Something to doWorkload & wellbeing
Audit a week of your calendar
A simple worksheet to see where your week actually goes, and take back time for real work
Why it’s worth your time
Meetings are easy to add and awkward to remove, so most calendars only ever grow. Looking at a whole week at once shows a pattern no single invite does: how little unbroken time is left, and which meetings you attend out of habit. Acting on just two keeps it from becoming a project, and two is often enough to open a real block for focused work.
How to audit your calendar
You’ll come away with two meetings changed, and a named block of focus time in their place.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Pick a typical week.
Last week, or next week if it's representative. Skip the week of an offsite or a launch; you want the ordinary shape.
- Write each meeting under one of four tags.
Keep: it needs you and works. Shorten: it needs you, but not for that long or that often. Make async: the same thing could happen in writing. Drop: you're not needed, or nobody would miss it.
Stays in this browser only. Nobody else sees it.
Tip: Tag for yourself first. Whether you can actually change something comes later.
- Count your longest free stretches.
How many blocks of ninety minutes or more are left for focused work? That number is often the real finding.
- Pick two and act on them.
Choose the two easiest wins, not the two biggest. Decline a meeting you're not needed in, ask for notes instead, or suggest a shorter slot to the organizer.
You“I don't think I need to be in this one every week. Could I get the notes instead, and join when there's something for me?” - Book the time you freed.
Put a block where the meetings were and name it after what it's for. Freed time left blank tends to fill again within a week.
Good moments for this: once a quarterwhen focused work keeps slipping into eveningsafter a new role or a reorg
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensDo it now, and you’ve invested in your career today.
- You know what’s nextTruest suggests the next small thing to try, based on what you’re working on.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Some of the week is meetings you set up or accepted and never revisited. They're the easiest to change, and the ones people are quickest to overlook.
What might make this harder
Show them the week and the longest free stretch left, and ask which meetings they'd most want you in. The picture often makes the case on its own.
Questions people ask
How do I do a calendar audit?
Take a typical week, tag each meeting keep, shorten, make async or drop, and act on two of them. Then book the time you freed for focused work.
How many meetings is too many?
There's no universal number. A more useful test is whether you have enough unbroken time for your most important work. If you don't, something needs to change.
How do I get out of meetings I don't need to attend?
Tell the organizer you don't think you're needed every time, ask for notes instead, and offer to join when there's something for you.
What does it mean to make a meeting async?
To replace it with something people handle in their own time, like a shared document or a written update, so it doesn't need everyone present at once.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Ask most people where their week went and you'll get a feeling rather than an answer. The calendar has the answer, but it's rarely read as a whole; it's read a day at a time, an invite at a time. What's usually missing isn't time in total but time in pieces big enough to think in. A week can hold ten free hours and not one stretch long enough to do real work.
It helps to be honest with yourself before looking for anyone to blame. Some of those meetings are ones you set up or said yes to, and some you stay in out of habit, or because it feels good to be in the room. The meetings other people own call for a lighter touch and usually a short conversation.
Reviewing your standing meetings this way fits the view of organizational psychologist Steven Rogelberg, whose book The Surprising Science of Meetings argues for fixing bad meetings by design rather than getting rid of meetings. Shorten and make async are the tags people tend to underuse. A meeting that could be a shared document is still worth something; it just doesn't need everyone at once.
An audit won't help when meetings aren't the real drain. If your calendar is mostly open and focus still won't come, the cause is more likely interruptions, chat, or simply more work than any week can hold, and that deserves a different look. New in a role? Give it a month or two first, because some meetings that look optional are how you learn how the place works.
Other simple things to consider
More in Workload & wellbeing
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Written by Truest, similar to The Surprising Science of Meetings (Steven G. Rogelberg). Last updated October 2, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.