9 Tactics To Declutter Your Calendar And Beat Burnout For Good

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I’ve heard the same question 3 times this week, so I have a hunch the universe is conspiring to tell me that should be this week’s playbook.

The question: How do I dig myself out of this avalanche of meetings?

And the more hybrid or remote the team, the more acute this problem seems to be. Which makes sense. How else do you know what your team is up to when they’re scattered around the world and spread across time zones?

But as I dug in with each of these leaders, it quickly became clear that the meetings are the symptom, not the root cause.

Now, I’ve already written about the need for leaders to build the skill of saying No. But what we haven’t talked about is measuring what matters. And anyone who has tracked their own eating habits or workouts knows that we often have a rosy perception of reality. What gets measured gets managed.

And while I firmly believe in the power of metrics and OKRs, I’ve found that the simple measure is often the most powerful.

So if I could only measure one thing for my team, it would be this:

The Good Time Index.

What is The Good Time Index?

It's simple. But in its simplicity lies its power.

There is Good Time:

• That's the craft your people were hired for

• Executed excellently w/o waste

The rest is Bad Time:

• Overhead, administration, and bureaucracy

• Inefficient drag that slows the mission

Here's how to calculate it: