Reverse the default: unavailable except during office hours, not available unless blocked — protect deep work by design

Why This Is a Rule

The default calendar assumption — "available unless blocked" — puts the burden of protection on the maker. Every block of deep work must be actively defended against meeting requests. This is a losing game: it requires constant vigilance, each defense costs social capital ("Sorry, I'm busy then"), and any gap in defense is immediately filled by others' scheduling needs. The maker is playing defense against an unlimited offense.

Reversing the default to "unavailable except during designated windows" inverts the dynamic. Now the maker's deep work is protected by default, and the burden shifts to meeting requesters to fit within the available windows. This is the same principle behind university professor office hours: the professor is available during posted hours and presumed unavailable otherwise. No one is offended by "not available" because the available windows are clearly communicated.

The structural insight is that defaults determine outcomes. When the default is "available," you attend most meetings and protect deep work with effort. When the default is "unavailable," you protect deep work automatically and attend meetings only during designated windows. Same 168 hours per week, radically different distribution of time between maker-mode and manager-mode.

When This Fires

• When your calendar is consistently filled by others' meeting requests despite attempts to protect blocks
• When deep work only happens "when there are no meetings" rather than by design
• When implementing Consolidate meetings into 1-2 designated days — meeting distribution destroys more capacity than meeting duration (meeting consolidation) and needing the enforcement mechanism
• When the social cost of declining individual meetings is higher than you want to pay repeatedly

Common Failure Mode

Half-measures: blocking "focus time" on the calendar but still accepting meeting requests that override it. If the focus blocks aren't treated as genuinely unavailable — if "blocked" means "available if important enough" — the default hasn't actually been reversed. The blocks erode within weeks.

The Protocol

(1) Designate specific windows as office hours: times when you're available for meetings, questions, and coordination. Communicate these clearly to anyone who schedules with you. (2) Outside office hours, your default is unavailable. Not "busy," not "in a meeting" — genuinely not scheduling anything. (3) When someone requests time outside office hours, redirect: "I'm available during my office hours [times]. Would any of those work?" (4) Make exceptions only for genuine emergencies or escalations — not for convenience or preference. (5) Pair with Consolidate meetings into 1-2 designated days — meeting distribution destroys more capacity than meeting duration: office hours should fall on meeting days. Non-meeting days have no office hours, creating full protected days for maker work.