I was taking a training class this week and was informed that some of the things I do aren’t “common knowledge.” So I’m going to be using the soft skills category in this blog to share some of them. Consider this the first blog post of many.

The advice that started this was a comment I made about blocking out your calendar. If you want to be able to do something, you need to make it a priority. And how do you do that if your calendar tells the world (well your co-workers) – “hey look, Fred is free at this time.”

Personally, I block out time for lunch each day. I also block out “coding blocks” so I have dedicated blocks in which I can focus. Want to do something after work? Block out your calendar starting 5 or 5:30.

Now I know what you are thinking – that won’t work in my job. We have unplanned events, emergencies, high priority meetings. Well, that’s ok. You can make peace with the idea that you won’t keep all of your blocks. Maybe you want to run at 5pm three days a week. Block out 5pm on all five weekdays. That way you can have two unplanned events and rest assured that you will still run three days a week.

One reason this works, is that you regain control of your calendar. If you have it blocked, someone has to ask you (or you have to offer) to free up that time for them. Which ensures it is important enough a reason to do so.

One of my co-workers started calendar blocks at my suggestion. He still has those blocks in his calendar so it must be working for him too! And if it helps us, why not you as well?