Stop "powering through" a broken calendar. Learn how to use the 4D Load Shedding framework and simple calendar hygiene tips to fix fragmentation, reclaim your time, and boost performance.
CEO/Co-founder
February 9, 2026
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4 Mins read
In 2018, I hit a wall. I was chatting with a former colleague, Nad (we were both at Andela then and now he’s Co-Founder/CEO at EdenLife), venting about how stressed and overwhelmed I felt. I was constantly busy, but I needed to get more done.
Nad asked me a simple question: "Seni, what are your top three priorities right now?"
I rattled them off immediately. No brainers. "Okay," he said. "Now let me see your calendar."
We looked at my previous week and my upcoming week, and as we stared at the blocks on the screen, I could already see the problem clearly. There was very little overlap between my priorities and the activities that were taking up most of my time. Despite how obvious this should have been for someone with my experience level, two separate but related issues were the culprits at play:
Once the problem was clear, I moved to solve it quickly. I came up with 2 simple solutions. Here’s what I did:
In Africa, we are all too familiar with the concept of load shedding, where the electrical grid begins to cut people off power (or reduce output) when the grid becomes overwhelmed. When this happens, the system doesn’t just try to "power through." Instead, the operators deliberately cut power to specific areas to save the integrity of the system. It’s a crappy experience, but there’s something to learn from it.
It’s the exact same for humans. To put it simply, you can’t do what you can’t do. When demand outweighs capacity, if you don’t shed the load, you’ll burnout.
I call this Calendar Load Shedding. It is the deliberate act of cutting power to low-leverage activities to preserve energy for high-priority strategic work."
So how do you “load shed” ? In my situation, I took yet again an unfortunate experience that many of us have likely gone through and repurposed it to work for me. If you’re familiar with how many insurance companies work, they apply four Ds to audit claims with the end goal of reducing their overall liability and payouts.
I co-opted this method to audit my time. I call it The 4D Calendar Audit Framework. Here is a simple step-by-step process:
1. Deny (Say NO) Many people find it very difficult to say "No," especially here in Africa where it can feel rude or unkind. Me? During that period, I learned to become a natural. I’ve learned that saying "No" is the only way to create enough space to say "Yes" to the things that matter. Once I decide that I do not need to be involved in a meeting, I turn it down immediately.
2. Delay (Push it to Later) The first "No" doesn’t stop everyone, so next, I test the urgency. If they want the meeting now, I offer a slot for a few days later or maybe even next week. If they really need me, they’ll book a time or follow-up. As you can imagine, many people realize they don’t actually need a meeting. They share an asynchronous update or go ahead and solve the issue themselves.
3. Diminish (Reduce Scope) Here, you negotiate. For the people who say the meeting can’t wait, I try to give them less time than they’ve requested, forcing them to compress the scope. If they ask for an hour, I give them 30 minutes. This ensures the meeting is concise and high-leverage.
4. Delegate (Send a Lieutenant) In cases where a meeting is urgent and the scope cannot be diminished, I ask myself whether I’m the best person to actually deal with that issue or provide that input, or whether there’s someone else who is well positioned (or even better positioned) to do so. In many cases, there is. Then I delegate. This frees up my time, but equally importantly, it offers that person an opportunity for growth and visibility.
In some cases, I truly am the best person to engage. But by then, I’m fairly certain that it’s important, urgent enough and requires my direct input.
The second observation I made was that even if I reduced the number of meetings, the remaining ones were still scattered across my calendar. I was constantly switching from one context to another, and it made it harder to do deep work.
Research shows that every time you switch contexts, your brain has to "reboot." Every time you do this, you pay a fragmentation tax. You lose focus, and momentarily struggle to concentrate.
I learned this the hard way. I once tried to multitask during one of those fragmented-meeting afternoons, toggling between multiple meetings and messages. I ended up sending a sensitive message to the wrong public slack channel. It was a clumsy, avoidable mistake caused purely by cognitive fatigue.
To solve this, I began designing my week to minimize this switching cost. As a Founder at an early stage startup, it’s been much harder to hold on to these rituals while going from zero to one. But I still make a very deliberate effort to periodically ensure I’m doing enough of these things, specially around:
1. Creating "Thinking Blocks" (The Wednesday Rule) As a startup leader, I have to meet with people, but I also have non-meeting related tasks that need to get done. To balance this, I declared my Wednesdays as "Meeting Free Days." I informed my team that I didn’t want any recurring or pre-scheduled meetings on Wednesdays, and I would only take the most urgent emergencies on Wednesdays.
This created a high-friction barrier, giving me the clarity to get the most impactful work done on Wednesdays without switching contexts. I started doing this about 8 years ago and it still makes a massive difference in my work weeks. My ultimate dream is to create 3 consecutive hours of unscheduled time daily, I’ll let you know when I achieve that.
2. Adding a 15-Minute Buffer Back-to-back meetings are terrible for my brain, and yours too. We all need a short break at the end of one meeting before jumping into the next.
To create time for this switch, I shifted my default meeting time from 60 minutes to 45-minute blocks. That 15-minute gap is an essential reset buffer, and I use that time to write down notes, prep for the next meeting, and grab a glass of water so I show up fresh. In my previous role, this made a world of difference in my effectiveness. Today, some conversations run over so I give myself some grace when I’m not able to carve out these spaces between meetings. But the difference is extremely clear on days when I am.
If Nad only knew the chain of events he had caused by asking me that question!
To recap, your schedule is a key driver of your performance. It’s just that simple. If your calendar is fragmented, reactive or non-existent, your ability to execute will be significantly impaired. You will spend your best hours buried in meetings and switching contexts, and you will likely have to find time at night or on the weekends to catch up.
If you want your team’s calendars to reflect what matters, your priorities have to first be clear, visible, and easy to track. With a tool like Talstack Goals, you can set company and department priorities, then allow employees to align their work and prioritize what matters.
