Chaos to Clarity

How to Time Block for the Stuff That Keeps Stealing Your Time

The Same Fire, Every Thursday

I remember this stretch where every Thursday at 2:00pm, my day would go sideways.

It didn’t matter what I had planned—deep work, writing, coaching prep—it always got blown up.

Someone would call needing something last-minute. A client would shift their schedule. I’d realize I forgot to send something earlier in the week and scramble to fix it.

It didn’t feel like chaos. It felt like firefighting. And I was good at it. But I was also exhausted.

The funny part? I kept blocking my calendar for “deep focus” like nothing was going to happen.

I finally sat down one day and looked at my Chaos Time log. And guess what? That Thursday 2:00pm pattern had shown up three weeks in a row. I’d just never stopped to notice.

It was time to stop playing defense—and get ahead of the chaos.

Use Chaos Time Patterns to Shape Your Calendar

If you’ve been tracking what keeps popping up in your Chaos Time, you’re sitting on gold.

Because chaos leaves clues.

Once you start spotting the patterns—recurring last-minute requests, consistent energy dips, calls that keep creeping in—you can plan for them instead of getting steamrolled by them.

Here’s the process I used:

  1. Review Your Chaos Time Journal – What came up? When? From who? Why?
  2. Spot the Themes – Is it a certain client? A type of task? A specific time of day or week?
  3. Reblock Your Calendar – Proactively create space for those things before they hijack you again.

Maybe it’s client “overflow” time every Thursday afternoon. Maybe it’s a 20-minute admin block after every coaching call to catch your breath and send follow-ups. Maybe it’s planning for low-energy work at 3pm because that’s when you hit a wall.

Your calendar should reflect your actual life—not just your ideal life.

From Firefighting to Flow

Once I started blocking out “Flex Time” every Thursday from 2:00–3:30, everything shifted.

That block became a pressure release valve.

Sometimes I’d use it for follow-up calls, sometimes for errands, sometimes to catch up on stuff I’d dropped earlier in the week. The point is—I stopped pretending my life was going to run on a perfect track.

I started respecting the patterns my life was showing me.

And when I did that, something wild happened:

I actually had more energy and focus during my real deep work times… because I wasn’t bracing for the next fire.