Do you ever open your inbox and find one of those emails waiting for you, asking, “Hey, can I pick your brain?”

When I was a new executive director, I never wanted to say no when people asked for help; I felt the need to agree to every single meeting request, because a meeting meant networking, and networking meant I had the chance to tell more people about my organization. Just as they say “all news is good news,” I thought all meetings were good meetings.

At one point, I was starting to feel pretty proud of myself, because I had managed to schedule a few coffee meetings in a single day. I set up my laptop at a coffee shop and got myself ready to have a productive afternoon. But after five meetings and five cups of coffee, I was a burned out. I’d gotten completely jacked up on coffee and lost an entire day of precious time I could’ve spent making actual progress in my work.

That's when I knew I had to get smarter about managing my time.

As an Executive Director, your time is your most valuable asset. It’s all too easy to lose track of time when you haven’t created healthy boundaries around your calendar. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to lose track of yourself: Over the past year, some 85% of workers report their well-being has declined as a result of not having a clear separation between their work and personal lives.

One of the best ways to take control of your life and create those boundaries is to take control of your calendar. I suggest starting by making adjustments just one week at a time. I know, we all want our problems to go away this very instant. But you’ve got a lot on your plate as it is, and breaking things into pieces makes the entire project more manageable.

Here are a few examples of what taking control of your calendar might look like for you:

Week 1: Understand how you spend your time.

Taking stock of how you spend your time can feel like a waste of that precious time, but it’s how you build a foundation that lets you gain control of your calendar. There are two things you need to do to better understand how you use your time:

1. Learn how to track your time.

Making good decisions about how you’re planning your days requires that you understand the actual problem: where is all my time going? How long does it take you to check your email? How many hours did your last newsletter take to create?

Here are a few ways you can start to understand how long tasks take to complete:

Use a free time tracking app like Toggl
Create a simple Google Sheet (here are some free templates)
Go analog with a bullet journal or good old-fashioned pen and paper

Whichever method you choose, keep it simple, something you can keep on hand and access in seconds. Bookmark your spreadsheet or keep your journal at your desk so you can easily track your time throughout the day.

When you’re first getting started with time tracking, you’ll start to realize how often you over- and underestimate how you spend your time. (Oh, I thought that invite would take 20 minutes to design and write, but it actually took an hour). One trick to help you account for that gap: adjust your calendar as you go. By the end of the first week, you’ll start to see patterns that will help you make choices about your calendar.

2. When you get distracted, make a note of how.

Is your phone constantly ringing? Do you hit 2pm and hop into Instagram for just a minute only to find half an hour has flown by? Part of tracking your time is getting a sense of the most common distractions that keep you from getting into the deep work state you need to be hitting.

Listen, we all love some mindless scrolling every now and again, but there’s a time and place for distractions. And it’s not during the time you carved out to strategize your next fundraising campaign. Give yourself permission to take some scrolling and texting breaks, even if that means putting time on your calendar for it.

Week 2: Schedule times where you don’t take meetings.

Meetings take up SO MUCH TIME. I don’t know about you, but when I was an ED, it felt like my entire day was taken over by meetings. Whether it was in-person, on the phone, or over Zoom, every day was meetings, meetings, meetings.

And guess what happens when you’re pulled from one meeting to the next?

Suddenly it’s Friday afternoon and:

None of this week’s goals have been met.
None of your priorities were touched.
None of your major donors were called.

Yet again, you think: I’ll have to deal with this next week. Then by Monday, the cycle starts again. Nope, sorry. We do not have time for that.

Figure out when you need time to focus on work and block those times off. Remember, you are in control of when and how often you schedule meetings.

Can you schedule at least one no-meeting day (or more, if you can manage it) into your calendar every week?
What about a no-meeting morning here and there?

If I can help it, I prefer to keep meetings to Monday afternoons, Wednesdays and Thursdays. On those days with extra meetings, I don’t even bother with my to-do list. My only priority on meeting days is to be present and identify what will be added to my to-do list based on that meeting.

Determine what meeting times work for you and stick to it. Even better: start using Calendly to set allotted meeting times and make scheduling even easier.

Alright. You’re going to hate me for this next tip. But I’m going there:

Week 3: Put everything in your calendar.

Now, I’m a “go with the flow” kinda gal. Being rigid isn’t my default. But to get work done and be consistent with how I show up in the world, I DEPEND on my calendar. So when I say everything goes in the calendar, I mean EVERYTHING.

Start with your personal calendar:

How many times have you looked at the clock and realized Oops, it is THREE P.M. and I haven’t had lunch yet. Did I even eat breakfast?

Include a BUFFER in your schedule. Remember, your personal time is important, too, so make time on your calendar for things like:

Your 10am coffee break
Lunch, snack times
Walking your dog in the afternoon
At least 10+ minutes of cushion around your meetings. (To do things like breathe or flip your notebook to the next page)

Dive into your work calendar

Put every single one of your tasks into your calendar—the projects and work that YOU will be doing yourself. If it’s not in your calendar (or your project management system) it’s as good as not done. Starting on a Friday or Monday (or whenever works for you), block off time throughout your upcoming week. Include things like:

Responding to emails
Creating an upcoming meeting agenda
Planning and marketing next month’s event

When you dedicate specific time slots to different projects, you’ll have more peace of mind that your work is going to get done. You won’t be pulled in a hundred directions by last-minute requests because you’ll know your priorities for the day. The best part about time blocking: You don’t start your day in a tizzy, wondering what you’re going to get done today. Instead, your calendar tells you exactly where you need to focus your time and energy, helping you accomplish more every day.

Week 4: Test and experiment.

You might find you learn something new about yourself every week from here on out. That’s just a part of the process, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of trial and error if it helps you figure out what works for you. Tweak as needed.

One week, you might realize you never want to have a Monday morning meeting again. Don’t kick yourself for scheduling a Monday meeting (or not realizing how much you hate AM meetings sooner). Instead, block off next Monday morning to prevent it from happening again.

Another week, you might start to notice some patterns in your energy for work. You might realize your creativity is zapped by Thursday, so next week, you could shift admin tasks towards the end of the week and save the creative thinking for the first half of the week.

Trust the process and be kind to yourself as you figure out what works best. Your work schedule isn’t going to look the same as mine or your colleague’s—and that’s OKAY.

Hold your boundaries close (and your calendar closer).

Taking control of your calendar is such an important piece of finding balance in your work AND life. So give this four-week challenge a “go” and let me know what you think.

How to take control of your calendar