Don't schedule meetings the day before breaks

Avoid last minute cancelations with this smart calendar strategy

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work, where location and hours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to not
schedule meetings the day before breaks. Yes, everyone is trying

(00:29):
to check their boxes before taking a few days off,
but these meetings tend to be more of a scheduling
headache than they are worth, and it's best to acknowledge
this reality. Ideally, everyone would be mindful about their schedules.
When people scheduled meetings or accepted meeting requests, it would

(00:49):
be because they truly intended to go and had examined
everything on their plates and knew the meeting could still happen.
This would be true on the day before holiday breaks,
and true on every day. Then there is real life.
People make plans and then run out of time or

(01:10):
realize that something huge has to happen right before a holiday,
and a scheduled call will keep them from meeting a deadline.
Someone sends a frantic email, we need to reschedule this.
People who are really good with their time can find
this frustrating. Unlike illnesses or accidents. Holidays are not a surprise.

(01:33):
They have been sitting there on our calendars for a
long time. Indeed, you could look up the dates for
holidays many years into the future if you would like to.
But none of us is perfect, and any of us
can bite off more than we can chew. That Wednesday
before Thanksgiving or the Wednesday right before Christmas Eve seemed

(01:54):
like it would be a great time for that nice
but not urgent call. Then the Wednesday is upon us.
The list of two doos is long and well, canceling
seems like the only option. Here's another option. Do not
set meetings or accept meeting requests for the day before
any holiday break. Since a huge proportion of meetings the

(02:17):
day before a holiday will get canceled, refusing to schedule
them is just acknowledging reality. People can either schedule the
event well ahead of the holiday break, or they can
schedule the event after, since a canceled event will have
to be rescheduled after the holiday. Anyway, no one is

(02:38):
actually going to be worse off if you help save
them from themselves, and not scheduling meetings that will then
be canceled allows you to create a more accurate picture
of your time. You know you will be able to
work on a project at ten am. There isn't a
meeting sitting there that will get canceled at nine thirty am,

(02:58):
or even worse that you dial into only to have
the other person flake because so sorry, got swamped with
the holiday. Yes, that holiday that was there on the calendar.
As long as the calendar has been set, just avoid
the problem by holding the line. You'll be thanking yourself
when you can get your work done on time and

(03:18):
enjoy your holiday. You can then focus on the meetings
that are scheduled afterwards, which is a perfectly fine time
for them to happen in the meantime. This is Laura,
thanks for listening, and here's the succeeding in the New
Corner Office. The New Corner Office is a production of

(03:42):
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