Why this founder swears by going dateless two days a week

“It changed my life,” Mann told Business Insider.

She’s not the first boss to try to wrangle meetings into certain days or times. Asana, the maker of productivity tools, aims to keep Wednesdays free from internal meetings, for example. What seems less common, however, is slipping two days off the calendar, as Mann did.

Now, with all her appointments stacked on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Mann said she gets a lot more done than when calls were sprinkled across her calendar.

“The change of context to go from call to deep work to call just didn’t work,” she said.

Meetings still take place

Mann is not necessarily anti-dating.

“There are good things that come out of it, but psychologically, it didn’t seem as productive,” Mann said.

Her approach isn’t for everyone, she said. Some people who work for her, for example, have to talk to customers – or prospects.

Mann said that with this type of work, it’s possible to access emails between meetings. Additionally, maintaining a flexible schedule is important to clients.

“So a role like that, to go two whole days without meetings, would be completely counterproductive,” she said.

However, Mann said that for another worker who wrote a lot of marketing copy, going long periods without meetings left him in the deep end.

“Something like that is really important for him to focus on,” she said.

Finding Your GSD Day

Meetings can be both a productivity boon and a time waster, depending on how well they are designed and conducted, among other factors. But a break from even the good guys can give a team a collective breather.

Software maker Atlassian touts the benefits of a day off from meetings, calls and even email. For companies that are spread across large geographic areas, Atlassian recommends that what it calls “get sh*t done” days could be Mondays for people in the Asia-Pacific region and Fridays for workers in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. .

This way, there is more time available for colleagues across continents to collaborate.

Giving up dating can help

Dating started during the pandemic as more of us worked remotely and “checking in” became a bigger part of our days. In the years since virtual happy hours have been a thing, dating time has started to recede. However, gatherings can clog our calendars.

That’s why periodic pruning is wise. Matt Martin, CEO and co-founder of calendar management company Clockwise, previously told BI that meeting time tends to increase as the year progresses.

That’s because some companies train workers at the beginning of a year to audit their meetings and eliminate unnecessary ones. But when they inevitably grow again, meetings can be a big waste of workers’ time.

“You have this really valuable central resource, but no one is collectively responsible for it,” Martin said. “So it just gets exhausted and trampled.”

Self-Made Millennial’s Mann understands the value of her time. So she prioritizes keeping the wide open spaces on her calendar on Tuesdays and Fridays.

“That really increased my productivity,” Mann said.