One for me, one for you method of time blocking
Summary
- Block time in your calendar by giving yourself a similar amount of time for every block that you give someone else
Details
- Eventually you will have half your day assisting others and half for your own specific time.
References
Quotes
some office contexts, of course, it might be hard to get away with strict rules of this type. (“What do you mean you don’t take meetings before noon? That’s when I’m available!”) A subtler alternative is to instead implement a “one for you, one for me” strategy. Every time you add a meeting to your calendar for a given day, find an equal amount of time that day to protect. If I schedule thirty minutes for a call on Tuesday, I’ll also find another thirty minutes that day to block off on my calendar as protected for myself. As a given day starts to fill up with appointments, it also fills up with protected blocks, making it increasingly harder to add something new. No day can end up with more than half of its time dedicated to meetings or calls. At the same time, however, this approach is more flexible than simply declaring certain hours to be always off limits. As a result, you won’t seem so obviously intransigent to your colleagues.