But here lies the misconception — if you use your calendar solely to manage your meetings, you are missing something. The calendar is the gateway to the scarcest resource on earth — your time. It’s the interface where people can interact with your time and take pieces from it. If you throw it away, you let other people steal your most precious resource as far as they like.
Focus Blocks
According to a University of California Irvine study, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.
Figure out which hours are most productive for you
Be aware of which hours those are for you and protect them at all costs using focus blocks. What about the hours when you are usually less productive? Do nothing. That way, you are still approachable for your peers, but you are engaging with them during time windows
Daily Alignment Routine
What are other people in my team working on?
Do they need my help?
What is the progress on our current sprint/cycle? Are we making it on time?
Are there any pending pull requests that have been standing idle too long?
What are the current goals/KPIs of the company?
Is there any news making the rounds that I need to be aware of?
Do I need to fill out that vacation form?
Don’t live inside your IDE bubble! Set yourself time to align with what’s going around you. Usually, the best time to do this is in the morning when your brain has been cleared of open loops and the cognitive load is low. I encourage you to create a 30-minute time block with a predefined checklist of things you need to catch up on: