It's Saturday when you're listening to this. And if you're like me, you think a lot about what you're going to spend your time on, on any given Saturday. And if you're like me, that's true for almost every day of the week. I think about Saturday mornings when I wake up and I realize that I have a whole day in front of me. I sit down with a pen and a paper and I write out all of the things that are in my head that I'd like to do today. And then I try to imagine how they would fit into my day. But when you look at your week, when you start thinking about what you should do on any given day of the week, making the right choices. With your time, making the right choices of what to do can be extremely difficult. So in today's episode, I want to talk about schedule carving. The premise is simple. The premise is simple. You know better about what not to do than you know about what to do. Thinking about the negative space. The what not to do. In our lives. Can often be as or usually more instructive. The thinking about what we should do. If I asked you to think about the last 24 hours of your day. I bet you could come up with a list of five things that you did that if you could, in a perfect world, control every impulse that you have. If you could control every single moment of the day. So that you're spending your time only exactly how you wish you would. You would be able to come up with those five things. Probably off the top of your head. And that's just in the last 24 hours. So if you think about what that really means about the insight we gain. From the things that we know we should be saying no to. The things we know we should be saying no to. And this is implicit knowledge. Of the things that we know we should be saying no to. Of the things that we should be saying yes to. But I don't want you to worry about the things that you should be saying yes to. Instead, I want you to carve your schedule. Okay. And this consists of two parts. The first is to look at your time. Look at the decisions you're making. You don't have to look at this just as your time. We do fall back to time. Because it is the most precious resource. We talk about it a lot on this show for that very reason. You and everyone else has the same amount of it. So. What separates you. From someone who is massively more productive or happier or more successful. The main thing that separates you. Is likely. In terms of the things that you can control. The way you spend your time. And so we do talk about time a lot on this show. Carving your schedule. Another way to think about this is. Carving your budget. Carving your. Your decision making. What. We're doing here is we are choosing the things we are not going to engage in. We're going to. Identify. The meetings that we don't. Need to go to. We're going to identify. The kinds of things that we won't participate in. That's the first step in this in this process. What are you not. Going to do. Now how do you do this. There's a number of ways one is by simply. Recognizing what your role is. And how these things are actually going to. Provide value towards your role. Provide value towards your ultimate goals in your career. How they line up. With your personal values as well. Right. So recognizing. Hey this this meeting that I'm about to attend. Doesn't really help me. Achieve anything important. It doesn't really further my goals. And not only does it not further your goals. But it's not even necessary. To. Accomplish your job. And the role. That you are playing. Right. So those are the kinds of things to recognize. Is this essential for that or. Does it meet some other. Goal in my life that's not necessarily directly related to my career. The second way to carve out your schedule. Is to create space. For things that may not exist yet. Create space. For things that may not exist yet. For things that you want. To happen. I'll give you a very simple example. If you are. Let's say a staff level engineer. One of the most critical things you can do. To influence the organization that you're a part of. Is to open up your calendar. Open up. Open up your calendar. And what I mean by this is. To identify a section on your calendar. Your public calendar. That people are going to go and look at. They're going to try to book time with you. And one off. Meetings. Instead. Explicitly identify. A section on your calendar. For. Mentoring or for one on ones. Opening that up for something. Like office hours. And the goal here is to. Do two things. One to carve that time out of your schedule. To say no. I'm not going to do these other things. I'm making space. For something that doesn't exist yet. And number two. You are providing the opportunity. For people who want. People who want. To engage you in that way. So this is. It's kind of a cheat code. I recommend office hours for every engineer. That has anything. Related to a senior level title. In their role. Right. Anything that is. At the higher levels of the engineering organization. That they're a part of. And it's for that very simple reason. Because. If you create that space. If you carve out that space. And people start using it. Then you've just kind of manifested this thing. That you care about doing in your career. And all you had to do. Was put a label on it. So you're carving out space. By explicitly saying. These are the things that I'm not going to engage in. These are the things that I'm not going to do. And you're also carving out space. By saying. This is. This is a spot on my calendar. This is a part of my budget. Think about this kind of like a savings account. Or think about it like automated. You know. An automated transfer of sorts. You're basically saying. I'm systematically investing time. In doing this thing. Or making space to do this thing. That I care about doing. Now recognize that you may not know. Who it is that you're going to provide mentoring to. And you may not even know. If you're going to be mentoring them. On a technical level. Maybe you're going to be just talking about. Their career progress so far. This is certainly relevant for managers. For directors, VPs, CTOs. Wherever you are at that higher level in the org. So if you open up these office hours. Or if you do another thing similar to this. Right? So put some time on your calendar. And what you're trying to do. Is create these categorical. Kind of general directions. That you want to go. Because remember. The whole basis of this idea. Is you may not necessarily know. Exactly how you need to spend your time. You may not know. What's on your yes list. What's on the opposite side of that carving. But you probably do know. First. The things that you absolutely shouldn't be doing. The no list. And second. The categories of things that you would like to do. That you think will further your career. And your efforts. Create those categories. Make space for those categories. In your time. In your calendar. In your budget. In your decision making. Ultimately what you're doing. What you're doing is. You're taking a step back away. From. Usually a lot of dysfunctional behaviors. Or a lot of dysfunctional habits. Dysfunctional ways of spending your time. And instead you're saying. I want to create opportunities. By saying no. To the right things. Or I guess you could say. It's saying no to the wrong things. I'm going to create opportunity. By giving space. By carving out space. This is absolutely critical. To how you manage your time. How you manage your budget. How you manage people. Giving yourself space. Is the only way. To seek opportunities. And you've probably heard it said. A billion times. A billion times. But we'll say it again here. In this context. Saying no. Is a functional requirement. So that you can say yes. Think about this for a second. If you can identify your list of no's. If you begin to. Carve out that space on your calendar. Somebody comes and books time. In your office hours. You have the opportunity. The novel. And exciting opportunity. For the first time. Perhaps. To finally say yes. So I highly recommend. If this resonates with you. If you know exactly the things. That you're currently doing. That you should say no to. I highly recommend you go and do some of these exercises. Maybe do it just for the next day. Decide on that. Another frame that's very similar to this. That might get you started. Is to create your not to do list. Your not to do list. Is the bottom 25 priorities. In your top six. Or 30. Right. The idea is that. There's 25 things on that list. That will distract you from the five most important things. What are those 25 things? Avoid them like the plague. And you give yourself once again. The opportunity. To say yes to the top five things. So schedule carving. Is about creating. Opportunities for yourself. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode of developer T. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. I hope you. Uh, find some kind of enlightenment in this. Topic. Uh, maybe it helps you think about. Uh, uh, you know, scheduling differently. It helps you think about how you spend your time. Uh, and your energy a little bit differently. If you find yourself in that position. Where you're thinking a little bit differently as a result of this podcast. That really is my entire goal for this show is to help people think. Just a little bit differently now to help developers like you. We say it on motion. Find clarity, perspective and purpose in their careers. And finding clarity, finding perspective. Finding purpose. Those will all shift. The way that you think. Just a little bit. And that is what I want to hear about. If you can tell me. Uh, I'd love to hear about it. There's two venues. Uh, to tell me this information. One is, is in reviews, right? In iTunes reviews. Google podcasts. Wherever you're listening. They probably have a review mechanism. And I'd love to hear. Your reviews. There. And then secondly, in the developer T discord community, you can join that for free. It will always be free developer t.com slash discord. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.