Time is an important resource, and research has shown that modern work culture is draining it faster than ever. According to the review by Harvard Business, executives today spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, compared to less than 10 hours in the 1960s Harvard Business. For engineering managers, that number often stretches to 35+ hours weekly, leaving little space for hands-on development. The cost isn’t just lost hours—it’s lost focus. Studies from the University of California, Irvine reveal that after each interruption, it takes about 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain concentration Fast Company.
Strategies to Reclaim Development Time
1. Cut Back on Meetings
One proven strategy is aggressive pruning. In 2023, Shopify deleted over 322,000 hours of recurring meetings, freeing up capacity equivalent to a 25% increase in project delivery Shopify. The lesson is clear: meetings should be intentional, with agendas and ownership, not defaults on the calendar.
2. Create Maker Time
Engineering work rarely fits into fragmented slots; it requires immersion. A half-hour between meetings is enough to check email, but not to untangle a complex system. As Paul Graham noted in Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule, “you can’t write or program well in units of an hour; that’s barely enough time to get started.” Protecting 2–3 hour uninterrupted blocks is essential, otherwise managers risk losing both flow and technical fluency Paul Graham.
3. Try No-Meeting Days
A study of 76 companies found that even one meeting-free day per week improved autonomy, communication, and job satisfaction while reducing stress MIT Sloan Management Review. For engineering teams manager, this translates directly into more sustained development time.
4. Use Async and AI
Async dashboards and written updates, popularized by GitLab’s “handbook-first” culture, remove the need for many status syncs. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index found that AI copilots saved users up to 1.2 hours per week by summarizing meetings and tasks SUPERHUB15.
What will protect flow when the calendar won’t?
- What the Classics Still Get Right
Productivity mainstays emphasize ruthless prioritization and offloading mental clutter. Getting Things Done popularized the two-minute rule—if a task takes ≤2 minutes, do it now to keep momentum and reduce cognitive overhead. The 4-Hour Workweek frames D.E.A.L. (Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation) as a simple filter to cut low-value work and protect focus time.
- Try This “Underused but Potent” Move: Energy-Aligned Scheduling
Don’t just block maker time—place the hardest cognitive work during your personal peak. Research on circadian rhythms and chronotypes finds that alertness and executive function meaningfully vary by time of day; aligning tasks to peak windows improves accuracy and output. In practice: schedule design/coding during peak hours, slot admin during troughs, and keep meetings to your rebound window.
Read: ScienceDirect | cbcc.psy.msu.edu
Guardrails That Save Your Flow
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Say “no” (or “not now”) to low-leverage pulls. Each extra meeting or ping raises switch costs.
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Preserve context aggressively. Interruptions elevate stress and degrade performance; after a disruption, people work faster but make more errors, and attention “sticks” to the prior task (attention residue). Use DND, batch communications, and keep a restart note for where to pick up.
Key Takeaway
Time reclaimed from meetings is time reinvested into building.
For engineering managers, the path to preserving technical skills lies in:
- Cutting low-value meetings
- Protecting maker hours
- Leveraging async tools and AI
- Guarding context like an asset
The result? Sharper technical fluency, more innovative teams, and higher impact.