Sitemaps
How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

The Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 2/6)

Wil Schroter

The Startups.co Guide : Get The Most From Your Calendar (Part 2/6)

CHAPTER TWO: Control The Venue

In This Chapter:

-How to control the location, medium and time of meetings
-How to optimize your schedule for each meeting medium
-How to share your “Go-To” preferences


Once you’ve managed to get your arms around the optimal duration for meetings, you can take your scheduling to another level by optimizing the venues.

The typical cadence of a meeting goes something like this:

Darth Vader: “Grand Moff Tarkin, I’d like to get together to talk about the Rebel force that has appeared outside the Death Star’s perimeter.”

Grand Moff Tarkin: “Sounds cool Lord Vader, how about we meet at the Starbucks in Sector Alpha at 7 p.m.?”

Darth Vader: “Oh I love me some Venti Skim Milk, Extra Shot, Extra-Hot, Extra-Whip, Sugar-Free Caramel Macchiato, I’ll see you there then.”

Darth Vader, for as powerful of a Sith lord as he is, just conceded control of three critical elements of the calendar game – location, medium, and time.  

In this case it’s fairly irrelevant given the soon to be ultimate destruction of the Death Star, but even still – he should have never let this whole meeting conundrum take place.

Control the 3 Calendar Variables

If you want to take back your calendar you’ve got to learn to take control of the 3 Calendar Variables.

  • Location.  Unless you’re really into the serendipitous discovery of coffee shops and conference rooms, letting someone else determine the meeting location is never helpful.  You want venues that are easy to get to, close to your next appointment, and if food is a factor, places you actually enjoy.
  • Medium.  More important than location is the medium – phone, face to face, instant message, video chat, HAM radio – whatever.  You want to optimize every meeting so that it’s leveraging the best tool for the job.  In our case, you want your VA to do that for you.  Could Darth have saved the Death Star if he covered his meeting via low resolution holographic video phone Skype?  Probably. But we’ll never know..
  • Time.  Here we have good ol’ Tarkin telling Vader what time they should meet.  Does Vader have availability at that time?  Perhaps he’s doing Jedi Hot Yoga.  Vader should know that setting a meeting time should always coincide with optimizing for your best time, not other people’s.

Optimize for Medium

There are so many great ways to communicate these days, but we still tend to use them fairly arbitrarily.  We call when we’re in the car.  We meet face-to-face when it seems politically appropriate.  We email whenever humanly possible.

Instead of using these tools arbitrarily, you should control your calendar by using them very deliberately.  In the case of your assistant working for you, you can ask them to specifically use the tools that save you the most time or create the most amount of efficiency.

You can rank these differently, but generally:

  • Quick, Non Critical.  (Email, Instant Messenger, Text).  This is your first line of defense.  Anything that can be moved to Email, IM or Text does a few great things for you – it keeps the message back/forth brief, and it makes it asynchronous so you can respond whenever possible.
  • Lots of Back/Forth, Timely.  (Phone, Video Chat).  Most text-based comms are good for simple communication, but if you really need to have a discussion, such as an interview or a sales process, you really can’t beat a good old fashioned phone call, or ideally, video chat.  The challenge of course is that it can eat up lots of time where a simple email could have sufficed.  Choose wisely here.
  • Personal Dynamic, Relationships (In Person).  Nothing beats a face to face meeting for maximum impact.  Remember all of those amazing moments you shared with your parents over video chat?  No?  Of course not.  Real moments are made in person.  They also happen to be the most logistically complicated and costly of meetings, so unless the interaction requires the personal touch, this is a last resort.

List your Go-To Locations

One way to help control your meeting times and the cadence of the meetings is to give yourself a home field advantage – stick to a few tried and true locations and always suggest them first.

If you’re using an assistant then making a quick list of your favorite coffee shops, restaurants or conference rooms is a must.  Aside from finding yourself in places you enjoy more often, it will also allow you control the time between meetings, letting you make sure your lunch just happens to be two doors down from your next meeting.

This sounds obvious but how many meetings have you attended in the last few weeks where you were the one setting the venue?  Not many?  You see what we mean?


Key Takeaway:

Get the most out of meetings by using the proper medium for that specific type of interaction. When meeting in person—don’t travel across town—instead, meet at your favorite coffee shop.

All chapters:

Find this article helpful?

This is just a small sample! Register to unlock our in-depth courses, hundreds of video courses, and a library of playbooks and articles to grow your startup fast. Let us Let us show you!

Submission confirms agreement to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Already a member? Login

No comments yet.

Register to join the discussion.

Already a member? Login

Create Free Account