Plan the week around the hours you actually have, not the 40 on paper. Count your meeting time first. Find the blocks of 90 minutes or more that are left. Put your two or three most important tasks in those blocks. Then look for meetings to cut, shorten or skip.
Step 1: Count the meetings
On Monday morning, add up the meeting hours in your calendar. Add 10 minutes before and after each, for getting ready and catching up. Many people find their "half-day of meetings" is really two-thirds of the day.
| Hours | |
|---|---|
| Working hours | 40 |
| Meetings | 18 |
| Buffer around meetings | 4 |
| Email and chat | 6 |
| Left for focused work | 12 |
Step 2: Find the real blocks
Twelve hours in 15-minute scraps is not twelve hours of work. Look for gaps of 90 minutes or more. Those are where hard work happens. Most people with heavy meeting weeks have three to five such blocks.
Step 3: Pick two or three priorities
Not ten. With three focus blocks, you can do two or three important things well. Write them down on Monday morning.
Step 4: Book the blocks
Put the priorities in your calendar as events: "Pricing page copy, 9:00–11:00." Treat them like a meeting with yourself. Decline new meetings that clash, or offer another time.
Step 5: Look at every meeting
For each recurring meeting, ask:
- Do I need to be there? Or can I read the notes?
- Does it need to be this long? 30 minutes instead of 60?
- Could it be written? Updates usually can.
Cutting one hour-long weekly meeting gives you a whole focus block back.
Step 6: Use the small gaps well
The 20-minute gaps between meetings are good for email, reviews, quick replies and planning. Keep a short list of small tasks for them.
Track it for one week
A one-week time audit shows where the hours really went. The free time audit charts it for you.
See meeting time next to task time
M-Tracker counts meeting time from Google Calendar on its own line, next to the time spent on each task. You see how much of the week was meetings, and what got done in the rest. No screenshots and no activity tracking.
Where M-Tracker fits
M-Tracker gives every task a clear brief and every finished piece of work a first review, in plain words, before it reaches the manager. No screenshots, no scores.
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Questions people ask
What if my job is mostly meetings?
Then the meetings are the work. Make sure each one ends with a decision or an action, and keep one focus block a day for follow-up.
Should I block focus time every day?
Yes, if you can. Mornings work best for most people.
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