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I looked at my calendar this morning and realized next week is completely empty.
No meetings scheduled. Not a single one.
I felt like I’d just been handed all of next week as a gift.
I used to think I was being productive when my calendar was full. Meetings meant I was important, busy, in demand. That was back when I worked corporate, but the habit followed me when I went out on my own.
For the first year or so of working for myself, I was still scheduling calls and meetings and check-ins like I was still working corporate. Like I needed to be on Zoom to get anything done because that was so true for sixteen years of my career.
Then one week, maybe two years ago, I looked at my calendar and realized I had nine meetings scheduled in four days. Nine. Yuck.
On that day, I made a commitment to start saying no. Or more specifically, I started asking, “Can you send me a Loom instead?” or “Can you just email me about this?”
And most of the time, that’s exactly what people did. Last month, someone wanted to “hop on a call” to discuss a potential collaboration. I asked if they could send a Loom instead. They did. It was seven-and-a-half minutes long, and I watched it on 2x while I made coffee. The whole thing they thought needed 30 minutes of both our calendars took them maybe 10 minutes to record, and took me four minutes to watch. Done.
I’m not saying meetings are never useful. Sometimes I love having one on my calendar when I’m building a new friendship or business relationship. But for me, working alone most of the time? They just break up my day in a way that makes it hard to get anything meaningful done.
So I blocked out Mondays and Fridays completely. And for the rest of the week, I try to keep it to max one meeting per day, nothing longer than 30 minutes.
Most weeks now, I have zero meetings. Sometimes I’ll go two weeks in a row with nothing scheduled.
When I don’t have meetings, I can actually get into flow. That state where writing just happens. Where I’m not context switching every 90 minutes. Where I can sit down and work straight through for three or four hours and actually finish something.
That kind of work gets me further than an entire week of fragmented calendar blocks ever did.
Every meeting I take means stopping whatever I’m doing, switching gears, showing up for 30 minutes, then trying to get back into whatever I was working on. And getting back into it takes another 20 minutes, if it happens at all.
I used to worry that having an empty calendar meant I wasn’t doing enough. That I should be networking or taking calls or staying connected or whatever.
But looking at next week right now? I’m just excited.
Because I know what I’m going to do with that time.
And it’s not going to be on Zoom.
What’s your take on today’s topic? Do you agree, disagree, or is there something I missed?
If you enjoyed this read, the best compliment I could receive would be if you shared it.
Hey Justin, I’m not sure I’m 100% following what you’re saying. Can we hop on a quick call for clarity? Monday or Friday at 5 am EST are good for me. Shouldn’t take more than an hour. Thanks.
Justin, this hits at the core lie of the modern professional world: the equation that Busyness = Importance. It’s a habit learned in the corporate machine, and it’s the hardest one to unlearn.
This is the ultimate application of the EVOLVE pillar (Essenzialismo). It’s not about finding more time; it’s about ruthlessly eliminating the friction that destroys focus. That "nine meetings in four days" realization is the pain point that forces the shift.
But the true gift of the empty calendar isn't just "flow." It’s the constant, uninterrupted presence—the BEING pillar—that you reclaim. When you stop context switching, your mind stops fragmenting. You're not just getting more writing done; you’re living more of your life intentionally.
That intentionality is what makes the deep work (the REALIZE pillar) possible. A full calendar is a full prison. Thank you for this essential truth.