You know the drill. On Monday, you feel invincible. By Thursday, your calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by a sleep-deprived raccoon, and your “priority” list is a guilt parade. The fix is not more color-coding. You need weekly planning frameworks that absorb reality’s chaos without crumbling. Our research heard from top experts […]
You plan your week, then life barrels in like a forklift. Meetings multiply, priorities blur, and the critical work slips a day, then a week. Here is the fix: six simple templates that make weekly planning almost frictionless. They are light enough to use under pressure and structured sufficiently to survive surprises. We tested versions […]
You already make more choices in a morning than most people make all day. The real tax on your Calendar is not the decision itself; it is the drag from unclear standards, endless options, and forum-shopping for consensus. The fix is not more meetings. It is a handful of simple shortcuts that protect quality while […]
You know that feeling when you land in a new city and your calendar looks like a game of Tetris? Travel weeks can devour focus. Yet the same constraints can help you sprint on the right work if you design for them. Here’s the playbook I use with execs and teams to turn planes, hotel […]
Mondays can either feel like a headwind or a runway. The difference is the ritual you decide to follow through with. You do not need a 4-hour routine or a new app. You need a small set of repeatable moves that lower friction, surface priorities, and get you one clear win before lunch. Do these […]
You can feel it the second a meeting wobbles: cameras off, vague goals, fifteen minutes gone to status theater. Meanwhile, the real work sits in another tab. The fix is not another framework. It is a handful of short, humane scripts that reset purpose, surface tradeoffs, and move decisions across the line. Use them to […]
Status meetings feel safe, yet they quietly drain momentum. You sit through slides, nod at charts, then realize nothing actually changed. In a quarter defined by sharper budgets and faster bets, you need meetings that close loops, not open threads. This piece gives you 12 field-tested formats that turn airtime into outcomes, even when stakes […]
When your calendar resembles a game of Tetris and your chat pings resemble a stock ticker, protecting deep work can feel selfish. It isn’t. High-impact work depends on extended, distraction-free focus, a point Cal Newport popularized in his work on deep work. Meanwhile, collaboration has increased by 50% or more in recent years, with many […]
Most high performers can muscle through a crunch. Burnout is different—an erosion that occurs when chronic stressors, such as nonstop meetings and always-on expectations, consume your typical day. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by “chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed,” not a personal failing (WHO definition). If parts of […]
Smartphones have long been portrayed as the ultimate villain by productivity gurus and self-help experts: constant sources of distracting notifications, bottomless scrolling, and digital distractions that derail your goals. Considering that Americans spend, on average, 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on their phones, there could be an argument here. But here’s the cold, hard truth: […]
Deanna Ritchie
Editor-in-Chief at Calendar. Former Editor-in-Chief, ReadWrite, Editor-in-Chief and writer at Startup Grind. Freelance editor at Entrepreneur.com. Deanna loves to help build startups, and guide them to discover the business value of their online content and social media marketing.