Whenever anyone says this to me, my first response (in my head) years ago, used to be:
“Are you mad? How can anyone be productive when the first thing they do at the start of the week is get into a meeting?”
Of course, I never said it.
Now, whenever I have such a request, here’s what I do:
- Do not respond for the first few hours
- Come back with some work I will send them for them to consume on a Monday
- Get on a call Tuesday second half. No calls before Tuesday second half. I get momentum into the week, get it rolling, and still at the start of the week for the conversations of the week to get the execution on the conversation done.
Your time is limited. You know that.
But your focus is even limited. Don’t trade that for anything, and everything you want will come back to you in a river.