Top 5 Tips for Calendar Management
Do you find yourself completely overwhelmed when you think about your day and what you want to get done? Is your To Do List completely flooded with items that get leftover from day to day? How about your calendar? Is it a crazy mess with reminders popping up so often that you don’t even check it? If you’re a business owner, you wear many hats, and effectively managing your day is vital to your success.
We’ve come up with five easy tips to help you better manage your calendar, and there’s even a FREE printable focus sheet that we created for you to really determine what’s important throughout your day and week. Keep reading to check it out!
Top 5 Tips For Calendar Management
- Clear the Clutter
If you have your calendar full of routine things that you’ll never forget to do, you can remove them. Save your precious calendar real estate for the items that are absolutely crucial to get done. Remove anything that isn’t imperative for that day. Save notes, ideas and doodles for a separate notebook.
- Block Time for Emails and Phone Calls
Are you in a direct sales business that requires prospecting? Save all your outbound calls for a certain time block when you feel the most comfortable. If you’re chipper in the morning, block out the earliest time slot you can manage for your calls. If not, you can still pick a time of day that works best for you and stick to it. Keeping your outgoing calls during this time frame frees up time throughout the day to focus on other activities to keep your business running smoothly. The same should apply to emails. The best business minds suggest blocking out 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening for emails. If you spend your entire day checking every notification on your computer, very little else is going to get done.
- Reduce Disruptions
Sometimes when we work from home we are constantly distracted by chores that need to be done or other small distractions on a day to day basis. To minimize those distractions, try to set up a quiet workspace where everyone knows you are “off limits” barring an emergency. If this is impossible at home, consider going to a coffee shop or library to get some quiet time to get your most important tasks done.
- Create a Routine
The most important thing about managing your calendar will be creating a good habit to check it daily. Some people like reviewing their calendar in the morning, then about halfway through the day to reevaluate how things are going and make adjustments to calls and meetings if necessary. Pick a time of day that works best for you and set a reminder on your phone to check your calendar frequently until you’re in the habit of checking it regularly so no appointments get forgotten.
- Focus on the Important
Not everything in your day will be crucial. Top business leaders will tell you to focus on 2 or 3 vital tasks that need to get done that day. Once you finish each one, you will feel a huge sense of accomplishment and feel encouraged to move on the next important thing.
FREE FOCUS LIST (Click the image below to download)
As a thank you for our readers, we’ve created this FREE printable FOCUS list for business productivity that has space for you to write in your top 3 items of every day. You can print it out, keep it in your briefcase, planner or bulletin board and have a quick view of what your most important tasks of the day are.
Be sure to post photos online of your Focus sheet on our social media pages and hashtag #LivingTN so we can check out your daily top 3!