On most nights before I go to bed, I look at my calendar for the following day. Often I’ll add a few items to the “to do” list, and maybe tenatively organise a brief meeting or two to finalise or start something.
I’m not one for blocking out hour-long meetings and discussions. My view is that if you do your homework, and have a clear agenda, most meetings can be brief, and are sometimes just a formality. Nonetheless, I usually have one or two meetings – usually half an hour, sometimes an hour – scheduled in for most days.
I didn’t do that preparation last night, as I went to bed within minutes of arriving home from the pub.
So you can imagine my surprise as I checked my calendar on the way to work this morning when I discovered I had absolutely no meetings booked in at all. There were a few items on the “to do” list, but no actual meetings.
In contrast to the last few months which have been extraordinarily busy, it was nice to have a clean run. I managed to knock off everything on the “to do” list for today, and even managed to get ahead.