People & Leadership
Your calendar is a record of your priorities, whether you meant it or not
Founders often start the week with a plan and finish it having answered other people's urgent requests. The days fill up with calls, small fires and decisions nobody else could make, while planning, hiring and thinking get pushed back. This session is about the calendar itself: seeing where the hours go, building a week that fits a founder's life, and deciding in advance what gets time and what does not.
Explore this page6 sections
If you do not decide how your time is used, other people will.
A founder's week is shaped by customers, staff, suppliers, family and the owner's own sense of duty. All of these demands are real. A plan that ignores them fails by Tuesday, and a founder who follows them without a plan has no time left for the work that grows the business.
Time management for founders is less about perfect scheduling than about making a few deliberate choices and returning to them when the week goes off course.
Planning a founder's week
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven steps, from seeing your time to protecting it. 6 apply to almost any business; the rest only in a particular case.
See Where Time Actually GoesDo not guess. Record.5
- Note what you do in half-hour blocks for three typical days
- Group the entries: customers, team, money, planning, travel, interruptions, personal
- Count how much of the time was planned and how much was reactive
- Notice the surprises, and the work that never made it onto the list
- Compare with how you would like to spend the week
Decide What Comes FirstA simple test for the long list.5
- Which tasks affect customers, cash or the team's ability to work this week?
- Which tasks only you can do?
- Which tasks have a real deadline, and which only feel urgent?
- Which can be done later, by someone else, or not at all?
- Choose the top three for each day, and write them down
A Realistic Weekly TemplateA pattern, not a straitjacket.5
- Blocks for customers and sales, set at consistent times
- A block for one-to-ones and team check-ins
- A block for money: invoices, collections, payments and numbers
- A block for planning and thinking, however short
- Buffer time for the unexpected, and an end to the working day
Protecting Time That MattersImportant work needs a booked slot.5
- Putting thinking, hiring and planning in the calendar as meetings with yourself
- Choosing a time and place where interruptions are less likely
- Telling the team when you are not to be disturbed, and what is an emergency
- Keeping at least some of these blocks when the week gets difficult
- Reviewing whether the blocks are actually being used
Saying No, or Not NowPolite, clear and kind.5
- 'I cannot do that this week. I can do it on Thursday.'
- 'I am not the right person for this. Ask this colleague, who knows it better.'
- 'Let me think about it and come back to you by tomorrow.'
- Declining meetings with no purpose or no role for you
- Offering an alternative where you can, such as a shorter call or a message
Travel, Family and Real LifeA plan has to fit the life it is part of.5
- Marking family commitments, travel and festivals in the same calendar
- Planning around known busy periods in your business
- Making travel time useful or at least restful
- Setting a realistic end to the day and keeping to it most days
- Agreeing expectations with the people at home
When the Week Falls ApartIf it appliesIt will, so have a plan.5
- Stop and pick the three things that matter most
- Move everything else, and tell people honestly
- Ask someone for specific help
- Protect sleep and meals, because decisions get worse without them
- Review at the end of the week what caused it, and what to change
Try this week
- Record your time for three days in half-hour blocks
- Mark which entries were planned and which were reactive
- Book two protected blocks next week, one for planning and one for people
- Write your top three tasks at the start of each day
Questions for a weekly look at the calendar
- Where did most of my time go this week?
- Which meeting or call could I have skipped or shortened?
- Did I keep my protected blocks? If not, why?
- What did I put off, and does it need to be done?
- What is the one change I will make next week?
How the session runs
A practitioner or owner with a working routine leads the session. Participants bring their own calendars, with details hidden if they wish, and review them against the seven steps. They leave with a draft weekly template and one change to try. The session is not about doing more in less time. If hours and pressure are affecting health, speak to a doctor or a qualified professional.
What your students leave with
- A three-day record of where their time actually goes
- A realistic weekly template with space for planned and unplanned work
- A simple way to decide what comes first when everything feels urgent
- Protected blocks for thinking, people and customers
- A set of polite ways to say no or not now
- A short plan for the weeks when everything goes wrong
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Plan the week you can actually keep, then keep it.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.