When I got made redundant from Amazon after nearly a decade, the first thing that hit me wasn’t panic. It was quiet. For years my calendar had been solid blocks of back-to-back meetings — program reviews, team huddles, one-to-ones, engagement sessions. Suddenly all of that was gone, and in the space it left behind, I…
For most of my working life, my calendar wasn’t mine. At Amazon, meetings landed on it from people in different time zones before I’d even opened my laptop. Teaching English in Japan, the school set my hours and I built my life around them. I got used to my best hour of the day being…
The simplest, most immediately actionable calendar habit for founders who want to protect their cognitive capacity and do their best work. Here’s a question worth answering honestly: when in your working week do you do your best thinking? For most founders the answer isn’t ‘during work hours.’ It’s in the shower. On a run. During…
A poorly designed calendar doesn’t just waste time — it generates cognitive drain before your most important work has even started. A few weeks ago I introduced the concept of Decision Fatigue — the well-documented cognitive phenomenon where the quality of our decision-making degrades progressively as we make more decisions across the day. Each choice,…
The real focus thief isn’t your notifications. It’s the invisible rule you’re following without realizing it. You sit down to work on something that matters. A proposal, a plan, a piece of content you’ve been putting off. You’re in it. Finally in it. Then a message arrives. It looks quick. You’ll just answer it —…
One operational habit. Ten minutes today. A better Monday guaranteed. What if the most impactful thing you did for your business this week took less than 10 minutes — and happened on a Friday afternoon? It sounds too simple. But the habit I’m about to share has a quiet, compounding effect on how you work…
The real productivity shift isn’t about finding time. It’s about understanding when and how you do your best work. Let me ask you something uncomfortable. If someone gave you three extra hours today — what would you actually do with them? If the honest answer is ‘I’d probably catch up on emails and scroll a…
If your notifications are always on… your focus is always off. Every ping, message, or email creates a tiny decision. Individually, they seem small. But add them up, and your workday turns into a series of reactive interruptions, leaving little room for deep thinking or meaningful work. The Problem Founders and knowledge workers often believe…
