The calendar’s neat squares do not show how one difficult event spills into another day.

Time is not divided the way a calendar suggests. A hard conversation at four in the afternoon does not end at half past; it takes the evening, the night, and often some of the following morning, none of which appears anywhere in the grid. Scheduling encourages you to plan as though each block is sealed, and then you are surprised by how little you can do afterwards.

When you know something heavy is coming, leave the space after it empty rather than the space before it. Recovery is part of the appointment even though nobody writes it in.