June 25, 2026

Whose calendar is it?

One of the themes that has emerged in the replies to my recent messages about time blocking shocked me.

It turns out there are people whose calendars would completely fill up with appointments every week if they didn’t block out time for themselves to do other stuff.

So yeah...

In a case like this, it makes sense to me that people would want to use blocks to prevent all their time from getting devoured by an endless stream of (perhaps questionable) appointments.

Buuuuuut...

If this sounds like you, ask yourself:

“Why do so many people have permission to put arbitrary appointments in my calendar?”

I mean... isn’t one of the big benefits of working for yourself that you get to work:

when you want
on what you want
with whom you want
from wherever you want?

It seems to me that handing your calendar over to a horde of clients or customers or members or contractors or (maybe even) employees is a recipe for unhappiness and resentment.

So, I have a question for you:

Q: How many people have permission to insert an appointment into your calendar without checking with you first?

Yours,

—J