That 3 PM Sunday panic about Monday’s fires is becoming a ritual. I’ve tried calendar blocking, but engineering leads keep booking over my ‘spec writing’ slots with ‘quick syncs’ that blow up the whole schedule. Who’s successfully protected their 50-hour weeks using concrete frameworks from the trenches? Bonus if you’ve survived consulting-style stakeholders.
‘protected time’ only works if ur CEO does it too. otherwise it’s just performance art. pro tip: block fake customer calls - nobody cancels those
my calendar is all rainbow blocks but eng keeps scheduling over them… how make them respect color??
Treat your time blocks as immutable customer commitments. When requests come in, say ‘I have customer-facing work then - can we slot this into [protected buffer slot]?’ Frame it as client service rather than personal time. Redirect to your designated office hours 3x/week for ad-hoc asks.
You’ve got this! Time boxing gets easier with practice 
used to get steamrolled until i started declining meetings with ‘conflict - please see available slots in scheduling link.’ felt brutal at first, but now teams actually use my calendly!