“Free” and “Available”

When I worked for a Fortune 10 company, our team had mutual access to each others’ calendars. Naturally people scheduled meetings in open time slots. It makes sense — open spaces on a calendar were viewed as “free” time, and an invitation to schedule something.

Since then I’ve learned to guard my time and create meetings with myself, not only to allow time for my own creative or professional or deep work, but even to plan my social or otherwise “free” time, in an intentional way.

Don’t confuse someone’s free time with their availability.