Meet the new Clockwise

We recently launched a brand new Clockwise, and our Product Team demoed the experience during our Meet the New Clockwise webinar on February 9, 2023. Watch the full webinar recording below or read on for a summary of what we shared.

The secret to a happier and healthier workday in 2023 = your calendar

Time. It’s something we never seem to have enough of, and nearly impossible to create. And yet, it is so easily lost and frequently wasted. And while none of us want to waste time, we keep letting it happen.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

The new year is the ideal moment to reset our intentions and think optimistically about how we want to spend our time over the months ahead. At Clockwise, our mission is to make time for what matters, and for many of you, that means finding the right balance for achieving priorities — both at work and at home. 

That’s why we’ve completely reimagined how our users interact with Clockwise by launching a brand new experience that will help you convert wasted time into productive time.

This new Clockwise, which lives on the web, is your home base to configure, evaluate, and manage your calendar with the ultimate goal of curating a sustainable schedule you love in 2023 (read: one that leaves you feeling happy and healthy!). 

Scroll on to see what’s new and get tips for resetting your calendar for the year ahead.

Gather insights on how you use your time

Looking back before you look forward is the first step in properly resetting your calendar for the new year. 

The Home tab offers a quick glimpse at your recent time allocation so you can quickly identify where you might be wasting time. From here you can manage your preferences, scheduling links, and connected apps – everything you need in one place to craft a healthier calendar in 2023. 

Reset your Focus Time goals

Despite all of your best intentions to make the most of Focus Time, we’ve learned that many of you aren’t getting enough blocks of uninterrupted time for deep work as you want. The new Clockwise elevates how much Focus Time you achieved in the last week and benchmarks how that compares with your previous week. 

If you’re not happy with how much Focus Time you’re getting, the start of a new year is the perfect time to re-evaluate your weekly goal. Head to the tab labeled Your ideal day.  In just a few clicks, you can choose a goal for the year, designate your availability for others to schedule over your Focus Time, and set your notification preferences. 

Not sure how to pick a number? When setting your Focus Time goal, try to pick a number that balances your time spent in meetings with how much Focus Time you need to complete your work, and how much open space you need to remain available for ad-hoc meetings. Think about your role as well – individual contributors benefit from blocking more hours for Focus Time, whereas a people manager may want to mark their Focus Time as available for team support. 

Once you’ve set your preferences, we’ll sprinkle on some Clockwise confetti to schedule blocks of uninterrupted Focus Time to help you achieve your weekly goal. 

Defrag your day with flexible meetings 

There’s nothing worse than days packed full of scattered meetings – the ones with numerous, disjointed, 30-minute slots between events that leave you feeling ever-so-busy but never productive. This is the definition of wasted time.   

If a fragmented schedule is killing your flow, be sure to turn on flexible meetings.

When you mark a meeting as flexible, that gives Clockwise permission to move it to a time that is more convenient for the attendees and available on everyone’s schedules. By consolidating flexible events and getting meetings out of your way, Clockwise actually unlocks blocks in your schedule that weren’t there before, significantly reducing wasted time in your day. 

Clockwise fights fragmentation in your calendar to make sure that your workday works for you. You can see this in action in the Flexible meetings tab, where you can view and manage all your flexible meetings, from recurring one-on-ones to one-off team meetings, in a single view. 

Once you’re in the Flexible meetings tab, don’t miss the section of suggestions for additional meetings that Clockwise recommends marking as flexible. Ultimately, the more meetings you mark as flexible, the more you’ll reduce wasted time and create additional Focus Time – not just for yourself, but for anyone you meet with, too. 

Achieve your priorities with flexible holds

A large part of making your work schedule more sustainable is having designated time, outside of meetings, for the things that are important to you that day. 

In the Flexible holds tab, you can create a routine for a recurring activity (like a reminder to take a walk) or block time for a one-off task (like creating that slide deck for your upcoming product demo. Exactly when these activities happen doesn’t matter, just that they do. 

You can set up routines and tasks for anything where you are the only “attendee”. Not sure where to start? Here are some ideas.

Sample recurring routines: 

• Go for a walk
• Get a coffee
• Clear out email inbox
• Meditate, exercise, or stretch
• Send gratitude to teammates
• Submit expenses
• Prep for weekly meeting
• Review metrics/analytics
• Write weekly wrap-up

Sample one-off tasks: 

• Prepare slides/agenda for a specific meeting
• Provide feedback for a colleague
• Write a performance review
• Call to make a personal appointment

You can manage all your routines and tasks from the Flexible holds tab. As your schedule changes throughout the week, Clockwise will automatically shuffle these events so your calendar reacts as your day evolves. 

Revisit your ideal day 

While you’re at it, it’s a good time to revisit your other basic Clockwise settings, found in Your ideal day, to ensure your workday continues to work for you. 

Meeting breaks: If your days tend to be meeting-heavy no matter what, it’s still possible to set healthy boundaries within your schedule. By turning on meeting breaks, Clockwise will automatically block time for you to reset and catch your breath between hours of back-to-back meetings. 

‍Lunch holds: Preserve time in your schedule and prevent others from booking over your lunch. Clockwise will shuffle your lunch around to accommodate other meetings but ensure you still have designated time to grab a bite. 

Turn down calendar chaos and take control in 2023

What if this is the year we stop accepting that time is meant to be wasted? Now is the perfect moment to be more intentional with our time by resetting our calendars. When you let Clockwise take care of the messy scheduling work, you can focus on establishing healthy habits and achieving your priorities. And that’s a calendar we can all get excited about.