Why is having an empty day on your calendar — a No Events Scheduled day — such a THREAT? It should be a treat.

Seriously. Think about the last one you had.

I’m willing to bet it wasn’t a vacation day. And it probably wasn’t really planned (at least not in the ‘well, I was trying to keep Thursday open for X so one call won’t kill me’ way. And definitely not in the ‘I have over-scheduled myself for 74 days straight and I’m intentionally scheduling nothing’ only to be bored and begging for attention by 10 am way.)

The Blank Days sneak up on you. 

Someone innocently asks, “I got jammed up today. Cool if we push to tomorrow?” And then you look at ‘tomorrow’ and see nothing but blank space. Sometimes it’s so vacant that it’s not even someone you haven’t spoken to since the 3rd grade’s birthday. It’s really empty. Blank. Void. WTF.

First, you think your internet must be jacked and your calendar just hasn’t synched.

Then, you realize you’ve been streaming Love is Blind for 4+ hours (in the background) so the internet isn’t the issue.

Surely, you must have forgotten to add something. So you scan your notes. Check your emails. Texts. Slacks. Teams. Etc.

Nope, not there either.

There are at least five meetings you were trying to schedule… ok, digging through sent emails yes you offered times for ‘tomorrow’ but those didn’t work for people.

Fuck.

Quick scan through the To Do list and you either have a list of long put-off projects you were probably never actually dealing with OR you know you have a quantifiable shit ton of work to do and deadlines looming that would break a lesser person threatening to end your career. In either case, this ‘free day’ should be your saving grace.

But instead, it inspires a panic. It’s a threat. An as real as ghosts threat that tomorrow is going to screw you so disproportionately hard that you may never recover. Because… how could it not?

You go to bed and you don’t sleep because you have no idea what’s coming but you are 100% confident that it is. 

You wake up exhausted and terrified and equal parts desperate for espresso and a nap.

And you wait.

Then, because you have literally done nothing but will a shitstorm into existence to fill the nothingness on your calendar, the shitstorm arrives with a thwack upside your head and an IOU to collect.

Screw you empty calendar day… you think, not willing to tempt fate again.

“ I just did,” the emptiness answers. “See you again tomorrow.”