The Great Calendar Cleanse: Detox Your Schedule for More Free Time

Ever look at your calendar and feel personally attacked by it? Like, how did Tuesday turn into a scavenger hunt of overlapping Zoom meetings, dentist appointments, “quick chats” (that are never quick), and 43 color-coded blocks that all scream “urgent”? If your calendar is starting to resemble a losing game of Minesweeper, it might be time for The Great Calendar Cleanse.

This isn’t just about having fewer things on your schedule—it’s about reclaiming your time, energy, and the glorious blank spaces on your calendar that are just as important as the filled ones. Let’s Marie Kondo that time grid and build a schedule that sparks (actual) joy.

First, Look at What’s On Your Plate (Yes, All of It)

Before you can declutter your time, you need to dump every single commitment, task, and recurring calendar invite into one giant messy pile. Just like you would with socks during a closet cleanse—except this time the mismatched pairs are overlapping meetings and that weekly sync no one actually needs.

• Open your digital calendar (Google, Outlook, whatever floats your productivity boat)
• Look at the last 3 to 4 weeks
• Write down or spreadsheet all the recurring events, one-offs, and time-blocks

Pro tip: If your eye twitches while you do this, you’re on the right track.

Now, ask a bold question: Do I even like any of these things? It sounds dramatic, but too often we treat our calendar like a storage locker—we keep adding more and never take anything out.

Sort Commitments Like You’re Playing Tetris

We’re going to sort everything you do into 3 piles:

1. Keep – Stuff that genuinely matters (your job, health appointments, awkward team karaoke if you’re into that)
2. Question – Meetings marked “touch base,” “standup,” or “quick chat” (aka productivity wormholes)
3. Ditch – Things that make you say “Why was I even doing this?”

Here’s a tip: anything that happens purely out of habit but adds little value? That’s prime ditch material.

Design Your Blank Space (It’s Sacred)

Let’s flip the calendar game. Instead of filling blank space, we’re protecting it. Think of free time as oxygen for your brain—it’s what lets you recharge, think clearly, and not scream-cry into your microwave while reheating lunch.

Start blocking off:

• White Space Buffers → 15-30 minutes before/after big tasks or meetings
• Lunch You Actually Eat → not while staring into Slack void
• Thinking Time → real, honest-to-goodness “just think” time
• Creative or Play Time → sketching, journaling, staring at clouds… yes, it counts

Without guilt. You are not lazy. You’re optimizing.

The Joy of Saying “No” (Without Becoming a Monster)

Saying “no” doesn’t make you selfish. It makes you strategic.

If you’re someone who says “yes” by reflex, let me introduce you to my favorite power move: the gentle opt-out.

When someone asks for your time, try:

• “My schedule is a bit full this week—can we touch base next week?”
• “That sounds great, but I don’t have capacity right now. Can you send me a quick note instead?”
• “Actually, can we move this to async? I’m limiting meetings this week.”

Dealing with Repeat Offenders (Let’s Talk About Meetings)

Ah, meetings. The land of “This could’ve been an email.” While some are helpful and necessary, others cling to your calendar like glitter on birthday cards. Here’s how to detox:

1. Challenge Recurrence: Those weekly standups? Cancel one and see if chaos erupts. (It won’t.)
2. Define the Purpose: No agenda = no meeting.
3. Suggest Alternatives: Loom video, Slack thread, shared doc.

Also, here’s a productivity trick I swear by: If you go into a meeting and 10 minutes in it’s going nowhere, ask “What’s the goal of this conversation?” You’ll either save 30 minutes… or summon uncomfortable eye contact.

Streamline with Themes: The Calendar Hack That Saved My Brain

Context switching is a productivity vampire. Try assigning themes to your workdays to keep your brain swimming in the same pool instead of jumping between tea, tequila, and salt water.

Examples:

• Monday → Admin & Planning
• Tuesday & Wednesday → Deep Work
• Thursday → Meetings/Team stuff
• Friday → Creative tasks & wrap-up

Not only will this help you batch similar tasks, it’ll actually make you feel done at the end of the day. (Look at you, not dragging a million tabs into the evening!)

You can pair this trick with tips from Calendar Cramming: Why Your Time-Blocking Keeps Exploding (And What to Do About It). It’ll show you how to make your scheduling strategy actually stick.

Give Yourself Permission to Do Nothing (Seriously)

One of the sneakiest wins of a calendar cleanse? Rediscovering real downtime and resisting the urge to schedule rest. Newsflash: You don’t need to earn your free time. You’re already worthy of an evening of Netflix, a walk without headphones, or—brace yourself—just sitting.

Want to actually enjoy that space? Try:

• Setting an end-of-work ritual (shut the laptop, light a candle, stretch like a stressed cat).
• Scheduling breaks before you feel yourself spiraling
• Letting go of the productivity guilt cycle (You’re a human. Not a Google Doc.)

You train people how to treat your time by how you treat it yourself.

Max Bennett

Wrapping Things Up (But Not Your Calendar)

Turns out, your time isn’t a junk drawer—so why are we treating it like one?

By doing a calendar cleanse, you’re not just deleting things. You’re making space for focus, spontaneity, rest, and laughing at memes without checking your watch. It’s not about doing nothing—it’s about doing the right things, with actual breathing room in between.

Need help staying on track? Grab your favorite snacks and reboot your schedule one block at a time.

No calendar shame here—just a little time-cleansing magic. ✨