I also manage, have plenty of 1:1s. Some things stand out to me. Some of these daily meetings happen far too often. Many of these meetings should not be weekly.

I also manage, have plenty of 1:1s. Some things stand out to me. Some of these daily meetings happen far too often. Many of these meetings should not be weekly. I find a good rule of thumb is to only have weekly meetings if they serve the individual or team, but insist on meeting at least every other week for core contributors and stakeholders. This person could easily get ten hours a week to "do" things, but they wouldn't necessarily be consecutive, or easily applied to deep problems that a very senior IC could solve. This is the dilemma of the manager's schedule. I try to optimize what time I have for solving problems that are valuable but not quite worth my teams' time to solve. Depending on demand, I may have more meetings to "pad" my week (i.e. discover and anticipate things my teams can effectively solve for), or even cancel less important meetings in favor for accelerating more timely business value. The hallmark of a mature manager is knowing what meetings you can turn down, and what a justifiable alternative is to that meeting. It takes time to learn, and there's a lot of playing by ear. The author will get there. One more thing to note: being a manager doesn't mean you shouldn't find time for yourself during your work day. It's a bummer to see the excited tone with which the author takes the rare lunch, and the firm but somewhat embarrassed tone of taking time during the work week for a doctor's appointment. Everyone's health and sanity is important. Managers must act as role models here to help their teams maintain a healthy work/life balance.