How would you spend your time when work meetings are no longer on your calendar?
A 3-Stage Journey to Building a Calendar that works for you
When you are working for a job, 80% of your time is ‘automatically’ allocated BY or FOR other people.
Even if you have spare time, you can easily fill the time with never-ending work projects and personal commitments.
When you don’t have a job, you are free, and you have all the time in the world.
At first, you feel fantastic, but after a few months, you may feel strange, unproductive, or even guilty of wasting time.
When an Empty Calendar Becomes a Problem
As a leader, your job is pretty much like a Formula One driver.
You were trained and got so used to being highly focused, navigating the car through difficult turns at high speed and aiming to win awards in every race season.
You spent most of your time on training and racing.
Your brain is trained to make business decisions in a split second. When you somehow have to stop racing, it’s normal to feel unsettled.
When you worked for a company, other people planned your time: when to go to work, join a meeting, or attend a conference.
That situation changes once you don't have a job.
Imagine you were a F1 driver. Someone had designed the track. Your job is to follow it.
Now, you stopped racing. You became both an everyday driver and a track designer who needs time to think and learn about what s/he wants to design next.
A 3-Stage Journey to Making Time Well Spent
In the past few years, I have been on a messy journey from feeling lost to finding a more grounded way to spend my time after leaving the corporate world. Here are the 3 stages that propelled me forward:
Start with an Anchor
I took a few career breaks due to a mix of personal choice and circumstances.
Beyond travelling, I joined a startup incubation program, a public speaking workshop, and a group coaching program.
By joining these programs, I filled my calendar with some meaningful activities. So I did not feel too empty or waste time without a job.
Instead, I feel happy about investing my time in my personal development, upgrading skills, and contributing to a bigger goal.
All of them taught me that joining a new program allowed me to maintain a sense of structure during the transition.
At the same time, I learnt something that I was interested in (which I didn't have time for before).
Experiment to Learn
Having an anchor left less room for self-doubt to creep in. This enabled me to focus more on reflecting deeply on what I want to pursue in the long run.
I was unsure of my next steps. So I allocated time for discovery.
Every week, I spent hours journaling, meditating, and talking with inspiring people.
I also spent time learning new insights from books, videos, podcasts, and a wide variety of online courses.
That was a research phase to gain a deeper understanding of my truths and greater clarity of my goals.
Through trial and error, I gradually learnt how to filter what’s relevant and where to allocate more time accordingly.
That helped me shape the paths that I wanted to focus on.
Structure with Flexibility
After I identified a clear goal, like writing this newsletter, I would allocate dedicated time to make it happen.
In parallel, I kept time for the anchor program and continuous self-discovery.
My calendar gradually became more structured:
Tuesday and Wednesday became blog writing and publishing days.
Thursday and Friday were reserved for other content creation like videos.
Monday is for learning and personal administration.
Saturday is for socializing
Sunday is for nature walks and weekly planning.
This is a structure, but it’s not fixed. Sometimes I would change some of the themes on different days depending on what the latest priorities.
But in general, I now have a solid schedule that brings me meaning and joy.
This was my journey.
Investing your time in yourself
Your journey could look completely different from mine depending on your desires and priorities.
You may want to master your surfing skills, equip your AI knowledge, advance your investment strategy, or improve your health and relationships.
By consistently dedicating your time to what matters to you and diving deeper for a year or more, your life will become more meaningful than you ever imagined.
Your time will never be wasted when spending on activities that expand your inner and outer worlds.
If your calendar is empty, congratulations! You have the opportunity to build a schedule for yourself and not for someone else.
If your calendar is full, is there anything you would like to change for yourself now? So that you can prepare in advance before your calendar is empty.
Hope this article inspires you. If it does, do share with others because
~ WE RISE BY LIFTING OTHERS ~
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