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In development

Module 09 of 11 · 15 min

Bring in the calendar and block the day in quarter hours

Why it matters

Consequential work gets finished only in large, uninterrupted blocks. A day you have not laid out gets laid out for you by other people.

In this module you will

  • Set a day window that matches the day you actually work.
  • Place the frog in the first working block and protect one 90-minute A-block.

The idea

The sheet plans in 15-minute rows on a 24-hour clock. The day can start at any half hour from 00:00 and end as late as 24:00, so the last row starts at 23:45. A day must be at least one hour long. The default is 07:00 to 18:00, and the Common days buttons set the usual shapes in one click.

Steps 1 and 2 bring in the day you are planning. Connect Google Calendar or Outlook, or open an .ics file, then import the selected day: its appointments arrive as locked, protected blocks. The form shows them on the clock but never changes, moves or deletes them, and private appointments show only as “Private event”. You can also skip the calendar entirely and plan by hand. In this prototype Google and Outlook are a clearly labeled simulation with sample events; an .ics file is real, read in your browser and read only.

In step 4 (Schedule), the clock sits below today’s actions: one row per quarter hour, appointments on the left, your plan on the right. Place puts the frog and each A or B action in the next free quarter hour with a sensible length, around the appointments and without retyping; change a block’s start or length in its row, and anything that overlaps an appointment is flagged. Blocking is optional when your calendar already holds the day. The day window, Common days and an exact block (15 minutes to 4 hours) sit under one collapsed line. Blocks outside the window are kept but not shown or printed.

From the original course: “Single-handled blocks. A consequential task started four times costs far more.” Plan the week by role first, then fit the day around the big rocks.

Step by step

  1. Why The frog goes before the inbox.

    Place the frog first.

  2. Why Unbroken time is what finishes A work.

    Place your A actions, then open the day-window line only if the day is unusual.

Worked example: the CEO

Standard day, 07:00–18:00. 07:00 Move the body (45 min) · 07:45 Frog: Portfolio choices with the CFO and CRO (90 min) · 09:15 Inbox (30 min) · 10:00 Operating review (60 min) · 14:00 Strategic hours (120 min) · 17:30 Close the day, set tomorrow (30 min).

Practice it in the Daily Management form

This module is step 4 of the form: Schedule today’s actions. What you enter there is saved on this device, so you can come back to it.

Open step 4

Exercise

  1. Set your window.
  2. Place the frog first, then one 90-minute A-block.
  3. Check that every A action has a block before noon where you can.

Original tools

Sources and attribution

  • External source The frog, the ABCDE method, the law of three and single handling follow Brian Tracy, Eat That Frog! (Berrett-Koehler; “Apply the Law of Three” is chapter 8 of the 2nd and 3rd editions). Summarised and applied by Compass; not endorsed by the author. Source (opens in a new tab)
  • External source Planning the week by role and placing the big rocks first follow the Franklin Covey tradition (Covey, First Things First).