Workload & wellbeing
Match your meetings to your energy
A simple exercise to put each kind of work in the hours that suit it, people included
Notice for a week when you're sharpest alone and when you're best with people, then move what you can so each kind of work lands in the hours that suit it.
Why this can work
Most people have hours when hard thinking comes easily, hours when conversation flows, and hours when neither does. Calendars usually ignore all three, so meetings land in your best thinking time and the hard work gets your leftovers. Sorting work by the energy it needs, starting with the meetings you control, gets more out of the same day.
How to match your schedule to your energy
You’ll come away with a simple map of your day and one window your team knows to protect.
We’ll send you a calendar invite.
- Notice your energy for a week.
Three times a day, jot one word: sharp, social or flat. Note what you were doing too. Patterns tend to show up within a few days.
Tip: Thinking alone and being good with people often peak at different times. Track them separately.
- Fill in your energy map.
Use the week's notes to answer a few short questions. Rough is fine; you're looking for the shape of your day, not a schedule.
Stays in this browser only. Nobody else sees it.
- Move the meetings you set yourself.
Start with the ones you control: your recurring 1:1s, your syncs, the calls you usually book. Shift them into your people-hours, and leave admin for the low patches.
- Tell your team the one window you'd most like to keep.
Just one, so it's easy to remember and easy to say yes to. Offer flexibility elsewhere in return.
To: your teamA small request about scheduling. I've noticed I do my best focused work your window, so I'm going to try keeping that time free of meetings where I can.
If you need me then, a message is great and I'll get back to you after. Anything that can't wait, how to reach you.
I'm flexible the rest of the day, especially your people-hours, which is when I'm best for conversations anyway.
Swap the highlighted parts for your thing. Works on Slack, in email, or said out loud. - Look again in a few weeks.
Check whether the window is holding and whether the map still matches how you feel. Seasons, projects and new roles all shift it.
Good times to repeat it: once, then whenever your calendar driftswhen you start a new role or teamat the start of a quarter
We’ll send you a calendar invite.
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 happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- How you work, written downWorking With Me turns how you work into a page you can point people to.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
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 people are sharpest at dawn and some at night. Working with your pattern is usually more productive than trying to change it.
What might make this harder
Start with the one window and ask for it plainly. Small, specific requests tend to be granted more often than a reshuffle.
Questions people ask
How do I schedule my day around my energy levels?
Notice for a week when you're sharpest alone, best with people and lowest. Then put solo work, meetings and admin in the hours that suit each, starting with what you control.
What is the maker's schedule versus the manager's schedule?
An idea from a 2009 essay by Paul Graham. Managers work in hour-long slots, while people who make things need long unbroken stretches, so a single meeting can cost them far more than an hour.
When is the best time of day to have meetings?
It depends on the people. Many find mid-morning to early afternoon good for conversation, but the best answer comes from noticing your own pattern and your team's.
How do I protect focus time without upsetting my team?
Keep one window, say plainly what it's for and how to reach you urgently, and offer flexibility the rest of the day.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Calendars treat every hour as the same, and people aren't built that way. For most of us there's a stretch of the day when hard thinking comes easily, another when conversation flows, and a long middle when neither does. What tends to go wrong is that meetings, which are easy to schedule, take the best hours first. The work that needs a clear head gets what's left.
Paul Graham named one version of this in a 2009 essay, Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule. Managers work in hour-long slots, he argued, while people who make things need half days, so a single meeting in the middle of an afternoon can cost a maker the whole afternoon. This exercise takes his idea a step further. It isn't only about protecting solo time. It's about putting collaboration where you're best at it too, because a meeting held in your sharpest hours is often a meeting held at the wrong time for it.
Saying what you need matters as much as the map. Colleagues can't work around a window they don't know exists, and most people are happy to avoid a time once they know it matters. One clearly named window, with an easy way to reach you, is far more likely to survive than a calendar full of quiet blocks nobody understands. Offering flexibility everywhere else makes it an easy thing to grant.
This is the wrong exercise when the real issue is volume. If there's simply more work than hours, rearranging the hours won't change much, and the conversation to have is about priorities. And if your energy has been low across the whole day for weeks, that deserves attention for its own sake rather than a better calendar.
What to do next
Other simple things to consider
More in Workload & wellbeing
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Written by Truest, based on Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule (Paul Graham). Last updated October 2, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.