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Category: Tech Trends

June 21, 2026

The Art of Managing Your Shared Work Calendar

Maintaining control of your calendar at work can be harder than you’d think. If you’re looking for ways to help reduce friction in your schedule, here are my suggestions.

Part of an occasional series about solving technology challenges in the workplace *

Does your job involve lots of meetings? Does your daily schedule get regularly consumed by meeting invites? Do you find this interfering with the rest of your work? If so, then it’s time to take a more proactive approach to managing your shared work calendar.

This is something of an art that each of us must ultimately curate for ourselves. And no matter where you are in your career, it requires ongoing attention and perhaps a few reminders. 

So, here are my best practices. 

Block ‘Focus Time’ for Your Own Work

Everyone usually has a plan regarding what they need to accomplish on a given day or week. But if you leave your calendar wide open, you may find a deluge of meeting invites redirecting your focus away from immediate priorities.

That’s why blocking time for yourself in your shared calendar is critical to maintaining the right balance in how you spend your time.

This is about actively architecting your day to optimize your own output instead of passively responding to a myriad ofother tidal forces that can drain your effectiveness.

Make Yourself Available Too

But if the nature of your job requires ongoing collaboration, then you also need to make yourself sufficiently available for these other meetings. Blocking off too much time can isolate you and frustrate others.

As in many other parts of life, this comes down to finding the right balance. So, it’s important to leave enough availability on your calendar for your colleagues to utilize. 

How much time should you leave open? Well, only you can determine that. You’ll quickly discover if it’s not the right amount. Otherwise, you may find colleagues double booking your schedule. 

Don’t Get Double Booked

If these double bookings conflict with your own ‘focus time,’ well, that’s easy enough to manage.

But what if they conflict with other important meetings? Well, of course you can’t attend two meetings simultaneously. 

So now, you’ve got to figure out how to repair your schedule.

Pro Scheduling Tips

Here are a few more scheduling tips to help optimize your work calendar.

  • Choose the Best Times for Your Own Meetings
    All time slots throughout a day are not created equal. If you’ve got your own meetings to schedule, it’s important to pick the times that work best for you. (Everyone has a sense when they’re most effective during the day.)
  • Avoid Scheduling Meetings at the End of the Day
    If you can help it, try not to take that very last slot. Sure, it might be the only time that everyone has open. But no one will appreciate this. I recommend you wait a day to find a better option. Everyone will be in better spirits, and that alone can drive a meeting’s success.
  • Don’t Miss Lunch!
    If you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself without time to grab a bite to eat. So scheduling time for your own lunch is critical. There’s nothing worse than a mid-afternoon meeting on an empty stomach.

Playing Both Defense and Offense

Yes, you’ve got to protect your calendar for your own priorities. But if work is a team sport, you’ll always want to actively engage with others and satisfy group requirements. So, your success also flows through all those other meetings.

When you reduce friction in your schedule, then you can focus on doing your best work.Said another way, the more you can successfully manage the ‘when,’ the easier it will be to accomplish the ‘what.’

* Related topics I’ve written about:
Working from Home Sounds Great Until You Notice What’s Missing
5 Ways to Ease the Pain of Returning to the Office 5 Days a Week
How to Master your Zoom Meetings to Increase your Impact at Work
Don’t Miss this Important Part of an Effective Work Email

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June 7, 2026

Why “The Mandalorian and Grogu” Didn’t Fill Theaters

This is a good summer movie that lots of Star Wars fans skipped. Here is why I think so many people didn’t come back for more Mando and Baby Yoda.

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” has clearly underperformed at the box office. This is not the way. So, what went wrong?

First off, this is not a bad movie. In many ways, director John Favreau has given us the perfect summer flick. Action-packed. Fun. Great special effects.  And the cutest character in a galaxy far, far away.

Plus, it’s fresh “Star Wars” material. We haven’t seen a new movie in over six years.

But with all that is good with it, there’s also this feeling of… been there/seen that.

Nothing New

If there had not been three previous streaming seasons of “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ (2019-2023), I think this movie would have performed much better.

The series had time to provide a deep experience regarding Din Djarin’s backstory. His bounty hunting adventures were only part of the larger narrative, including the Mandalorian people and culture.

But the movie couldn’t simply pick up from where the series left off, because not all movie goers would know (or remember) the previous plot points.

So, the movie was effectively forced to exist as a standalone and otherwise disconnected bounty-hunting adventure. Everything else from the series had to be stripped away.

As a result, Mandalorian fans didn’t get to see anything especially new.

A Razor Crest Isn’t Just Another Ship

Sure, there are a few new characters here, but if you’re a Mando fan, you might be disappointed after watching the movie, because the larger story arc didn’t move forward.

Yes, there were lots of background references to the larger series, but few were allowed enough time to create emotional impact. 

Even the moment when (minor spoiler) we see the new Razor Crest, there’s barely a pause in the dialogue as Mando takes this replacement for his previously destroyed ship (season 2, episode 6).

I listened for an emotional surge in the music, but it never came. He admired this particular ship’s restoration, but you wouldn’t otherwise know the importance of Mando flying another Razor Crest.

The ‘Dadalorian’

I’ve read many reviews that said this felt like a few episodes stitched together. Yes, I agree this could easily have been part of a season 4.

But guess what? We didn’t get season 4.

And quite frankly, I was happy to get to watch a few more episodes, so to speak.

And it’s always nice to spend a little more time with Pedro Paskal’s ‘Dadalorian’ and Grogu.

Baby Yoda Rocks

And if you’re a Grogu fan, you’re in luck. Baby Yoda has a lot to do here.

He delighted the row of kids who were sitting in front of me in the theater. But they certainly weren’t old enough to officially be part of the PG-13 crowd.

Which makes you wonder about the target audience for this movie. It’s PG-13 for all the fighting. And G-rated for Grogu. That’s a difficult balance to maintain to satisfy everyone.

The Challenge Turning a Series into a Movie

I think in many ways it just comes down to this: Successfully converting a TV series into a big screen movie with the same cast is often hard to do.

“Firefly” couldn’t get “Serenity” to fly.

Sure, “Star Trek” did it, but it needed two attempts, and “The Wrath of Khan” certainly didn’t play it safe.

Sigourney Weaver Stopped By

Not only did this Mandalorian flick play it safe, it felt like an extended premiere of season 4.

And while that was fine with me, that won’t draw the crowds who will otherwise watch it in a few months (weeks?) on Disney+.

But wait! This movie’s got the great Sigourney Weaver. Hmmm… well, she actually didn’t seem that excited to be there.

Hold on… We’re introduced to not one, but three Hutt characters, including Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), who is Jabba the Hutt’s son. While that’s certainly interesting to some, more giant slug Hutts didn’t fill seats.

Grogu is Sad

Still, this is a solid movie, and I enjoyed seeing it in a theater. But it was just not enough to satisfy the broader fan base. It feels like the entire human race is quickly losing interest in this particular galaxy that’s now almost half a century old.

As a result, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” has already disappeared from my local multiplex on week 3 of its release. (I’m sure that made Grogu cry.)

At this point, can anything save this franchise? 

“Star Wars: Starfighter,” directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling is set to launch in theaters on May 28, 2027.

I certainly hope the Force is stronger with this next one.

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May 31, 2026

How to Use Claude AI to Find New Streaming Movies for Family Movie Night 

Instead of manually searching through each of my streaming apps to find new film releases each week, I did this instead using Claude.

In our house, streaming a movie on a Friday night isn’t just fun, it’s become something of a family tradition. Each week for more than a decade, I’ve curated a list of films for my wife and son to stream with me. (We usually choose one after I play all the trailers.)

As you can imagine, the movie choices were more limited when our son was younger. (Don’t ask how many times we watched, “The LEGO Movie.”) Now that our boy is in high school, he’s ready for a wider range of options. 

But that still doesn’t make our movie selection process easy. We’re three people with three different tastes in movies. I can often predict what our son will like, but not always. 

“John Carter?”

I’ve got a running joke going with him regarding Disney’s “John Carter.” That flick’s been on my list since our son was in elementary school. Even though it was an absolute box office bomb, I thought this silly adventure on Mars was fun. Plus, its parallel Civil War era dark vibe provided an interesting stylistic twist. 

I’ve always felt it was the perfect Friday night choice. But he’s probably turned it down at least 100 times. (I think I might want to take it off the list.) 

I Always Need More Choices

The truth is Barrett’s movie list doesn’t always contain a collective choice to watch each week.

So, I’m always looking for new options to offer up. And it feels crazy to say that with eight streaming platforms to choose from, it’s been challenging to find enough fresh releases. (This has become increasingly difficult since the pandemic and the overall decrease of movies being made today.)

Hurry!

Every Friday evening before dinner, I find myself quickly scouring through all my streaming apps in search of any new releases to add to my list.

And let me tell you, this process always feels like it takes forever as I hunt around! 

Wouldn’t it better if I could put a little AI-oomph into this process to speed up my search?

And that’s exactly what I just did.

Set up a Claude Project

So, I went to my Claude AI assistant and asked it for help on how I should set up this movie search to repeat regularly. It suggested I create a Claude Project.

You can do that by navigating to the left sidebar and clicking on “Projects.” 

  • Click on “New Project”
  • Add in the “Description”
  • Then add in the “Instructions”

The “Instructions” field is for your prompt, which provides the directions for Claude to follow.

Here’s the prompt that Claude created for me to use:

  • When I ask for new streaming movie releases, search each service individually with separate web searches — one each for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Max, Hulu, Apple TV+, Peacock, and Paramount+. Cross-reference with Rotten Tomatoes and JustWatch. Do NOT use a single combined search. Group results by service and include: title, date added, genre, and Rotten Tomatoes score where available. Only include movies, not TV shows or specials. Include results for the most recent seven days. (I added in that last sentence.)

You, of course, can use this prompt as well. Just modify it with your particular list of streaming services.

Creating My Movie List in Seconds

So, I quickly set up this Claude Project and then ran it. It instantly got to work searching a variety of websites that track new streaming movie releases for the platforms I listed.

And then about ten seconds later, Claude provided me a report with all the new movies I should consider, sorted by streaming service and complete with brief descriptions.

It was perfect.

(You don’t need to set up a Claude Project for this. You can just run the prompt as part of a regular chat question. But the project makes it ready to go for the next time.)

A Huge Time Saver

Wow. Why didn’t I think I this sooner?

Claude isn’t the only AI assistant out there that can do this trick. (It just happened to be the one I used for this exercise.)

Now, I can accomplish this movie search in seconds. That’s quite the time saver.

Barrett’s Movie List

I must admit that presenting my movie list has become a bit of an eye-rolling moment for my family after all these years. But they still let me do it.

And you might be asking… where are their lists? Exactly.

Somehow, I’ve fashioned myself as the all-knowing movie critic in our family. (In my defense, I have been writing movie reviews as a hobby since I was in college.)

But that doesn’t really make me an authority any more than you.

Thank You, Claude

At best, my movie list is a quaint family tradition. We’ll leave it at that.

And by the way, our son is growing up. Did I mention he’s in high school already?

So, Friday movie night doesn’t happen regularly anymore. And when we do sit down together after dinner, it’s often to watch the next episode from a series we’re watching. (We’re currently enjoying “Dark Matter” on Apple TV.)

But I will always have a few movies to suggest whenever the moment calls for it.

And now, Claude gets to do all the research work for me.

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