What My Calendar Taught Me About Project Health

When I want a fast signal about project health, I don’t start with a Gantt chart or a status report.

I look at my calendar.

Over time, I’ve realised it reflects many of the principles PMI promotes—especially clarity, value, leadership, and systems thinking.

Table of Contents

• A Full Calendar Often Signals Weak Decision Flow

• Empty Time Can Indicate Unmanaged Uncertainty

• Urgent Requests Reveal System Weaknesses

• Healthy Projects Create Predictable Rhythm

A Full Calendar Often Signals Weak Decision Flow

When my calendar fills with alignment meetings, follow-ups, and recurring check-ins, it usually points to one issue: decisions are not flowing cleanly.

From a PMI perspective, this often indicates gaps in:

• Role clarity and accountability

• Effective stakeholder engagement

• Clear decision authority

Best practice focuses on enabling decisions that move value forward, not increasing coordination effort. When the same topic requires multiple meetings, the system is compensating for unclear ownership.

Empty Time Can Indicate Unmanaged Uncertainty

An open calendar can look efficient. Sometimes it is.

But when time isn’t deliberately allocated to think through options, prepare decisions, or manage dependencies, uncertainty goes unmanaged. Risks don’t disappear; they surface later as delays or rework.

PMI encourages actively navigating uncertainty rather than reacting to it.

Urgent Requests Reveal System Weaknesses

Urgent calls and last-minute requests are part of project work.

I treat them as signals within the project system. They usually highlight misaligned expectations, incomplete information flow, or unclear interfaces between teams and stakeholders.

Repeated urgency is rarely a people issue. It’s a sign the system needs attention.

Healthy Projects Create Predictable Rhythm

Strong projects create cadence:

• Planned engagement

• Clear information flow

• Predictable decision points

When this is in place, my calendar reflects it.
Not busy. Not empty. Intentional.

I no longer see my calendar as a time-management tool.
I see it as an indicator of how well the project system is functioning.

When leadership, clarity, and value alignment are right, the calendar quietly shows it.

P.S. If this kind of practical, PMI-aligned thinking resonates, connect with me on LinkedIn if we’re not already connected.

See you next Saturday!