Calendar Audit

Why audit your calendar against your priorities?

Because your calendar is your real strategy; everything else is a slide. Most leaders can name their top three priorities, and most leaders’ weeks go mainly on meetings, messages and fires. Putting last week’s hours next to the priorities shows the gap, and the gap is where to start.

Use Calendar Audit: three priorities, last week’s hours, about three minutes.

What does it look at?

• Your top three priorities, named however you like, and last week’s hours on each.
• Everything else: internal meetings, email and messages, operations and firefighting, customers, investors and partners, and everything else.
• The share you’d want on your priorities, your own target.

What do I get at the end?

The share of last week that went to your priorities, each priority’s share, the biggest mismatch and one change for next week, such as handing over two recurring meetings and booking the freed hours into your top priority before Monday.

How is it worked out?

1. Share on priorities is the hours on your three priorities divided by all the hours you entered.
2. The biggest mismatch is the first that applies: another category took more time than your top priority; a lower priority got more time than a higher one; or your priorities got less than the share you want.
3. The change moves about half the gap from the biggest category into your top priority, with a specific step for that category.

There’s no benchmark in the sum. It’s your own week, made visible.

What should I read or take next?

Read how to do a time audit as a leader. If meetings are the biggest category, Meeting Tax puts a price on them, and what recurring meetings cost explains the sum. Every tool for this stage is on the CXOs page.