The Leader Mindset #40

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Become 20% More Productive with This Practical Calendar Audit

Let’s be honest. What’s the one thing most of us wish we had more of as leaders? Time.

Whenever I ask leaders what’s getting in their way, the answer almost always circles back to the same frustration. You’ve probably said it yourself at least once this month: “I’m in too many meetings, and I can’t get my real work done.”

But here’s a question we rarely ask ourselves: How much more productive could we be if we actually fixed this?

I’m confident you can reclaim a meaningful amount of time with this simple calendar audit. It’s not flashy. It’s just you, your calendar, a few highlighters and a willingness to take an honest look at how you’re really spending your week. If you’re willing to be candid with yourself, let’s get started.

START WITH LAST MONTH’S CALENDAR

Pull up the last 30 days of your calendar (or better yet, print them) and look at every single meeting. I know it sounds tedious, but trust me, it is worth it.

Sort each meeting into one of three buckets: green, yellow, or red. This works best if you actually use three different color highlighters or pens. The physical act helps you get honest. Here is how to categorize each meeting.

MEETINGS THAT TRULY NEED YOU (CATEGORY: GREEN)

These are the meetings where your presence is essential. Maybe you’re making a critical decision, or a major project would stall without your voice in the room.

You may be thinking, “Well, all my meetings are important.” This is where I need you to pause and reflect on a few questions:

• Would anything fall apart if you skipped this?

• Would the team actually wait on me, or would they carry on without hesitation?

• Are you genuinely adding value to a decision that matters?

If you’re essential, it’s green, and the meeting should be kept on your calendar. If not, move it to the Red category, which we will discuss shortly.

RECURRING MEETINGS (CATEGORY: YELLOW)

Weekly team updates, check-ins, status reviews, committee meetings are like weeds. They build up over time, taking up huge sections of the calendar, and almost never get removed.

You might assume they need to stay. But do they really? Here’s how you can pressure test them:

• Does this meeting still serve the purpose it was created for?

• Could it happen less often — maybe monthly instead of weekly?

• Could we get the same outcome in half the time – can it be reduced from 60 min to 30min?

• If we paused it for a month, would anyone even notice?

• Are we meeting just because “this is how we’ve always done it”?

Yellow doesn’t necessarily mean cut. It means question them and potentially make changes to improve their efficiency.

MEETINGS YOU MUST CUT (CATEGORY: RED)

This is the category that often stings a bit, because it forces us to acknowledge something inconvenient. A surprising number of our meetings are unnecessary or even worse, don’t need you.

Often, we attend these meetings because the topic is interesting, or we want to offer our perspective. Or maybe we just accept every meeting that pops into our inbox - no questions asked.

Don’t forget you’re aiming to be more productive, so this habit has to stop.

Here are the questions that will help you get clear about these meetings:

• Does someone at my level truly need to be here?

• Could this be handled with a short written update?

• Could someone on my team attend instead and actually grow from it?

• If I quietly declined every instance for 90 days, what would really happen?

With red meetings, you only have three moves: decline it, ask if it can be handled by email, or delegate it. That’s it. And these are the first meetings that should disappear from your calendar.

THE GOAL: TAKE BACK 20% OF YOUR TIME

Your goal is to reclaim at least 20% of your week. Eight hours or one full day. Most leaders can get there by removing red meetings alone, but yellow meetings often hide the biggest opportunities.

If you finish your review and you’re not close to twenty percent, go back and push harder.

When you do find that time, you MUST block it on your calendar going forward. That time is now reserved for the work only you can do: developing strategy, coaching your people, strengthening your network, and keeping the team focused on the big rocks.

DON’T REGRESS

From now on, every new meeting request MUST run through this same filter. If you don’t, your calendar will fill up again - quickly. It always does. Meetings expand to whatever space you allow.

This reset works, but only if you take ownership of what gets onto your calendar in the first place.

Consider this your first of many calendar audits. Your calendar can be fixed, which will make you significantly more productive. If you get even one day back each week, imagine what you could finally get done.

Be sure to share this approach with someone who is struggling to manage their calendar. They will thank you 😊

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Andy Noon, PhD

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Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you again next week.

Andy