Take Control of Your Calendar
19 Jul 2023 · 7 min
In this podcast episode, Brendon Burchard argues that modern life is saturated with engineered distractions designed to keep us from pursuing our true goals. He frames the struggle as a battle between "distraction engineers" and our own dreams. The core solution he proposes is two‑fold: (1) establish dedicated block time in the calendar where work is uninterrupted, and (2) set weekly deadlines he calls "Friday finishers" – a list of the most important tasks that must be completed by Friday each week. By consistently applying this rhythm, Brendon claims we can reclaim three months of productivity, avoid the cascade of overdue work, and free up weekends for rest or personal pursuits. He illustrates the concept with anecdotes about executives who don’t know how to fill their time, a yoga‑teacher turned overwhelmed entrepreneur, and his own practice of separating workstations to minimize context switching. Throughout, he emphasizes that without block time and clear deadlines, high performance is impossible, regardless of inspiration or motivation.
Chapters
The distractions they have built for us are so effing good. The world's best engineers are hired and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make sure you add these distractions in. They made sure those distractions feel similar to celebration, enjoyment, pleasure, satiation, like they're working against you. You. You just have to decide who's gonna win the battle. The distraction engineers or your soul and your dreams. You must have a block of time and you must have a deadline. And without those two things, when are you going to do this as a consistent practice and when is something due? Without those two elements, everything else we're about to talk about is so silly. So for those who don't know, we just call that block time and we call it weekly deadlines. I know, it's so simple. We call them Friday finishers. In growth Day, the idea that you should open up growth day, go to the plan section, type in Friday finishers, and set up a list of things that you will deliver or complete by the end of the week, no matter what. That. That's the battle for that week. Those things, I don't care if you have to change the schedule, move the calendar around, move blocks, those things get delivered or you die. Friday finishers. That way, when you finish by Friday, you actually get to have a Saturday and Sunday because you finished the most important things, you knew what they were. If you don't know the most important things to finish by end of day Friday, now it's your Saturday. Now it's your Sunday. Now it's on the plate of next Monday. And you're overwhelmed because my Monday after Monday after Monday, they stack and they stack and they stack. Cause you never planned and planned and planned and now you say, ah, I'm so overwhelmed, why even try? And you're back in the cage every time. It's so predictable. So I need to block. When is it gonna happen on a consistent basis? And what are the deadlines every week? If we can just get that, just that rhythm down. Just that rhythm down, We've got you three months back. Who wants three months back? It's so easy. I mean, my most common complaint of all my executives are like, I had to learn how to fill the time again. That's the most. They're like, I don't know what to do with the time. I'm like, earn. I don't know what to do with the time lead. I don't know what to do with the time. Talk to the customers. I don't do the time. Go on the yoga retreat. I don't know what to do with the time. Go to that vacation you wanted to go about. I don't know what to do at the time. Go to Montana. It's awesome. Please go to Montana. It's the best place ever. Every Montana in the room is like, you jerk. Don't tell them to come here. So can we agree Block time is important and we can read. Deadlines are important. Okay, If I can't find them in your personal calendar, you are absolutely not going to stay high performing. You might stay interested, but you won't be impactful. You might say, I'm inspired, but you won't be high performing over the period of time because we just can't will ourselves into doing it, because the distractions that they have built for us are so effing good. You know, these things right here that they have built for you, these will dominate your psyche. They're better. The world's best engineers are hired and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make sure you add these distractions in. They made sure those distractions feel similar to celebration, enjoyment, pleasure, satiation. Like they're working against you. They're working against you. So your block time is you taking life back, which you must do when you decide, I'm going to own my dream. Everyone say, I own my dream. Turn the person left, right, Shake them. Say you own your dream. Okay, I got it, Brendan. Okay, I'm picking this up, buddy. So you need me to get my calendar figured out? I'm like, yes. You need me to minimize distractions. I'm like, yes. Does anyone feel like this is common sense? Raise your hand. Actually stand up. If you can do better in these categories. Be honest. Stand up. Look around this room. Round of applause for honesty. Look around the room. Shake them again. Say you own your dream. You own your dream. All right, have a seat. We're doing the work. We're doing the work. Have a seat. Basic block and tackling, basic offense. Fill that calendar up. And I'm actually. Okay, listen, you might go. But, Brendan, where's the time for fun? It's my old joke, right? It's like, I have that. I had this person in one of my groups who's like the third most famous YouTuber in the world for yoga. And she's like, I'm working with her. And she's like, I just. I'm so frustrated because I'm so overwhelmed and there's so much work in everything. And, you know, I just. And she's been telling me about all her creative time and her freedom time and everything. She's trying to build that in. But now the business is getting bigger and she's got responsibilities, and she's like, and now I don't have time for my yoga retreat. I used to go on real good retreats, and it filled me up, and I never do them. And I go, why don't you do them? She said, why don't I need time? I have so much going on. I said, well, let me look at your calendar. We look at our calendar, there's all this unscheduled time. I go, oh, undisciplined yoga teacher have no time for a yoga retreat. It ain't hard, folks. You just have to decide who's going to win the battle. The distraction engineers or your soul and your dreams. You got to decide who wins every day. It is a battle. It really is a battle. The average person picks up their phone more than a hundred times. It's so opposite. If you come to my house a hundred times in my house, we go, you know where my phone is? You have no idea. We leave it around for hours at a time, literally. Ask my team. They're like, where? Like, hours at a time? I have no idea. I find my phone the weirdest places. You find it, like, in the closet next to the shoes. Sometimes, like, it's so. It's such an unimportant item that we lose it all the time because we decide that's not gonna define our lives, that's not gonna fill our blocks. We. When it's time to work, we work. I have separate stations at my house of things that happen at the stations. This is in my office. This is the podcast table. This is the work and create and, you know, regular everyday office computer. This computer over here, it's just for zoom and broadcasts. That's it. Different little stations. And I know how much of my day is going to spend on those little different stations. And it's that simple. Like, we get so caught up. I just need you to feel your blocks of time better and further out, know what you're working on, what matters.