3 Steps to Take Control of Your Calendar in 2025

This last year wasn’t what you’d hoped.

You know you were busy all year long, but in reflection it’s hard to see what was actually accomplished.

Opening your calendar, you see countless meetings. You remember responding to thousands of emails, direct messages, and texts.

You remember the stress and overwhelm from so much to do, but none-the-less you’re not sure what you actually got done.

The new year slaps you in the face, an intense wake-up call that time is actually passing, and life is slipping away from you. 

You want this new year to be different, but you know if you don’t make changes, then nothing will change in your experience of time.

How do I know? This was my lived experience FOR YEARS. I missed out on years of personal freedom, career growth, and contribution to the things I cared about, because I didn’t have control of my calendar.

But it doesn't have to be this way for you. 

How to Take Control of Your Calendar

I want this next year to be different for you. If we were sitting down over a cup of coffee, here are the three things I’d recommend to you to take control of your calendar in 2025:

Step #1 :: Take 100% Responsibility for What’s On Your Calendar

Here's the harsh truth: however you feel about this last year's results, it's 100% on you. Every calendar invite you accepted, every phone call you answered, every email or direct message you responded to... all those things took your time, and you allowed each and every one of them to happen. 

It doesn't matter your life situation, if you're reading this you are not an indentured servant. You are choosing every single second, either explicitly or implicitly, what you do with your time.  

Dan Martell in his book "Buy Back Your Time" writes about the risks of constant availability to other people's priorities:

(It's like) having an office in Times Square with a door leading directly to your office. You allow everyone to walk in at any time and hand your a to-do on a post it note... While no (leader) would ever have an open-door policy to the world in the middle of Times Square they do it everyday... they let anyone demand their attention, thus introducing distractions and sucking energy. 

Now you may argue, "You don't understand. My (boss/investor/partner/team) needs me. I can't say no to them!". Even so, if you simply give time to anyone that asks of you, you are choosing to do so, and are also accepting the negative ramifications of diminished focus and results. (If this is you, here's a simple communication framework to help you navigate this situation). 

Once you take 100% responsibility for your calendar, change begins:

• Items aligned to your priorities and values become the first things added to your calendar each week. 
• Meeting invites become requests, not demands. You decide on a per meeting basis if you should accept it or not. 

• Email, phone calls and direct messages become seen for what they are: landmines for your attention. And you'll now schedule time to check them instead of letting them rob your focus all day long.

Now that you're 100% responsible, it's time for you to take some powerful next steps. 

Step #2 :: Add Whirlwind to Deal with Unexpected Items

Up until now, if we perfectly documented a day on your calendar it might have looked something like this: 

Looking at it this way, it's no wonder you feel so busy. You're running from meeting, to email, to phone call to direct messages, and your brain is just trying to keep up. 

Let's focus first on your email, phone calls and direct messages. These all have the same thing in common: they are unexpected diversions from your priorities. 

Now you might argue, "But I know I'm going to get email, phone calls and direct messages." Yes, but you don't know what each is going to request of you. And more importantly, you don't know if they are more important the items that you've already prioritized. Without limiting the amount of time you spend on email, phone calls and direct messages, you'll simply work them all day long when you're not otherwise in meetings, regardless of their alignment to your actual priorities. 

The alternative here is to schedule what the Time Boss Weekly Framework calls "Whirlwind": time to deal with unexpected items that are inevitable, such as email, phone calls and direct messages. 

So instead of the calendar above, your new calendar might look like this:  

You can put Whirlwind time anywhere you want, you simply want to plan for 20% to 40% of your day as Whirlwind. The more control of your time you have, the less Whirlwind you need. When you're getting started, I'd suggest starting with 40%, then work to decrease the amount of time by dealing with the root cause of whatever is using up your Whirlwind time. 

Notice that you're spending significantly less time on email, phone calls and direct messages. This is intentional. By limiting the time you're giving to these items, it forces you to be more judicious on what you respond to. The filter becomes "Does this advance my priorities or values?". If so, do it in Whirlwind. If not, ignore it. 

You'll also notice that you've freed up quite a bit of time in your calendar. Let's take advantage of that time with our next step. 

Step #3 :: Separate Out Focus Time for Priorities & Meeting Availability

Up until now, you might have had 30 minutes free in your day and thought "I'm going to actually work on my big priorities", only to find 30 minutes passed and little progress made. This is to be expected.

As Cal Newport wrote in "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World":

To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction.

In the previous step you separated out your Whirlwind time, giving unexpected items like email, phone calls and direct messages a home. The added benefit of this is it allows you to focus on a single task of your choice with your free time. 

The challenge is that you still have meetings popping up all over your calendar, making it hard to find "extended periods with full concentration". Until you create these extended periods on your calendar, you will not experience the personal freedom, career growth, or contribution that you know is missing from your life.  Let's solve that by separating out focus time for priorities and your meeting availability. 

So instead of the calendar above, your new calendar might look something like this:

What goes in "Focus Time for Priorities"? Whatever advances your priorities or values. 

This has a few important implications for you to consider:

1. You should decide where to put "Focus Time for Priorities" blocks based on your energy levels, mapping your focus time to your highest energy levels. This allows you to bring your best self to your priorities, maximizing your impact. 
2. To protect your calendar, you need to add "Whirlwind" and "Focus Time for Priorities" as calendar events and mark yourself "Busy". Anyone looking for time with you will naturally book into your the free time on your calendar (2pm to 4:30pm in the example above). 
3. You can always move this schedule around on a case by case basis. Your boss/partner/teammate needs to meet with you at 8:30am for 30 minutes? No problem, simply extend your afternoon "Focus Time for Priorities" by 30 minutes, which will decrease your "Meetings" window by 30 minutes. 
4. Similar to how scheduling Whirlwind will limit the amount of time you spend on email, phone calls and direct messages, limiting your "Meetings" availability will limit the amount of meetings you are in. It becomes critical that you evaluate each meeting and decide if it's worth your time or not. Can you simply get a recap after the meeting? Can you defer the meeting to later in your calendar when you have availability? Can you empower those in the meeting to make a decision without you? Do you simply need to say "I'm so sorry. I'm not able to support on this as I have higher priority items I have to make happen." Remember, you're 100% responsible for your calendar. Only allow meetings on to your calendar that align to your priorities or values. 

This is the Year You Take Control of Your Calendar

I believe you have what it takes to take control of your calendar to get the life you want: life-giving personal freedom, career growth like you’ve never experienced, and contribution to the things you care deeply about.

Taking control of your calendar is simple in nature, but hard in practice, and Time Boss is here to help. Stay connected to the blog, subscribe to the newsletter, grab a free Time Boss resource, or even jump in a “Master Your Week” course (offered quarterly).

Not sure where to start? Schedule a 25 minute meeting with a Time Boss coach. At a minimum, we’ll look at your calendar with you and see how we can get a quick win. What do you have to lose?