You can’t do deep, creative work when meetings constantly disrupt your flow and hurt your productivity. To give yourself time and space to focus, have one day a week when nothing can interrupt you — no texts, no emails, no phone calls, and absolutely no meetings.

o Block this day off on your calendar, and tell colleagues that you’ll be unreachable because you’re working on critical projects. Of course, something urgent may come up anyway, but try your best to keep the day from being compromised.

o Stick to a simple rule: You can move your unreachable day around during a week — maybe it’s Wednesday one week and Thursday the next — but you can’t remove it from your calendar or push it to the following week.

As you get into the routine of taking these days for focused work, it’ll be easier for you, and the people around you, to keep them sacred.

Adapted from “Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week,” by Neil Pasricha