[2020-11-09] Scheduling white space
This afternoon, I took advantage of another warm day to sit on my deck and read. I chose the little book of pause ... 20 mindful practices for calm & clarity every day, which was a gift from a friend. In the chapter "How to create more time when you feel squeezed," I found a tip that I had followed briefly many years ago but promptly forgot.
The guidance was to shorten meetings by 10 to 15 minutes to create what author Danielle Marchant called "white space" between back-to-back engagements.
I applied this approach some 15 years ago when I took a 7-week assignment as a director general. My assistant for that assignment scheduled meetings for 50 minutes, never an hour. The 10 minutes between meetings were for catching up on emails, returning calls or just going to the bathroom. I thought this was ingenious. But as soon as I left that position and went back to my old job—and, in fact, every job after that—I resumed my habit of allowing meetings to fill each time slot on my calendar, with many meetings starting as soon as the previous one ended.
Many of us live life like this, allowing just the right amount of time for an activity and following it immediately with the next activity. I used to get up at 5:55 a.m., shower and get ready for work, quickly eat breakfast and rush for the bus. I worked on the bus, throughout my day (eating snacks and lunch during meetings) and rushing to catch the last express bus home at the end of the day. I would get home and eat supper on my own because I was always too late to eat with my family (though often Chris would sit with me to keep me company and play a little Jeopardy). Then I would resume work until I couldn't continue any more and would collapse into bed. My only moments of pause were the 10 minutes it took me to walk from the bus stop to my office and back again. These were moments of quiet in an otherwise hectic day, though sometimes I filled even these precious minutes with mentoring calls.
Thankfully, my days are no longer filled with back-to-back commitments. But I found the advice in the little book of pause useful and worth sharing, if only as a reminder to my future self to schedule plenty of white space in my calendar. Marchant's "Pause with white space" exercise has four steps:
- Once a week, look at your calendar for the upcoming four weeks. Block out time for meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. "If this is new for you, or feels strange, just notice that and remember that you do need to eat every day!" writes Marchant. Also, build in time for commuting.
- Look at your business meetings. For any that are back-to-back, reduce the time allocated by 10-15 minutes. "Make it a practice to schedule shorter meetings with white space between—you need time to digest and assimilate before absorbing more information."
- Look at your personal commitments. Ensure that you allow time for travel. If you are double-booked, cancel one of the conflicting engagements. Check that you have allocated time for your priorities, such as exercise or time with family.
- Look at your weekends. Leave white space for doing nothing. "This is important—creating white space is about being as devoted to yourself and your needs as you are to others, because being devoted to others truly works only when you have been devoted to yourself."
In my most recent role, as Assistant Deputy Minister, my executive assistant tried very hard to reserve time in my schedule outside of meetings, so that I could approve communications materials, meet with staff from my office or just warm up my lunch. Commitments showed as gray in my calendar, so when I had back-to-back meetings all day, I called them "gray days."
My commitments these days are walking, blogging, doctor's appointments, blood tests and chemotherapy treatments, plus pyjama days to recuperate. Regardless, it's worthwhile remembering that every schedule should include some white space.
