I work with a team from PT->CET and am in UTC-0 so no joke the first thirty minutes to an hour of my day is catching up with the rest of what happened the previous day and what’s going on at the start of the next day. I don’t need to schedule it because thankfully my morning is usually quiet but it’s common enough I mention it in my work log.
I don’t think this is unplanned work so much as unrecognised work. Few Gantt charts etc. keep track of that overhead like the overhead from ‘surprise’ tasks.
To an extent, for me at least I get a great block in the morning to early afternoon then a lot of meetings that are mostly 1:1s with direct reports and strategy/planning clustered around PT morning and my evening. I like that though but it’s a struggle to not be brain dead especially with people freshly awake and full of coffee.
I don’t think this is unplanned work so much as unrecognised work. Few Gantt charts etc. keep track of that overhead like the overhead from ‘surprise’ tasks.