Don't Kill Your Day

Thanks to my wife, I've become a schedule-minded person. I wasn't always this way; pre-marriage (which has become a strange, fuzzy blur in my mind), my schedule was always blank. I showed up to my day and reacted to whatever was thrown at me. It felt fine at the time, but my eyes slowly opened to the fact that I wasn't even living my own life: I was simply following the lead of others. 

Fast forward a couple decades (ehem...) and there's Jeremy carving up his calendar into 30 minute segments, often wondering why Microsoft Outlook doesn't default to 15-minute increments so I could squeeze more in. In the end, rather than becoming a slave to others, I was a slave to my calendar...every day missing at least 5 of those appointments, often feeling like the day was a failure. In short, my eyes were too big.

I'm sure you've been there: standing at the dinner buffet, knowing that you skipped lunch for just this moment. You load the plate up with piles of the various delicacies in front of you, only to return to the table and find out you're no longer hungry about halfway through the plate (or eating fast enough to outrun your body's natural "full sensation" only to feel absolutely miserable all evening). Your eyes were bigger than your stomach.

There's my issue: calendar gluttony. I fill my calendar with so many little appointments, because...it works for Danielle, why doesn't it work for me (curse calendar sharing...it just makes me compare my own productivity to everyone else)?

Because it doesn't. Because it won't. Because small appointments kill my day and my productivity. For ANYTHING to get done, I need to block out at least 2-hours. Meetings? Block out 1-hour each (and carefully guard my meeting times - how many could have been solved with a quick email). When it comes to calendaring and accomplishing, less is more.