFORMANCE.

What is one change you are committed to making this week to clear away Time Clutter and regain 5%-10% more your energy and effectiveness as a leader?