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Knapp: Defaulting to calendar requests defeats personal priorities

Jake Knapp · Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (Authors of Make Time, Character VC) · Feb 11, 2024 · at 34:11

Jake Knapp, co-author of Make Time, discusses the hidden productivity cost of leaving open calendar space vulnerable to meeting requests.

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“That default to be helpful to other people and say, yes, when they put something on a free spot on your calendar defeats a lot of our inner purposes.”

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