If your calendar's full, you're using it properly

• Your calendar is sacred
• For you, appointments are a part of your daily hardscape
• When your Blackberry buzzes, you check the location and head to the meeting
• Your boss loves you, because you’re “always on top of things”
• Your boss couldn’t care less about your calendar

Doesn’t your boss realize that the damned Exchange Server lets you check the availability of your cohorts before picking a time? Doesn’t he realize that you’ve already made commitments to the people on your calendar? Doesn’t she understand that each shaded rectangle in your calendar is a little slice of you, a token of your unending commitment to organization?Does he really expect you to cancel on someone else, to support his last minute meeting?

Here’s my answer: who cares?

It’s Monday, which means it’s a great day for a challenge (note: if you’re reading this on any other day, it’s a great day for a challenge) – so strap on your boots…this is going to be nuts.

If you want to solve this problem, there are two easy steps:

1. Treat your boss’s meeting requests just like those of everyone else. Bingo – if the request comes in, and you’re booked, reject the request and propose a new time.
2. When your boss questions you with a line like, “Is there a reason that you’re skipping out on my meeting?”, respond by reading the bullets above. Let her know that you’re a calendar ninja, and that you would have had to bump someone else to make room for them. Then remind her that it’s your commitment to supporting yadda yadda that she loves so dearly.

Occasionally, this approach will backfire…but fear not. If the boss reacts with indignation/resentment/annoyance, sweep in with this: “of course, if it’s super important that we do the meeting then, you only need to say so…emergencies can’t be helped.” That maneuver is brilliant for a few reasons, but most importantly, it gives them an out while shaming them for inconveniencing the rest of the organization; chances are good that it wasn’t an emergency.

The calendar is just another weapon in the overall organizational arsenal, and its importance to those around you will be a direct reflection of the importance that you place on it.