Man, November 2024. If you don’t grab that month by the horns, it just runs right over you. It’s that awful mix of trying to wrap up year-end work targets while also dealing with holiday logistics, family visits, and generally trying to keep your head above water. I’ve been trying to get my act together for years, and every time I thought I had a system, it just collapsed the moment real life happened.
I finally snapped open my calendar for 2024 November and decided I wasn’t just going to write things down; I was going to build the month. I didn’t use some fancy software, just the basic digital calendar everyone has, which I call “Calendario” in my head because it sounds official, even though it’s just the default app. I figured if I couldn’t manage simple blocks of time, no AI was going to save me.
The Mess I Started With: Why I Had to Get Serious
My old method was pure chaos. I had post-it notes, reminders in my phone, scribbles on a legal pad, and three different email flags. Everything felt urgent, and nothing was actually getting done right. I was constantly running into things I should have started three days earlier. Honestly, the reason I committed so hard to sorting out November 2024 was because of the catastrophe that hit me last spring.
I had totally missed a major payment deadline for a big contract—we are talking about a significant chunk of money. I’d seen the reminder pop up, but I was in the middle of a rush project, figured I’d deal with it later, and then the reminder got buried under 40 other irrelevant alerts. The client called me, furious. I had to pay penalty fees and nearly lost the whole account. That kind of failure hits hard; it wasn’t because I was lazy, it was because my system—or lack thereof—was fundamentally broken. I swore then and there that I would treat scheduling like a non-negotiable job, starting with the next crazy month, which, for me, was November.
Step 1: The Total Brain Dump and Categorization
I started by dedicating an hour just to pulling out every single commitment for November. I didn’t try to fit them onto the calendar yet; I just dumped them into a list. I pulled data from every source: my spouse’s calendar, kids’ school schedules, professional project timelines, and those annoying mandatory dentist appointments I keep forgetting. I ended up with about 80 items.
Then, I took a big breath and categorized them. I used four simple buckets:
- Fixed Blocks: Things that cannot move (meetings with external clients, school pick-ups, flights).
- Critical Tasks: Stuff that moves my big projects forward or prevents financial loss (major report submissions, tax prep, paying that bill I nearly forgot last time).
- Maintenance: Daily or weekly stuff (exercise, meal prep, email review).
- Flex Time: Things I want to do if I have the energy (read a book, reorganize the garage, learn that new software feature).
The key here was that I forced myself to be brutally honest about what fit where. Just because a task was annoying didn’t make it “Critical.”
Step 2: Time Blocking the Month (The Non-Negotiable Core)
Once the categories were set, I dragged and dropped the Fixed Blocks right onto the Calendario grid for November 2024. These went in first. They immediately ate up about 40% of my available time. Seeing that white space disappear was sobering, but necessary.
Next, I tackled the Critical Tasks. I didn’t just write “Write Report.” That’s useless. I chunked those big tasks down into 90-minute or 2-hour segments and assigned those segments specific slots during the week. This is where I started applying the real-world tips that save my butt:
- The 90-Minute Rule: I never booked myself for more than 90 minutes on a single critical task. After 90 minutes, I scheduled a forced 15-minute break. I locked in these breaks as actual events on the calendar. If the break isn’t scheduled, you skip it, and then you burn out.
- The Buffer Zone: I slotted a 30-minute buffer after any external meeting. Never jump straight from a client call into deep work. You need time to note follow-ups, grab coffee, or just transition your brain.
- The Daily Review Slot: Every day at 4:30 PM, I added a 15-minute block labeled “Fix Tomorrow.” I used this time to quickly review what was planned for the next day and move anything that had been derailed by unexpected chaos that day.
Step 3: Integrating Maintenance and Letting Go of Perfection
Maintenance items went in next. These are often the first things people skip, but skipping them is why everything else falls apart. I placed the Maintenance blocks during times of low energy. For me, clearing emails is a low-energy task, so I put a 30-minute block right after lunch when I usually feel sluggish.
The Flex Time items? I didn’t schedule them rigidly. I created three empty “Wildcard Hours” throughout the week. If I finished my Critical Tasks early, I used a Wildcard Hour for a Flex Time item. If I needed to push a Critical Task, the Wildcard Hour served as emergency overflow. They were my safety net.
By the time I was done, November 2024 looked dense, but it wasn’t intimidating. It was just a series of small, manageable boxes. I realized that the real trick isn’t finding more time; it’s respecting the time you already have. I used to think I was a master multi-tasker, but I just ended up being a half-done-everything-er.
This process of committing to the calendar, using those hard blocks, and most importantly, learning from that expensive mistake last spring, has finally given me a schedule I can actually stick to. I closed out my Calendario view for November 2024 feeling organized for the first time in years. It’s simple stuff, but getting it down and respecting those blocks? That’s the real win.