The following calendar management tips will help you easily save time and make use of your calendar with ease.
Spend time on the presentation of the calendar
When you get a calendar, you need to make it such that you like to refer to it. If you start to write way too many things on it or you schedule a lot, then it will look very messy. You don’t want to avoid looking at the calendar either. This is why it is important that you do spend time trying to present your calendar in a good way. For example, you can use color for different segments in your calendar. This will help you get an overview of your calendar easily. You will be able to see your free time and where you have allocated your time conveniently.
Review calendar regularly
If you don’t do this already, then it is time that you start. This is one of the important calendar management tips. You need to review your calendar every week and every month. This will help you have a crystal clear idea about what you will be doing in the coming week and month. It helps you take a look at the big picture and see if your calendar is balanced out. Do you have too many things going on a particular day and is the following day way too free? Since you will be able to see what you need to do, you can make changes accordingly.
Be clear about goals and objectives.
When you are writing your plans on a calendar, you need to be clear about what your goals and objectives are. Then you can set your priorities according to those goals. When you do not have proper goals, or you don’t spend time thinking of goals, you might schedule your time for things that don’t have much value. This is why it is important that you give value to goals and think about them before you start to plan using your calendar. Similarly, you can think about the objectives as well.
Work when most productive.
It does without saying that you should always work when you can be most productive. For early birds, the morning time is the best time to work while for others it can be late at night. You need to ensure that you do not let the productive time go to waste. You should schedule work and do it at that time. It is especially beneficial if you spend the time doing something that you normally find a little tough. Please avoid meetings and gatherings at these times so that you can get some work done instead. This will help you use your time efficiently.
Resolve conflicts immediately
This is one of those calendar management tips that will create a good habit in you. When you have conflicts in your calendar, you should address them immediately. Don’t wait for the right time because it won’t come. Resolve your conflicts immediately. This helps you to do things right away instead of procrastinating, or worse yet, forgetting about it altogether. If you ignore resolving conflicts for too long, then you will have a tough time later on. You want to be able to resolve your problems as they arise, so you are not stressing out later and wasting time.
Schedule meetings properly
When it comes to scheduling meetings, you should take care when you do so. You don’t want meetings to take a lot of time on your calendar. If you think that you waste a lot of times on meetings, then it is time to cut that down. You should schedule meetings only when you are 100% sure that the meeting is of value. Otherwise, it is only going to waste your time and the time of others. You can ensure that you have meetings together, on the same day if possible. You can leave some gap between different meetings.
Conduct meetings efficiently
Sometimes meetings go on and on, and nothing good comes out of it. People go their ways thinking of what a waste it was. When you are conducting meetings, it is important that you don’t schedule them for a long time. That is, schedule them for half an hour maximum. This will ensure that no time is wasted on small talk or beating around the bush. When you are conducting meetings, you should ensure you complete on time and keep it concise. You can avoid the roll call if possible too because it only wastes a lot of time.
Just do it
This is one of the calendar management tips that are helpful in many endeavors. There are some things that you can do then and there. If so, then do them. Do not leave small 5 minute tasks for a much later time. It does not mean that when you are immersed in a project, you love you start to check and respond to an email that you receive. You have to be smart about what you do. Just remember to complete the important task quickly if it is going to take only a few minutes. It is best to avoid procrastination else you will turn it into a habit.
Set aside time for emails and phone calls
When it comes to checking emails and notifications, we want to do it as soon as we see them. Many employees make this mistake but end up wasting more time than necessary. Let us say you got an email from a client and you start to write a long email although you know the time is scheduled for something else. Don’t do that. The best way to manage time is to set aside time specifically for checking emails and notifications at different times during the day. You can set aside half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon and so on.
Do similar activities together.
As you know, it is much easier to do similar tasks together. If you have tasks that are way too different, then doing them together is not going to be fruitful. You will be wasting time and your energy to get back on track. This is why it is best if you try to group what tasks you need to complete. This can help you complete the tasks much more quickly, and you will be able to get on to the next set of tasks quickly as well. This helps to decrease the disruption of your focus which in turn helps to increase your productivity.
Set time aside for yourself
This is one of the calendar management tips that you must follow. You need some time off for yourself regularly. You need to write that in your calendar as well else you will most likely not do it. For example, you need to schedule some time for yourself so that you can rejuvenate and relax. This can help show in your work front as well. If you have properly relaxed and you are taking care of yourself, then you will be able to think better and more efficiently as well. It will be an overall benefit that you cannot afford to miss at any cost.
Which calendar management tips you find helpful, please add in your comments.
