Your Calendar Needs a Detox (Here’s How)

This post is the practical snapshot of a much richer conversation from this week’s Confessions of a Facilitation Artist podcast. If you want the stories, nuance, and “oh my gosh, that’s me” moments, listen to the episode first, then come back here to put the ideas into action.And if this hits home, my upcoming micro‑course, Deep Work Days, walks you step‑by‑step through this work with templates, scripts, and more detailed guidance.Why Your Calendar Needs a CleanseBefore I started doing what I now call a calendar cleanse, my days were wall‑to‑wall meetings and my evenings felt like a second shift: dinner, homework, kid activities, and the emotional labor of everyone’s big feelings. It was a lot.I wasn’t just tired—I felt scattered, behind, and guilty that I wasn’t fully present anywhere. That was my signal that something had to change inside my workday, not just outside of it.What a Calendar Cleanse Actually IsA calendar cleanse is my simple practice of stripping my work calendar down and then rebuilding it with intention so I can create real, predictable deep work time during the week.Instead of assuming I have no control, I pause, step back, and consciously decide:* What truly has to stay* What can move* What can disappear entirelyI go into much more detail (including specific scripts and examples) in the podcast and in Deep Work Days, but here’s the short version.The Core MovesWhen I run a calendar cleanse, I:* Focus on recurring meetings - Those are the real time thieves, not the one‑offs. I note which are one‑on‑one, which are big group meetings, and how much agency I actually have over them.* Identify anchors vs. negotiables - Anchors are the meetings I genuinely cannot move; they become the “icebergs” I work around. Everything else is negotiable: one‑on‑ones, recurring check‑ins, and any meeting without a clear purpose.* Temporarily take recurring meetings off my calendar - I tell people I’m reassessing my calendar to create more focus time for our priorities, remove recurring meetings, and then re‑add what’s still needed at times that work better.* Restack meetings around deep work - I cluster meetings on naturally heavy days (like Mondays or Tuesdays) and deliberately create two or more 60–90 minute blocks for deep, focused work on other days. Those blocks are protected, not “nice‑to‑have if nothing else comes up.In the course, I also share how I factor in energy patterns and exception weeks (e.g. big operations meetings or PI planning), so I’m not overloading myself (or my team) when we’re already maxed out.How This Changed My EveningsPost‑cleanse, my evenings are not magically serene. But they are different in ways that matter. Most nights, we actually sit down and eat together as a family. I have more capacity to be present for homework, learning, and the big feelings that come with being 5 and 10. And a few nights a week, I get to enjoy a game—sometimes chess with my 10‑year‑old, sometimes Chutes and Ladders with my 5‑year‑old—without that buzzing sense that I’m hopelessly behind at work.The cleanse didn’t fix everything, but it gave me back enough margin that evenings feel more like my life and less like spillover from a chaotic day.Want to Go Deeper With This?If you’re curious about how this actually sounds and feels in real life, listen to the podcast episode where I unpack more stories and examples. That’s where you’ll probably recognize yourself.If you want help implementing it, get on the early interest list for Deep Work Days. You’ll be the first to know when it’s live, you’ll get founding‑member pricing, and you’ll get guided support to:* Run your own calendar cleanse* Protect regular deep work blocks* Improve your meetings so they’re actually worth keepingStart small: block one hour, export your calendar, and run your first mini‑cleanse. Then notice what shifts.I can’t wait to here about your results! Get full access to Confessions of a Creative Leader at creativeleaderconfessions.substack.com/subscribe