Fun, Harmless “Life Hack”
Here's something I've learned recently. If you're in a position where you end up scheduling a lot of meetings, and attending a lot of meetings, you can protect your calendar in a very simple way:
Schedule “jagged” meetings.
By which I mean meetings that start at fifteen minutes before or after the hour. Most people tend to schedule meetings on the hour or on the half hour, and will naturally leave the fifteen minutes before your “jagged” meeting alone. Occasionally they'll leave you a full 45 minutes before a meeting.
This gives everyone who is attending your meeting time to prepare, and gives you a little breathing room in your schedule as well.
It works on the other end as well. You don't usually need hour-long meetings, schedule them for 45 minutes, and everyone has a few minutes of breathing space at the end.