I love calendars
How I manage multiple calendar accounts without an executive assistant
As much as I hate email, I love my calendar. Time is my most precious resource, and I love organizing it. I love things having their little boxes, nicely color-coded, with cute emojis.
My calendar reduces my cognitive load. As long as I plan out the week carefully and build in buffer time, I don’t have to decide in any given moment what to do; I just follow the plan.
Lots of calendars, no executive assistant
I work with three primary calendars:
Work calendar (8 AM - 4 PM weekdays) - my central planning hub
Personal calendar - for flights and things that auto-populate from my personal Gmail account
Board calendar - shared with my board vice president
I also have multiple family calendars that drive my life on weekends and outside work hours. Spoiler: I still haven’t found a way to fully automate the integration of work and family calendars. That job is still too complex for the robots. If a family event needs my attention during work hours, I invite my work calendar. If a work event affects my family, I add it to the family calendar.
I used to have an executive assistant to manage the work calendars. But I don’t have one anymore.
Enter Reclaim
Reclaim replicates what my executive assistant used to do for me. Here’s what I love:
Calendar integration
Reclaim automatically shows me as busy across all my linked calendars. If I have a board commitment, it shows on my work calendar. Clients can see my true availability.
Smart buffer time
I’ve set Reclaim to add 15 minutes of reflection time after every call. If you book me from 9:00-9:20 AM, it blocks 9:20-9:35 automatically. That means the next available slot is not until 9:45. I always have breathing time between meetings, and I never have to worry if a call runs a few minutes over.
Automatic travel time
I’ve also set Reclaim to add 30 minutes of travel time before and after any in-person event (it can tell when I add a non-Zoom location). So when I book a doctor’s appointment while standing at the check-out desk, I don’t have to remember to block travel time when I get to my car or back to my computer. Even better, when someone sends me a calendar invite with a location, Reclaim blocks travel time as soon as I accept it.
Smart meetings
I can set up recurring meetings with flexible timing. Reclaim moves them automatically to accommodate client bookings. When there’s no more flexibility, it locks the meeting in. No back-and-forth emails. No manual calendar adjustments. It just happens.
The people you’re scheduling with don’t need Reclaim; their calendar just needs to show free/busy status publicly.
Smart lunch scheduling (my favorite!)
I tell Reclaim I want lunch between 11 AM and 1:30 PM, lasting 30-60 minutes. By default, it books at noon. But if a client wants that slot, Reclaim moves my lunch to 11 or 1.
Here’s the magic: when there’s only one time slot left, Reclaim locks it in. It changes the event status to “busy.” Even though I want to give clients maximum access, I still need to eat lunch. Reclaim knows that 30 minutes for lunch ultimately takes precedence.
Why this matters for mothers in leadership
Every time I manually block travel time, or forget to protect lunch, or spend 10 minutes emailing back and forth to reschedule a meeting, that’s mental energy I’m spending on logistics instead of leadership. That’s bandwidth I could be using to think strategically, to be present with my kids, or to do creative work that only I can do.
As mothers in leadership, we’re already carrying a heavy, often invisible, mental load. We don’t need to add “remember to block calendar buffer time” to that list. The robot can do that.
The bottom line
After Superhuman, Reclaim is one of the most powerful AI-powered tools I use. It’s free for individuals. I pay $90 per year for the business subscription and it’s worth every penny. It saves me hours every month.
I don’t get a commission if you try it, but if you figure out any hacks, please teach me!
What about you?
What calendar tools are you using?
Have you tried Reclaim?
Has anyone hacked the family-work calendar integration??
I’d love to hear what’s working for you — and what’s not! Maybe we can solve it together.
🕊️
SAM
