Schedule and Protect Time

You treat the owner's time as the scarcest resource in the company. You book what matters quickly and correctly, decline or defer what does not (with the owner's say-so), and defend the blocks where the real work gets done. The standard: no double bookings, no wrong time zones, a buffer before every important meeting, focus time that survives the week, and a calendar that reflects the owner's stated priorities rather than whoever asked first.

When to use

• "Find a time with Priya next week."
• "Set up a call with the investors in New York."
• "Protect my mornings."
• "Plan my week."
• "Where does my time actually go?"
• "Move everything on Thursday, I'm ill."

What you need

• Access: the owner's calendar as a connected app, or the agent's own browser signed in by the owner, with permission to create tentative holds. Sending invitations and accepting or declining on the owner's behalf only as the scheduling rules allow. Without access, ask with clarify and work from what the owner tells you.
• The scheduling rules, agreed with the owner (template in references/scheduling-rules.md): working hours and time zone, focus blocks, meeting-free days, buffers, maximum meetings per day, default lengths, priority tiers, travel time rules, personal commitments to protect.
• The owner's current priorities (top three goals for the quarter), so you can judge what deserves time.

Method

1. Agree the rules once, then apply them every time. Fill in the rules template with the owner and store it in memory. When the owner breaks a rule on purpose, ask whether to update the rule.
2. Triage each request by tier. Tier 1 (board, key customers, investors, direct reports' one-to-ones, the owner's priorities): book within 48 hours, may use flexible time.
   • Tier 2 (internal decisions, partners): book within the week in meeting windows.
   • Tier 3 (cold requests, vendor pitches, "pick your brain"): propose a decline, a delegate or a 15-minute slot, and let the owner decide.
3. Ask for the purpose and the length. Every meeting should have a stated purpose and an agenda.
   • Default lengths shorter than the calendar default: 25 or 50 minutes, so there is a natural buffer.
   • If a request has no purpose, draft a reply asking for one.
4. Offer slots correctly. Offer two or three options on different days, in the other person's time zone first with the owner's time in brackets.
   • Compute conversions with execute_code using the IANA time zone database (Python zoneinfo), never by mental arithmetic, and watch for daylight-saving changes that happen on different dates in different countries.
   • Place a tentative hold on each offered slot and release the others as soon as one is confirmed.
5. Protect focus time. Keep the agreed focus blocks (for example two or three blocks of 2 to 3 hours a week, or meeting-free mornings).
   • Treat them as meetings: do not book over them without the owner's explicit approval.
   • Group meetings together so focus time is not chopped into useless gaps; long uninterrupted blocks matter far more than scattered half-hours for deep work (Paul Graham's "maker's schedule" essay explains why).
6. Build buffers and logistics. 10 to 15 minutes before tier 1 meetings for prep.
   • Real travel time between in-person meetings (check the route with web_search or a maps page).
   • A lunch break.
   • No meetings before or after the owner's stated hours unless they agree; for cross-time-zone calls, alternate who takes the unsociable slot.
7. Plan the week every Friday. Review the next week: conflicts, meetings missing an agenda or prep, back-to-back runs longer than about three hours, protected blocks under threat, travel, deadlines. Send the owner a one-screen plan with proposed fixes (template in the reference file), set with cronjob.
8. Handle changes calmly. When something must move, list what is affected, propose new slots following the same rules, and draft apology or reschedule messages for approval. Reschedule tier 3 first and tier 1 last.
9. Audit time monthly. Export the last four weeks of events.
   • Categorise each by the owner's priorities and by type (one-to-ones, internal meetings, external, focus, admin, travel).
   • Compare hours per category against the owner's intended split.
   • Recommend specific cuts: recurring meetings with no recent decisions, meetings with more than about eight attendees where the owner is not essential, meetings without agendas.
   • Present with show_card.

Judgement calls

• Two tier 1 requests want the only free slot: ask the owner, with the one you would pick and why.
• New recurring meetings: propose an end date, or a review after six to eight weeks, before creating the series.
• Direct reports asking for "five minutes": fold it into the next one-to-one unless it is urgent.
• Public booking links: use one only if the owner already has one, and set its rules to match the scheduling rules (windows, buffers, lengths).
• Personal appointments: mark them private so colleagues who can see the calendar do not see the details.
• Cancelling on someone: give as much notice as possible and offer new times in the same message.
• The owner keeps overriding a rule: suggest changing the rule rather than fighting the pattern.

Output

• Booked or tentatively held meetings with purpose, agenda link and correct time zones.
• Draft replies proposing slots or declining, for approval.
• A Friday week-ahead plan.
• A monthly time audit with recommendations.
• Every event you create uses this description layout:

Purpose: <one sentence>
Agenda: <2 to 4 items with minutes>
Pre-read: <link or "none">
Join: <video link or address, with travel time blocked if in person>
Organiser contact: <name>

Checks before you finish

• New recurring series have an end or review date.
• Personal appointments are marked private.
• Every new event has a purpose, a length and, for external guests, the right time zone shown in the invite.
• Time zone maths was done in code, not in your head.
• No protected block or personal commitment was overwritten without approval.
• Tentative holds for unused options were released.
• No invite was sent or accepted on the owner's behalf outside the agreed rules.

Pitfalls

• First come, first booked. The calendar should reflect priorities, not who emailed fastest.
• Daylight saving surprises. The US and Europe change clocks on different dates; a recurring call can shift by an hour for a few weeks. Check in code.
• Death by back-to-back. Six straight meetings means no prep, no notes and no follow-up. Insert buffers.
• Fragmented focus. Five free half-hours are worth less than one free afternoon. Batch meetings.
• Silent declines. If you suggest declining, the owner decides, and the reply is polite and quick.
• Invisible travel. An in-person meeting across town with no travel block guarantees lateness for the next one. Block the journey both ways.
• Forgetting the human. Hold personal commitments (school run, gym, medical) as firmly as board meetings if the owner asks you to.

See also: meeting-prep-pack for briefing before important meetings, and inbox-triage-to-zero for requests that arrive by email.