Calendar
Conformity
Two Ways to View Time
The Manager’s Schedule
The Schedule of Command
Time is chopped into hourly intervals. A meeting is just a practical matter: find a slot, book it, move on.
Productivity = A Full Grid.
The Maker’s Schedule
The Need for Runway
Time is needed in units of half a day or more. A single meeting can destroy the flow required to write code or prose.
Productivity = An Empty Grid.
Why Conformity Happens
Calendar Conformity is rarely malicious; it is structural. It scales easily. In a large organization, it is operationally cleaner to treat every employee as a standardized unit of time. It mimics the industrial assembly line—if everyone’s gear turns at the same speed (one-hour blocks), the machine feels predictable. We default to the grid because the grid feels safe.
The Benefits (The Trap)
We must acknowledge why the Manager’s Schedule won: it works excellently for coordination. For leaders whose primary output is decision-making, rapid-fire context switching is a superpower. The grid allows for maximum synchronous alignment. It creates a rhythm of “busy-ness” that feels productive and ensures that communication flows constantly across departments.
The Hidden Costs
The cost is invisible but expensive. It is the cost of cognitive switching. When a “Maker” (a writer, developer, strategist) has their day punctuated by a 10:00 AM standup and a 2:00 PM check-in, they do not just lose those 60 minutes. They lose the “runway” required for deep work.
The anticipation of an interruption creates a “shadow” over the work blocks, preventing the Maker from entering the flow state necessary for breakthrough innovation. We are trading depth for coordination.