The Diminishing Returns of Calendar Culture

This article on calendars and the systems behind them piqued my interest right away. I have an exceptionally busy calendar. I would be lost without it. It is where I plan, execute, and reflect. The interesting topics that Petersen brings up in this article were thought provoking to me.

There are, instead, schedules. Schedules whose form — particularly when it comes to digital ones — is borrowed from the work day. All events should be set in 15 minute increments. All purposes should be legible. All time is open for colonization by activities intended to make you a better student, a better resume, a better job candidate. All play should be scheduled. It’s not about the quality of the activity but the quantity; it’s not about the effects of doing it all but the fact that you are doing it.

This all made me think. I hadn't considered the mental model that our calendars display puts in front of us. How does that mental model the influence how we use our calendar, or more specifically, how we use our time.

She writes in the article about shared calendaring and I do think there are big trade offs there that are not well understood too. Opening your calendar is opening your most precious, non-renewable thing — time. It has struck me for years as a backwards way to manage such a critical thing. Do others know best where your time should be spent?

Or what about a calendar that was simply, as one reader imagined, oriented around protecting time, instead of filling it? What would an un-calendar be?

This article didn’t leave me with a to do, but it left me with a lot of questions. On my opinion our calendars have a tremendous amount of value to still unlock. Why? Because they know the future! Our calendars should be helping us, not just being a fancy database. But then of course we hit another important issue, helping us in what way?