When are you on manager’s schedule and when on maker’s schedule?
Datum: 2025-10-29 09:58
Some of our tasks require us to have a lot of interaction with others through meetings, email exchanges, chat conversations, and phone calls. For other tasks, we need uninterrupted time and some peace and quiet.
Most people have tasks of both kinds, but how they are distributed and how much of each kind you have differs between professions. Someone has more of one type, while someone in another role has a preponderance of the other.
For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:
If they are clumped together, we fall apart
How should we organize our time so that we create the right conditions to work with both kinds? Because, if the uninterrupted time is interrupted by meetings or it is difficult to find time for meetings because those you are meeting with have blocked so much uninterrupted time in their calendars, it becomes difficult to get the necessary things done in a smooth way.
Two useful concepts
Paul Graham is one of the founders of the incubator Y Combinator (which has helped develop companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox). In an interesting piece on this common conflict, he coins the terms “manager’s schedule” and “maker’s schedule”, where the former refers to the state when you are happy to have meetings and communicate freely with others in different channels. The second concept, “maker’s schedule”, refers to when you need to be undisturbed for an extended period of time in order to dive deep into a task to solve a complex problem or create something completely new.
Separate these types of time or tasks
Graham says that if you plan your time with both concepts in mind and make it clear to yourself when you are in which mode — “on which schedule” if you will — you get the best of both worlds. You get to focus when you need to and get lots of answers, ask lots of questions, and meet lots of people when that is what you need.
If you schedule your time yourself, independently of others, you can decide when you go on what schedule. When I have office days, I have “maker time” in the mornings and “manager time” in the afternoons. This means that I schedule my meetings in the afternoons and do most of my emailing then as well, while writing, filming, and recording are done in the mornings.
If you rely heavily on others, such as your colleagues, project participants, and team members, you can discuss it and together agree on when it is generally “maker’s schedule” and when it is “manager’s schedule”. Gihan Amarasiriwardena, founder of Ministry of Supply, says that they go on a maker’s schedule every two weeks and a manager’s schedule every other week and that this has enabled them to get more things done and still drastically reduce the number of meetings.
Do this
Think about what the split between “maker’s schedule” and “manager’s schedule” would look like for you, if you could design your calendar and weeks exactly as you like.
If you can manage your time yourself, design a rhythm that suits you. For example, you can illustrate it using a template calendar, which I have told you about previously.
If you need to make this decision together with your colleagues, tell them about the two concepts at the next appropriate meeting and suggest that you agree on a rhythm that suits you all. Not all time needs to be divided into these two types if you can not agree 100%, but perhaps you can at least decide what parts of a typical week should look like. Perhaps you should have a meeting-free maker-day on one of the days of the week, or indulge fully in meetings, emailing, and chatting on a few designated mornings every week?
The right conditions for each kind of task
Making it clear when you are on a manager’s schedule and when you are on a maker’s schedule can help you create the optimal conditions for getting your different types of tasks done. You can devote yourself wholeheartedly to whatever it is time for at the moment, without having to think that you really should be more available or that you really should be focusing more on a creative task than you feel you can. Structuring your schedule and planning in this clear and unambiguous way simply gives you more leeway.
How do you do it?
Have you come across Paul Graham’s concepts before and used them for your own planning? How? Tell me, because I always want to learn more tricks and methods that help me and those I help in turn to have smoother weekdays.
(Can you be both focused and available at the same time? Check out my tips on how to get interrupted without minding!)
You can get even more tips!
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.
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