By Joe Byerly
As a younger Army officer, I used to see a week or two of empty space on the calendar before a major exercise and think: “Perfect! I’ll schedule some training or professional development for the team.”
But as the events I planned crept closer, something always happened.
I got crushed.
The calendar filled with meetings, rehearsals, inspections, and the mounting mental load that comes with prepping for a major operation. Suddenly, all that “white space” was gone. And inevitably, I had to cancel the things I had scheduled. There was “just too much going on.”
It became a cycle: See space. Fill space. Get overwhelmed. Cancel. Repeat.
What I didn’t have the words for back then—but I do now—is something I call “Time pollution”.
It’s the carbon footprint of our commitments.
Just like every human activity, from building smartphones or flying planes to running factories, generates emissions that slowly harm the environment, every task or meeting we agree to carries its own hidden cost. It’s not just the hour on the calendar—It’s sitting in traffic or navigating the long TSA lines at the airport, it’s the cognitive burden, the prep work, the meetings, the stress of meeting deadlines.
It’s the friction we don’t see until we feel it.
Time pollution causes mental fatigue, background stress, and drains the hell out of us. It affects how we work, but also how we show up in our relationships, our health, and our personal growth.
Like smog, it chokes us.
And like smog, it reduces visibility. It clouds our clarity. It fills every margin and robs us of the space we need to think, to reflect, to lead with intention.
In my last assignment as an Army officer, I started approaching my schedule, and more importantly, my organization’s calendar differently. I tried to estimate the pollution each event, each meeting, and every “good idea” I had would produce. I started to ask myself:
How much prep will this take?
What mental bandwidth will it drain?
What will it displace?
I also communicated that load to others. I didn’t just put an event on the calendar—I included the burden that came with it. I wanted people to see the full weight of what we were signing up for.
Everything we do has a carbon footprint.
Every commitment carries hidden costs.
When we start acknowledging not just the task, but the toll that comes from all the things that come along with it, we can avoid overloading ourselves. We can lead with more intention and create space for the things that truly matter.
Joe Byerly is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years of service, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and command of a cavalry squadron in Europe. He earned numerous prestigious awards, including multiple Legion of Merits, Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award. In 2013, Joe founded From the Green Notebook.
A passionate advocate for self-knowledge through reading and reflection, he authored The Leader’s 90-Day Notebook and co-authored My Green Notebook: “Know Thyself” Before Changing Jobs, a resource for leaders seeking greater self-awareness. If this post resonated with you or sparked any questions, feel free to reach out to him at Joe@fromthegreennotebook.com.
