How to Get the Most Out of Your Calendar-Nir&Far

Hi, I'm Nir Eyal and this is the near and Far Podcast. This podcast is about business, behavior and the brain. On this show, I do a few things. I read quick articles I've written about topics shaping your behavior. I interview authors of books I enjoy, and from time to time I devote episodes to answering your questions. If you want to ask me a question, visit the podcast page on itunes, go to Ratings and Reviews, and ask me a question. By leaving a review, I promise to read it and possibly include your question in a future episode. So please ask me anything now. Enjoy the episode and for more, you can always Visit me@nearandfar.com.

How to get the Most out of your calendar By Nir Eyal Recorded by Johnny Heller how to get the most out of your calendar these two questions will completely change the way you use your calendar. It's all about reflecting and refining. It doesn't so much matter what you do with your time. Rather, success is measured by whether you did what you planned to do. It's fine to watch a video, scroll, social media daydream, or take a nap, as long as that's what you plan to do. Alternatively, checking work Email A seemingly productive task is a distraction if it's done when you intended to spend time with your family or work on a presentation. Keeping a time boxed schedule is the only way to know if you're distracted. If you're not spending your time doing what you'd planned, you're off track.

To create a weekly time boxed schedule, you'll need to decide how much time you want to spend on each domain of your life. How much time do you want to spend on yourself, on important relationships, and on your work? Note that work doesn't exclusively mean paid labor. The work domain of your life can include community service, activism, and side projects. Build your values into your calendar. How much time in each domain would allow you to be consistent with your values? Start by creating a weekly calendar template for your perfect week. You'll find a blank template using my free online calendar tool@nearandfar.com schedule maker next book 15 minutes on your schedule every week to reflect and refine your Calendar by asking two questions. Question 1 Reflect when in my schedule did I do what I said I would do? And when did I get distracted? Answering this question requires you to look back at the past week. I recommend using this distraction tracker to note when and why you become distracted. If an internal trigger distracted you, what strategies will you use to cope the next time it arises? Did an external trigger like a phone call or a talkative colleague prompt you to stop doing what you wanted to do? Or was a planning problem the reason you gave in to distraction? If so, you can look back through your distraction tracker to help answer the Next question. Question 2 Refine Are there changes I can make to my calendar that will give me the time I need to better live out my values? Maybe something unexpected came up, or perhaps there was a problem with how you planned your day? Timeboxing enables us to think of each week as a mini experiment. The goal is to figure out where your schedule didn't work out in the prior week so you can make it easier to follow the next time around. The idea is to commit to a practice that improves your schedule over time by helping you know the difference between traction and distraction for every moment of the day before moving on, consider what your schedule currently looks like. I'm not asking about the things you did, but rather the things you committed to doing in writing. Is your schedule filled with carefully time boxed plans or is it mostly empty? Does it reflect who you are? Are you letting others steal your time, or do you guard it as the limited and precious resource it is? When our lives change, our schedules can too. But once our schedule is set, the idea is to stick with it until we decide to improve it on the next go round. Approaching the exercise of making a schedule as a curious scientist rather than a drill sergeant gives us the freedom to get better with with each iteration, protect your most precious resource. By turning our values into time, we make sure we have time for traction. If we don't plan ahead, we shouldn't point fingers, nor should we be surprised when everything becomes a distraction. Being indistractible is largely about making sure you make time for traction each day and eliminating the distraction that keeps you from living the life you want. One that involves taking care of yourself, your relationships, and your work.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the near and Far Podcast. You can always find more at my blog, nearandfar.com and don't forget, if you have a question you'd like me to explore in a future episode, leave me your question, the former review or the podcast on itunes.