This week the schedule gods blessed me with a few days that had absolutely no meetings. Usually I block out Fridays for no meetings but the day usually ends up getting stuffed with administrative, not-fun work. But to have a Tuesday clear? That was a real treat. 

Here’s what I noticed: I got stuff done. You see, our work is fundamentally changing from mechanical, rote, and repetitious to original, creative, and thoughtful. This trend will continue. 

The problem with original, creative, and thoughtful work, though, is that it requires big blocks of time if we want to do it well. When there is even a single meeting in a day, our time becomes fragmented. Stack a few meetings in a day and our ability to do the creative work gets sidelined. 

Uninterrupted time is the new black. If you can work uninterrupted by meetings, email, social, and drop-ins from 8 am to noon everyday, within a few months you will suddenly become even more of a superstar. People will notice your astounding ability to produce! 

Those same people will get mad at you in the moment for declining the meeting, but your awesomeness will win their respect. 

So, make the short term trade of irritating a few people to do work that really matters.