7 tips for managing your calendar

 

Managing your team is key to successful work.  Staying on track and on-time for important projects tasks and meetings shows both conscientiousness and professionalism.  It helps to reduce your stress as well and feel playful about your work. As the old saying goes you need to "Plan your work and work your plan." This has never been more true than in today's fast paced, high pressure work environments.  Here are X tips for managing your calendar.

1. Create routines

You may have the same type of tasks that are due each, or each week.  Schedule these 1 time and use your calendars 'recurrence' function to automatically schedule these tasks in the future. For example if you need to review expense reports every Friday afternoon, schedule it once for this coming Friday and then make it a recurring calendar invite for every Friday.  Now you don't have to find the time each week to get it done.  You've already set it aside.

2. Blocking focus time

Set aside time each day for focus time. Focus time is an uninterrupted block for 1-2 hours where you can focus on whatever important tasks have come up. This may be responding to customer inquiries, reading self-development articles, cleaning out your email inbox or taking time to reflect on your work and plan next steps. Whatever you use the time for, make sure that you have set aside time each day to focus without interruptions.

3. Being honest about your availability

Your time is precious. If you're asked to participate in meetings or projects, be sure that you review your calendar before you say yes. You want to make sure that you can actually make the team stay focused and engaged. Be honest with yourself and the person requesting your time about whether you can attend. If you're already booked at that time and don't have time open, tell them directly that you don't have availability at this time. Learning how to say no and why saying no can actually improve your performance is an important skill. Make sure that you guard your time wisely.

4. Organize your calendar

Most calendar apps allow you to group your meetings in different ways.  Outlook and Google calendars let you assign colors to your meetings.  Apple lets you use multiple virtual calendars and have them show up as one calendar.  These methods allow you to look at your day or week and see what kinds of meetings and events you have. This can help you plan and stay organized.  If you're missing a green team meeting invite for your regular team meeting it will jump out at you and remind you to get it scheduled. 

5. Adjust meeting lengths

Not every meeting has to be 1 hour. Adjust meeting lengths for the amount of time that will actually be needed, but don't over schedule.  Meetings that last more than 1 hour tend to result in attendees becoming disengaged.  Plan your meeting agenda ahead of time and schedule just enough time to get through it.  This will keep everyone on task and allow you to move on with your day.

6. Schedule buffers between meetings

Don't schedule meetings back to back.  Give yourself 10-15 minutes between meetings. This accounts for meetings that go over by a few minutes and also allows you time for a quick bio break or to grab another cup of coffee.  It also ensures that you don't have to join your meeting late, apologizing that your last meeting ran long. 

7. Have a set work day.

Regardless of what time of the day your work normally occurs, set up a regular workday. This may be 9-5 or some other time, but be sure that it's clear on your calendar when your workday begins and ends. Block the personal time out on your calendar if that helps you visualize it. Being able to see this transition on your calendar will help keep you focused and on task.  It will also help you know when you can and can't fit a meeting on your calendar. 

What strategies do you use to manage your time?  Tell us below!