How to Leave Your Schedule Unblocked

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As an adult, I did exactly what you said, JF. I just filled it wall to wall and I was constantly feeling a sense of time scarcity. And that does not mean that we're not getting work done. It's actually so that we have these big blocks of unscheduled time where we can flow with it. The mindset shift is that it's okay to leave my schedule unblocked.

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Question - when it comes to work, do you really care about being more productive, or is the real goal to get all the important stuff done, but in a way that actually gives you back more free time to do the things, in both work and life, that you’re genuinely passionate about and excited to do? Because, they’re not the same.

Sometimes, we talk about productivity as if it’s the end-goal. It’s not. The real goal is what it gives us. Which begs a question, are all those productivity methods, tools, strategies actually working for you? Are they giving you back your life? And the free time to choose what matters most, even if it’s just taking a nap or playing, and spend more time doing just that?

This is where we’re heading in today’s provocative hot take with SPARKED Braintrust regular, Jenny Blake. These Hot Take episodes are where we look at hot topics in conversation with expert guides from the SPARKED Braintrust.

In today’s Hot Take episode, Jonathan & Jenny discuss:

The benefit of scheduling a ‘do not schedule’ time block on your calendar
Asking what can you batch, delegate or automate?
The power of A-synchronous communication tools
How a rolling agenda can save you time and bring less friction to a meeting
Why we need to run our own experiments on when and what works best for us
Why we shouldn’t underestimate how helpful systems & processes can be ie. Canned or Guided Responses in your email for repeating conversations

And, today, we’re going on a myth-busting journey, taking a bit of an ax to old school ideas of productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and sharing powerful insights and practical tools from her body of work designed not just to help you be more productive, but to literally create a volume of free time you never knew was possible.

Jenny also reminds us that ‘Free Time’ is not about floating through life as if on perpetual vacation. Free Time is about optionality: the ability to choose when you work, with whom, and on the projects that most excite you—on the work that you and only you can do. It is about moving from friction to flow through the power of focus and smart systems.

SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Jenny Blake | Website

Jenny is a podcaster, career and business strategist, and an award-winning author of three books: Life After College, the groundbreaking Pivot for navigating what’s next, and her recently published Free Time for optimizing what’s now.

IN CONVERSATION WITH: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

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