The Mirror on Our Desk

Hi dear,

This week passed really fast for me, I don’t know about yours.

And here I am sitting with my calendar this Sunday morning, looking back at the week that just passed. Not to grade it, not to measure how much I accomplished, just to notice. What’s on it. What isn’t. What took more space than I intended, and what somehow found its way in anyway.

Let me tell you, it’s a revealing exercise. Our calendars are one of the most honest mirrors we have. They don’t show us who we want to be, they show us where we actually spent our time, which is another way of saying: what we actually valued, in practice, this week.

This particular week had work bleeding past its edges again. Calls answered after I was already home. Emails that didn’t wait. I noticed that, and I’m naming it honestly.

But when I looked at the full picture, something else was also there: on Monday, I sat with my cousins for our first book club meeting around The Match Point Mindset. We talked about the book, yes, but what I didn’t expect was what it felt like to hear other women find themselves in something I had written. To learn from each other through it. That was not on any to-do list.

On Wednesday I met a friend for ice cream, a time of nourishment in many ways, to catch up and share our ups and downs, to support each other. And on Friday afternoon, with time I hadn’t planned for anything, I picked up the phone and called another friend, spontaneously, simply because I wanted to hear from her. And later that night, accompanied a friend who lost his brother suddenly to a tragic illness. A loss that suddenly made me think about how I’m spending my time.

That’s what I mean when I say mastering our calendars is about something deeper than scheduling. It’s not about control, it’s about intention, preparation, and grace. Yes, those three again.

Let me explain myself. Intention, of being deliberate about what belongs on your calendar in the first place. Not everything that arrives deserves a slot. Some things do, and knowing the difference is the practice.

Preparation in designing rhythms and anchors that protect what matters. A consistent time for movement. A weekly review like this one. Small structures that hold your rituals in place even when the week tries to pull you somewhere else.

And then grace, for leaving room. A window of time that belongs to no task, no obligation, no deliverable. Time that exists simply for you, to spend as the moment asks. Not earned, not scheduled for productivity. Just yours.
If you haven’t looked at last week’s calendar yet, I’d invite you to do it today. Not with judgment, with curiosity. Notice what’s there. Notice what isn’t. And then ask yourself: what does this week need to look like so that, next Sunday, what I see in that mirror is something closer to the life I’m building? To the woman I’m becoming?

Glad you’re here,

Sandrie

P.S. This week, protect one window of unscheduled time. Put it on the calendar so it doesn’t disappear. Label it whatever you like, just make sure it’s yours.