Cleaning your calendar daily keeps the doctor away

Stress may be one of the most widespread core factor in developing health issues. No data for it, not my area, but look around in the developed world’s statistics. Either it will be its own category, or the medical issues listed, many have stress as core component.

One of my tactic to handle stress in competitive environments and industries, beyond my daily walks, is managing my calendar.

Some will advocate on dropping checklists, todo lists. Forget your calendar and just live in the moment. For some that works better. For me an extended mind works best.

A place where I can offload my worries. Have you read the paper a while ago showing that the mind needs to close and forget? They equated the passing of a door to be a flag for the brain to forget. And observed the same process happening when you hit the “Save” button or “send” your email.

I use the RSVP as one of those save buttons. Reject with reason on meetings dropped on me, after I figured out the priorities. Aiming to be a day in advance even in highly fluctuating situations.

Showing resilience, a.k.a. enforcing protection of my time lowers my stress. I know how much I can take on as daily responsibilities. Took years of experience and self-understanding to get to this point. It is usually about transparency and expectations anyway.

While many of my peers have overburdened calendars, overlapping meetings, content work during meetings, mine shows a single column, a singular task at any moment. We are not good multi-taskers, the brain needs time to load in context and while it can lose it in seconds.

And I would come across badly if I don’t pay attention and contribute to a meeting. Why am I even there if I am doing other things? Waste for all of us, if I can’t deliver anything of value.

My morning routine includes a quick glance on the calendar. Replying, rejecting, accepting, adding my blocks of work. Communicating all this on the standup so everyone is aligned why I am not there on something or doing something else. So they can understand the priorities and inject if something else is more important.

I do this for personal commitments too. It is my personality handling scheduling and life. Not exclusive to work. If I learned how to be my best self, why would I limit those techniques to a “small” part of my life?

Clean calendar every day keeps the doctor away.

How do you cope with stress? What worked for you to manage your life?