Creating Space: Five Gaps to Protect in Your Diary

Why We Need Space in Our Diaries

There was a Friday a while ago when I knew I was in trouble.

I was struggling, tired, and feeling depleted. Looking ahead, I knew I had very little time to recuperate, and the following week was not going to be easy.

What had I done?

I had forgotten to create enough space in my diary.

I had a two-week period when I was out of the office almost every other day, including several back-to-back days. There were earlier starts, late finishes, travel, commitments in the evenings and the usual work that still needed to be dealt with.

There was nothing in my diary that I had not been looking forward to. The problem was the cumulative effect.

There was limited capacity to catch up on the things I needed to do, which naturally played on my mind. I also had little opportunity to catch up on rest or sleep. And when we have a lot on, or very much want to sleep, it can be harder to calm our minds enough to do so.

By the end of the first seven days, which included weekend travel and commitments, I could feel the effect physically and emotionally. I still had another seven similar days ahead.

Does any of this sound familiar?

There are times when we genuinely have little control over our diaries. Work commitments may be unavoidable, or there may be important family or social occasions that we do not want to miss.

But we can also create the problem ourselves. (I have written a separate article about why creating space can be so difficult when your working day is already full.)

We forget to look far enough ahead when planning. We agree to something without pausing to consider what else is already in the diary. We focus on whether we want to do the individual activity rather than considering the cumulative effect of everything we have already committed to.

Before long, the diary becomes too full.

We become depleted, tired and less productive, while still facing a full diary ahead of us, both at work and at home.

I learned a long time ago how important it is to leave space in my diary. I still need reminding from time to time.

Five Gaps to Protect in Your Diary

Here is your reminder, to ensure that you leave space in your diary, and five ways that you can plan for it:

1. Between meetings

Leaving space between meetings gives you time to deal with any important, time-sensitive actions while the discussion is still fresh in your mind.

It also gives you time to process what was said and to prepare for what comes next.

A difficult or frustrating meeting can affect your concentration and mood. Without a pause, it is easy to carry that into the next conversation.

There are also the practical things, getting a drink, eating something, having a comfort break, making a phone call or simply taking a few minutes to stretch or walk, before moving on.

Back-to-back meetings may look efficient in your diary. They are not always effective for you.

2. At the start and end of each day

Allow some time at the start of the day to look ahead and decide what matters most.

You might identify your three most important tasks for the day, rather than simply working through whatever arrives first.

It is also useful to have some time at the end of the day to clear your desk, capture anything you need to remember and look ahead to tomorrow. Knowing what tomorrow involves can help reduce rumination once you are at home.

And, whenever possible, leave some capacity for the things you could not have planned for. You can always use the time for something else if needed.

We know that most working days involve unexpected calls, requests, conversations, emails or problems that need attention. The content may be unexpected, but the fact that something unexpected will happen is not.

If every minute of the day is already allocated, there is nowhere for those demands to go.

3. Each week and month

We also need space to step back from the immediate demands of work.

Set aside time each week to look at your priorities and what needs to happen next. Then, at a slightly higher level, use time each month to consider the bigger picture.

For law firm owners and partners, this can easily be displaced by client work, emails, meetings, supervision and the many other demands that compete for attention.

Without protected time to step back, it is easy to spend the week responding to what is urgent rather than making progress on what is important.

The same applies outside work. We can benefit from looking ahead at our commitments and considering whether the overall balance is realistic. I have both business and life planners to help me focus month to month.

4. Between demanding days

If you are out of the office more than usual, travelling, attending training, networking, working at another office or spending a day in lengthy meetings. Think about what you need before and afterwards, including whether you may need a later start, fewer client meetings, or fewer other commitments.

Returning immediately to a full day of client work and meetings may leave you exhausted, with no opportunity to catch up, or deal proactively with what needs to happen next.

Different activities have different effects on our mental and physical energy. A day that looks manageable in your diary, may be much more demanding than a normal working day.

You may also need time after training, a workshop or an important meeting to digest what you have heard, decide what you want to do with it, and put any actions into place.

Otherwise, good intentions can quickly get lost amongst everything else that needs attention.

5. In your evenings and weekends

The same principle applies outside work.

When you add something to an evening or weekend, look at what is already in the week and the weekends before and after, rather than considering each commitment in isolation.

You may want to keep some evenings or weekends free of plans.

That does not mean you have to stay at home or do nothing. It gives you a choice.

If you wake up on a Saturday and want to visit someone, go to an event or do something with the family, you can decide to do it because you want to, rather than because every weekend has already been filled.

It also gives you time to catch up, rest, spend time with family in a different way, or simply do very little if that is what you need.

What else might need to change?

Creating space is not only about leaving gaps in the diary.

It is also worth looking at what you are putting into it.

How much do you actually need or want to have in your diary? Do some commitments feel heavy? Are there people or activities that consistently drain you? Are you continuing with something because you have always done it, even though it no longer works for you?

Where you have some control, you may be able to say no, delegate something to someone else, change how you do it or stop doing it altogether.

At work, ask yourself whether someone else could deal with it. At home, could someone else take responsibility for it? Could you outsource it? Could you change the way you organise your week?

Sometimes creating space means putting less into the diary, or being more selective, rather than becoming better at fitting more into it.

Keep an eye on your diary as a whole

We cannot always control how much is demanded of us.

But we can become better at noticing when we have taken on too much and at protecting enough capacity to deal with it.

Before saying yes to something new, it helps look at your diary as a whole over an extended period, rather than just the individual commitment.

Ask yourself:

What space will this leave me?

You may decide that you still want to say yes. That is fine.

The point is to make the decision with the full picture in mind, rather than discovering afterwards that there was nowhere left for rest, preparation, catch-up or the unexpected.

If you find it difficult to decide when to say yes, no or not yet, a Traffic Lights approach can help you make that decision more deliberately.

Protecting space in your diary is not about doing less for the sake of it.

It is about having enough capacity to do what matters well, and to have some choice about how you spend your time.

If you are a law firm owner, partner or sole practitioner struggling with too many competing demands and interruptions, find out more about my coaching for partner programmes.