A Time Standard
Count the number of meetings, lunches, dinners, dates, etc. you have in a week. Try it for a few weeks and come up with an average and use that as a baseline.
After the baseline, communicate clearly, in writing, how much you want to do per week.
The simpler the better. Each item becomes a catagory.
For example:
- 5 meetings
- 2 coffee requests
- 1 lunch/dinner
As/When people invite you out, mark it and remove one item from that category.
If I got invited to a meeting, I would mark the meeting down and have 4 meetings remaining for the week.
Experiment with the numbers. Once you found a sweet spot (where you have slightly more requests than slots) freeze it, and prioritize. Give the most meaningful items priority.
Use it as standard to mark time, start refusing things that aren’t important.
Communicate this clearly to the people around you.
If you don’t set a standard for your time, no one will.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 