When I was in high school, I wanted people to like me. I thought being really nice was the way to do that, so any time someone asked me for a favor, I was much more apt to say yes than no.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the lunch room, where every day my freshman year, a classmate we’ll call Jordan asked me for $1. Jordan was a pretty popular guy, so I figured if I gave him a dollar at lunch when asked, he might ask me to hang out with him outside of the lunch room.

But of course, that didn’t happen. He just knew he could get money out of me every time he asked, so he asked. One day, an actual friend of mine asked me why I kept doing it, so I decided to stop.

Jordan came up to me and said, “Yo my man Joe, lemme get a dollar.” I said, “Sorry Jordan. I’m not doing this anymore.” He was annoyed. But eventually he stopped asking. And my status in high school didn’t change at all.

Now, reading this as an adult, it’s probably incredibly obvious to you what Jordan was doing. It was very little effort for him, and if he didn’t spend the money, he probably ended up making $40-50 off of me and I got nothing in return.

But the truth is if you’re a solopreneur, you probably have a Jordan in your life. The client who calls you with every little thing. The “friend” who texts you to look at something real quick. Anyone who emails you where you feel you need to respond right away.

Because when you respond right away, you stop what you’re doing — something you should probably be focusing on — to do something on someone else’s todo list. And people adjust accordingly. They message you when they need something done now, instead of giving you some wiggle room to fit it into your schedule.

They are now spending your time. And unlike the money I gave Jordan that I was able to make back building websites, you can’t get more time back. But just like my situation with Jordan, you can put a stop to it.

How to Gain More Control Over Your Own Schedule

The way I see it, there are really 3 ways to gain control over your own schedule:

1. Protecting your most productive time
2. Determining what tasks you absolutely need to get done in a week
3. Using the right tools to help you

Let’s start with the first thing.

Protect Your Most Productive Time

Three summers ago I had a huge problem. Because I wasn’t working every day, I made my schedule as open as possible. I figured if people were meeting with me, or recording a podcast with me, I should accommodate them.

As a result, on my actual working days, I rarely had even 2 straight hours to work on my business. By the end of the summer, I was stressed and felt deeply behind on work.

The worst part is I already knew what a good day looked like for me. During the school year, I had my no-meeting days, and my dedicated meeting blocks. But I changed that for the perception of being more accommodating. I knew I couldn’t make that mistake again, so when the next summer came, I actually got more strict about meeting.

I pre-recorded a bunch of podcast interviews, and only made myself available to meet on Tuesday afternoons. I didn’t do a make-up day if I was off on a Tuesday. For anyone who couldn’t do those times, we handled it asynchronously. That summer went MUCH better. But crucially, I didn’t lose any work because of my modified schedule. People understood.

When you control your schedule, you can protect your most productive time, and people aren’t just grabbing times on your calendar. So here’s what you can do.

Figure out when you work best. You can do this by task journaling, checking in with yourself throughout the day, or just reflecting on when you feel sharpest and most productive. Once you figure it out, protect that time at all costs. Block it off on your calendar and be very, very stingy about giving that time away to other people.

Then, figure out when you generally feel least productive. I pick afternoons because between 2-4pm I struggle to find the motivation to get work done. Meetings, events, webinars, and coaching calls are a forcing function for me.

Once you have those two things, there are two approaches you can take:

1. Use time blocking on your calendar. Add events like “Deep Work” or “Productive Time” at your best hours.
2. Use a scheduling app with available hours for people to meet with you and use that calendar when people suggest meetings.

The most important thing: stick with this schedule. Protecting your time is crucially important if you’re going to get work done.

Determine Your Most Important Tasks

Once you know when you’ll get your best work done, you need to fill that time with what requires your best work.

I like to plan my entire week on Sunday mornings. I’ll write down all of my appointments, personal obligations, and projects I need to work on for the week. Then I’ll start to fill in my week.

I will plan 3 tasks per day; tasks with a higher level of effort go on the days when I have the most free time¹. For bigger projects, I’ll also try to break them down into smaller tasks, and I’ll group similar tasks (like recording content) together so I’m not switching contexts a lot.

The exercise will also help you determine how much wiggle room you have in a week. Things do come up, emergencies happen, and sometimes an actual friend reaches out and needs some help. But when you know your most important tasks — the non-negotiables you need to get done — you can prioritize them to ensure at least those get done.

Use the Right Tools to Help You

What’s the line? The road to hell is paved with good intentions? We can plan and try to protect all we want, but ultimately we might need a little help.

I already mentioned using a scheduling app to make sure people can only book meetings during your preferred meeting times. But there are other tools and systems you can use to protect your time and do your work better.

There are apps like Raycast’s Focus Mode that will help you stay focused by closing distracting apps (like email and social media). Or, just using the Do Not Disturb function on your phone and computer to kill notifications.

For something stronger, physical devices like The Brick can prevent you from getting distracted by your phone. That way, you have to walk to a device and scan it if you want to use your phone.

But it’s not just about blocking distracting apps; you can also leverage tools and automations to do your work better.

Tools like SaneBox or Claude can help you better manage your inbox so you don’t feel like you need to be in it all the time. And even simple automations can help you free up your time from easily repeatable process work so you can do your best work.

Keep More of Your Time Yours

I wish I could tell you that Jordan and I ended up becoming better friends or that I saw him years later and he apologized for taking advantage of my generosity. But the truth is we didn’t really talk all that much in high school, and I haven’t seen him since graduation.

That’s the thing about a seemingly simple ask: most people think because it’s easy for us to do something, it doesn’t have much of an impact on our day or our work. But a quick ask for them can derail us.

With this process of protecting your schedule, determining your non-negotiable tasks, and using the right tools, you’re ensuring that your day is mostly yours, and you’ll work in a way that works best for you.

Once you put that signal out there that you respect your time, and manage expectations, other people will too.