✨ This article covers Reclaim 2.0 features and workflows. You can confirm your current app version on your User Profile. If you signed up after May 2026, you’re already using Reclaim 2.0.
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What is the Defend Meeting Overload Agent?
The Defend Meeting Overload Agent helps prevent meetings from taking over your entire workweek.
You decide how many hours of meetings you’re willing to take in a day, a week, or both. As your calendar approaches those limits, Reclaim starts protecting the remaining time with Focus Time events so you still have room for heads-down work.
Unlike the standard Focus Time Agent, which proactively works toward a weekly Focus Time goal, Defend Meeting Overload responds to how meeting-heavy your schedule becomes. As meetings fill your calendar, Reclaim can start protecting the remaining space with Focus Time so your availability doesn’t continue disappearing.
Defend Meeting Overload is useful when you want to stay flexible for meetings without letting them consume your entire schedule. Set the limits that feel sustainable for your week, and Reclaim can start protecting Focus Time when your meeting load gets too high.
How to create a Defend Meeting Overload Agent
You can create the Agent in a few ways:
Click +Add from your Agents list and choose Defend Meeting Overload from the Focus section of the Agent Library
Use the +Create button in the top navigation
Ask Reclaim Chat to set it up for you
For example: 'Keep me under 4 hours of meetings per day and 15 hours per week.'
When you create or edit the Agent, Reclaim will show the proposed calendar impact in Preview Mode first so you can review the changes before applying them.
Setting your meeting limits
The most important settings are your Meeting Maximums. You can use a daily limit, a weekly limit, or both.
Weekly max for meetings: Set the maximum number of meeting hours you want across your week
Daily max for meetings: Set the maximum number of meeting hours you want on any one day
These limits tell Reclaim when your calendar is becoming too meeting-heavy and when it should start protecting more Focus Time.
You can also configure:
Minimum event duration: The shortest Focus Time block Reclaim can create. Increase this if you prefer fewer, longer blocks instead of several short ones.
Scheduling hours: When Reclaim can protect Focus Time, using your Working Hours by default or custom One-off Hours.
Scheduling conflicts: Whether Reclaim can auto-decline meetings that interrupt protected Focus Time and optionally send a message to the organizer.
How Defend Meeting Overload works on your calendar
Defend Meeting Overload creates Focus Time events to protect the space left in your schedule as you approach your meeting limits.
Like other Reclaim smart events, these Focus Time blocks stay flexible and can adjust around higher-priority events.
A few things to know:
If you accept another event over Focus Time, Reclaim can automatically move the Focus block to another available time.
If you manually move a Focus Time event, Reclaim locks that occurrence and stops automatically rescheduling it.
If you delete a Focus Time event, Reclaim treats that occurrence as skipped and won’t try to replace it in the same time range.
This lets you stay available for meetings while there’s still room in your schedule, then progressively protects more time as you reach the limits you’ve set.
Using Defend Meeting Overload with Focus Time
Defend Meeting Overload and Focus Time agents work well together, but they approach the same problem from different directions.
Focus Time proactively works toward a weekly goal for productive, heads-down time.
Defend Meeting Overload reacts to your meeting load and starts protecting Focus Time as you approach your daily or weekly meeting maximum.
You can use either Agent on its own or run both together.
For example, Focus Time might make sure you get at least 10 hours of heads-down work each week, while Defend Meeting Overload prevents your meetings from exceeding 4 hours on any single day.
Both Agents create the same type of Focus Time event on your calendar, so the experience stays consistent. You can also customize their event names if you want to tell the two apart.
How Focus Time is prioritized on the calendar
Focus Agents work a little differently from other Reclaim Agents.
The Agent itself is pinned to Low priority, which gives other Agents like Habits and Smart Meetings room to schedule first. This allows Reclaim to keep your schedule flexible while still strongly protecting the Focus Time once your calendar needs it.
Once the Focus Time is actually scheduled on your calendar, however, the Focus events are treated as High priority. That means only Critical Scheduling Links can offer those time slots as available for booking.
Learn more about prioritization in our Priorities Overview doc.
Defend Meeting Overload troubleshooting
I don’t see any Focus Time on my calendar?
Check your daily and weekly meeting limits.
If you haven’t reached or approached those limits yet, Reclaim may not need to protect additional Focus Time.
I’m getting lots of short Focus Time blocks scattered in the week
Increase the Minimum event duration.
A longer minimum gives Reclaim fewer opportunities to place Focus Time, but the resulting blocks will be longer.
Meetings are still being booked during my Focus Time
Focus Time protects the space with a busy event, but the Agent does not automatically decline every new meeting request.
If you want stronger protection, review your scheduling conflict settings and enable an auto-decline option where appropriate.
Your Scheduling Link priorities also affect which links can offer protected Focus Time as available. Learn more about prioritization in our Priorities Overview doc.
Need more help?
If you have questions or run into issues, reach out to the Reclaim support team at [email protected] or use the in-app chat to get help.