Create Focus Time in Office 365 Calendar

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focus time

While meetings are important, they can also prevent you from being able to create focus time. This is because everyone is too busy with excessive meetings. As these events build up, it is important to mark the time that you need on your Office 365 Calendar. Blocking time allows you to focus on what needs to get done before being filled with meetings. On Office 365 Calendar, there is a feature available to block out this focus time for important tasks.

The expansion of remote work means you will be taking care of much of your business through meetings with colleagues and bosses. It is not unusual to receive a “quick” call from a colleague who has a question. Have you ever had that surprise meeting added to your day? These meeting norms mean you need to be proactive in blocking out time so that you will not be disturbed. It is a great way to make sure you get your work done on time. That is why the focus time feature that Microsoft offers is so important.

Benefits of focus time

In jobs that rely on numerous meetings, it is important to make time to do more focused work. Technology allows colleagues and bosses to share calendars to ensure availability for collaboration and meetings. While great for collaboration, it is equally important to make better use of shared calendars to display your own focused time. Users can use the technology to set aside time during the day to do focused work and to block time for breaks.

This helps improve productivity and helps reduce fatigue by ensuring a proper balance of work activities in your day. Consider setting aside focus time as blocks of time during the workweek as needed for high-level thinking tasks. These tasks could include writing, strategizing, analysis, and tackling complex processes.

The focus time feature available in Office 365 Calendar allows you to block this time out to focus on your work. The time scheduled is shared across multiple Microsoft applications, so your Microsoft Office Outlook Calendar displays the time. In addition, your Microsoft Teams app also blocks out time. You can schedule your focus time for those apps using your MyAnalytics tool. These apps and tools are available on Microsoft 365. Here are a few tips on how to create focus time in Office 365 Calendar.

Focus time best practices

Office 365 allows you to automatically book your focus time while also allowing you to protect that time. You can do that by silencing chats on Teams and blocking notifications. It is important for your colleagues to understand what focus time means. Make it clear that this status on your Office 365 apps, like Outlook and Teams, means you should not be disturbed. Make sure you have sufficient focus time blocked during the workweek, and make adjustments to increase or reduce time.

It is also important to eliminate as many distractions as possible during your focus time. For example, if you work from home, you do not want to have the radio or television on. During your focus time, you should also ensure that you put your mobile phone away and turn off your email. The less distractions you have, the more time you have to focus.

Set your focus time

The focus time feature on Office 365 ensures you are not disturbed by others or by notifications from your apps. This can include blocking notifications, such as emails or meeting invites. You can set the focus time either manually or automatically.

If you want to set your focus time manually, you can do so at any time and on any day. To do this, you can simply change your status to “do not disturb” on the Office Calendar or in Teams. Office 365 also allows you to automate the focus scheduling process through the MyAnalytics application included in the suite of applications. Here’s how to use the automatic scheduling function.

MyAnalytics makes focus time easy

First, sign in to your MyAnalytics account. Find “focus” on the vertical menu and click it. You can define your focus period by identifying the amount of focus hours you want to schedule. The wizard will help you schedule this time. Whenever you start using this focus plan, you configure how you will book that time into your calendar. You get to customize your preferences using MyAnalytics, so it will book based on your chosen booking settings. You can choose the amount of hours for focus time you would like to schedule each day. You can also choose whether you prefer your focus time to be in the morning or in the afternoon. And finally, you can decide whether you would like to silence or accept the notifications for chat.

Once you have selected these options, you will get time blocked out on your calendar as focus time. For those focus time blocks on your calendar, your status in Microsoft Teams will display automatically as focusing. This presence status tells others that you should not be disturbed during this time. You can set priority contacts in Teams to ensure that you receive important messages from those select few you choose during focus time.

The focus time is now scheduled on your calendar like any other appointment. The focus time can be canceled or changed just like other calendar appointments. You can simply drag the event to another place on the calendar if you want to change the time. You can also delete the event from the calendar to cancel it.

Use MyAnalytics to Modify Focus Time

One of the advantages of using Office 365 is that it provides numerous applications and resources to make your life easier. When you use MyAnalytics, it can help you create a focus time plan, as noted above. It also allows you to update your plan settings by choosing Plan configuration in the upper right-hand corner of the MyAnalytics Focus dashboard. Then, the Plan Configuration navigation tab will open, where you have the option to modify how many focus hours you want for each day. And, you can update other preferences here as well. After you have created your focus time plan in MyAnalytics, your focus time will show up in your Outlook calendar. During those blocks of focus time on your calendar, your status will display as busy.

Block emails, notifications on a mobile device

Now that you understand how to schedule needed focus time to complete important tasks, you can block other distractions. You may find your focus time works well by blocking part of the day. You can avoid getting disturbed on Teams or with notifications on your computer. But, even after focusing on your computer, you can still be distracted by your phone. You can set your Outlook mobile app to “do not disturb” to stop the mobile distractions, such as emails on your phone.

Focus time on Microsoft Teams

After you create your focus time and it is listed on your calendar, Office 365 provides additional features to help you stay focused. Teams automatically sets your status as “Focusing” and “do not disturb.” That is important because your status in Teams does two important things. First, it tells colleagues who may want to send you a message on Teams that you should not be disturbed. Second, the status stops notifications that otherwise would disturb you. Both of these actions can help you avoid unnecessary distractions.

Teams also provide another feature, just in case your colleagues do not get the hint with your “do not disturb” status. You can set an automatic message to send in chat if someone attempts to contact you during your focus time. To create a status message in Teams that automatically displays when someone tries to message you during focus time, go to the Teams app. At your profile picture at the top of Teams, select “set status message” to view your options. Type the message that you want others to see in the box. Then, select “show when people message me” to have the message display automatically when someone messages or mentions you in Teams.

Image Credit: Cottonbro; Pexels; Thanks!

Create Focus Time in Office 365 Calendar was originally published on Calendar by John Hall.

Reasons to Stop Planning Too Much — Live in the Now.

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Reasons Stop Planning So Much Live Now

It seems easy enough, yet we humans struggle to appreciate the present. Why? We frequently speak only of our future plans — but what about building your now? You hear, “Know your why.” Start thinking, “Know your now.”

Some people think we lose out on fantastic moments because we are too busy rehashing previous events or preparing for the future. We seldom pause to smell the flowers. We don’t enjoy the moment. Keep the destructive process from becoming the precedent.

It’s sad not to be in your own personal time zone — since we don’t know how many more moments we’ll have. Meditation and many of the healthy habits we work to learn are all about living in the now.

Go ahead and plan your life in detail.

This is not suggesting we spend less time planning. To leave out the planning is terrible counsel. Setting goals is critical to our personal and professional happiness. Setting and achieving realistic objectives fosters personal accountability. Careful planning is a kind of goal-setting that gives significance to our lives since it requires devotion, hard effort, and tenacity to achieve.

Some people feel our culture has gotten obsessed with planning. We frequently speak about constructing for the future, but what about building the now? We all want true pleasure, and to experience it, we must live in the now. Focusing only on the future causes tension and negative thoughts and even uncertainty to enter our thought processes.

Why should you concentrate on living now instead of preparing too far ahead?

1. Right now is the only moment you can control.

No matter how much you plan, you can never predict how life will unfold. You will only know when you are there.

The only moment you can control is this one right now. You may either appreciate or despise the situation. And of course, you may also choose to squander the moment by ignoring it, but the choice is yours.

Planning won’t get you out of the moment. It may help you achieve your objectives, but it will not enhance your current quality of life. Planning for the future won’t ensure a desirable result, so why not focus on the now?

2. Enjoy every minute in the now.

Nobody knows how many moments you will get to experience. This is vital to understand. Nobody knows when their next moment will be gone. Your next moment isn’t specific, so why not make the most of it?

You can’t have this perspective if you’re always planning your next level. You can only feel this excitement for life by living in the now. It’s trite and impractical, but it’s true.

Don’t waste time. Plan when needed, but not at the price of enjoying the moment. Life is brief, so enjoy it while you can.

3. Being present reduces stress.

Too much future and past thinking generate stress. Some of the stress that comes from not living now may be harmful to one’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Yes, your thinking takes a controlled effort to remain within a balanced life — but the effort will be worth it.

The over-planners hinder themselves from living in the present and cause unneeded tension in their life. Invigorate your life with present-focused living practices.

You certainly don’t have time to meditate for five hours a day and not make plans for the future, but making tiny adjustments will help decrease stressors and help you be able to get a jump on the inevitable problems that come up in life.

Observe when your mind starts focusing on the future instead of the current moment. Ask yourself whether this is required. Being conscious of your thoughts can help you be more present.

4. Plans seldom come to fruition as expected, so live in the now.

Know that you have planned the best you know-how, and expect that things don’t always turn out as your plan dictates whether you like it or not. How often have you attempted to plan something that didn’t work out? What happened? Did you become offended, or did you accept and comprehend the situation, do something else, or move forward?

Plans go awry. You fail a lot as an imperfect species. It is inevitable.

Trying to plan every stage of your life is tricky and unhealthy. Plan for the best — but be determined that you will not be annoyed or disturbed when those plans don’t work out.

You don’t have to prepare for the worst — just have contingency plans here and there in your life — then, just let life happen and be.

Make preparations if that helps you, but don’t lose sight of the moment. If your plans don’t work out, try to accept them.

5. Being present makes you happy now and in the future

Some people don’t like using the term “makes you happier” since nothing makes you happier than yourself. With that in mind, living in the now is one of the surest ways to achieve true joy in your life. But, yes, happiness is a choice most of the time.

Without going into all the statistics and studies, it is clear that living in the now is one of the most important keys to happiness. Too much long-term planning will keep you from enjoying the moment.

Take a moment each day and observe how living in the now has made you feel? How can you make a better plan? How can you remain in the present if your plans take a dive off the planned course? Plan when necessary, but keep an eye on the present.

Strike a balance between spontaneity and forethought. You can only control the present moment.

You’ve heard it before if you’ve worked on mindfulness at all — this moment is a gift. Try to believe that and be okay with the statement. Enjoying the present reduces stress. Recognize that plans don’t always go as planned. Accept the moment and be joyful.

Plan as you see fit. Save for a family and a home — then invest in yourself. Set and achieve objectives. As you plan, put yourself first and don’t lose sight of where you are now.

Reasons to Stop Planning Too Much — Live in the Now was originally published on Calendar by

Image Credit: Jill Wellington; Pexels; Thank you!

5 Ways to Streamline Your Schedule So You Don’t Miss Anything

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Streamline Schedule Don't Miss Anything

How you use your time each day is extremely important. If you want to be as productive as possible within an 8-hour workday, you need to learn how to best allocate your time. By following a proper schedule, you can get a lot more done in the same time period.

Slapping events and projects onto a calendar is only the start. Once you’ve got a schedule laid out, you need to maximize it. A few simple adjustments will get your schedule firing on all cylinders, streamlining your personal workflow without missing any important details or activities.

1. Use Collaborative Scheduling

Team calendars are a great way to optimize not only your own time, but that of everyone in the office. In a collaborative workplace, a lot of your schedule will be dependent on the people you work with. Meeting times, hybrid work schedules, deadlines, and more need to be coordinated throughout the entire organization without missing a beat.

With a shared team calendar, all of this information can be found in one place. This way, everyone knows what’s going on and can check each other’s schedule before booking meetings or appointments with one another. This will keep you in the loop even during a busy week where keeping track of all of these events seems impossible.

2. Take Advantage of Event Reminders

You can’t always rely on your memory, even if you have a mind like a steel trap. Reminders will provide a failsafe for every event and appointment you book so that even if you do forget about one, you’ll be able to jog your memory in time.

Consider the best event reminder strategy for each meeting and appointment. Instead of accepting the 10 minutes prior default, you may need to set some reminders a couple of hours in advance. That will give you time to prepare for the meeting beforehand and still arrive on time. Reminders set the night before an event might remind you not to overbook your schedule for the upcoming day. In some cases, you might even benefit from multiple reminders to help you through every stage of the process.

3. Avoid Overbooking

Whatever type of time management or scheduling software you use, make sure that it has a feature that prevents you from scheduling events that conflict. If your program of choice doesn’t alert you to potential overbooking, you may inadvertently stack events together and get yourself into quite a predicament. It won’t be until your events collide in real time that you realize the mistake you’ve made.

The right software will ensure you don’t actively have to think about overbooking. While you’re making plans, it will stop you from scheduling too much. This will allow you to shift events around or reschedule various commitments so everything works out. If you’re not getting any alerts from a program with this capability, it means you’re good to go.

4. Set Up a Scheduling Link

One way to streamline your schedule is to get other people to organize it for you. This might sound like an abdication of responsibility, but it’s actually quite practical. All you need to do is set up a scheduling link for yourself.

This link will be connected to your online calendar software. You can attach it at the end of emails or on a website for others to access. By using the link, coworkers, clients, and others can see your availability and schedule a time to meet with you. This eliminates the seemingly endless back-and-forths that occur when two parties try to coordinate schedules.

You can update your scheduling link to only allow certain times of day to be made available to others. This way no one will book a time slot where you’re at the gym or taking a lunch break. If every day follows a different routine, you can adjust your scheduling link accordingly.

5. Don’t Overdo It

If you don’t want to miss anything on your schedule, stop overpacking it. If your schedule is constantly at its breaking point with meetings, phone calls, deadlines, and events, you’ll run a higher risk of missing something important. This could create a catastrophic domino effect — or at the very least be incredibly stressful to handle.

Cutting back can be easier said than done, especially for busy professionals. Instead of hoping that your schedule will magically develop breathing room, try a new approach. For example, you can force yourself to include 10 minutes of buffer in between each commitment. This will ensure that you always have time to make it to your next appointment or prepare for back-to-back meetings.

Another thing you can do is track your time. Certain calendar apps will monitor how you’re spending your time, which can help you plan more efficiently in the future. By tracking your schedule, you may realize that you’re spending too much time in meetings and can take steps to cut down the number or duration of those you schedule.

To improve your time management, try to review your schedule at least once a month. Make some slight adjustments and continue pressing forward. By year’s end, you’ll have the most streamlined schedule possible.

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5 Unique Time Management Hacks That Have Been Proven to Work

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Unique Time Management Hacks Proven Work

Modern reliance on technology by most companies today means that the same devices that we use for work are also where we get our distractions. Some say it’s not your fault if you often fall victim to technology — many of us have. But come on, you are in charge of yourself, even if the nature of the technology is a constant connection.

While it may seem like the only solution to manage your time is to spend it away from your devices (which does help, of course), that’s not always possible or even necessary.

Find the productivity you need with some of these hacks for time management that have been proven to work.

1. Stop Letting Tech Suck You In

The truth is that one reason technology distracts us so strongly is because it offers a comfortable, relatively predictable escape from our tasks. If you’re tired from being hard at work for a few hours, why not take a second to look at Instagram? One second can lead to an hour away from your responsibilities — and a lot of the time, it’s not because you’re distracted but rather because you want to relax. And as long as you’re fulfilling your responsibilities, don’t be afraid to enjoy what you enjoy on social.

Not letting tech suck you in can be done in many ways: cutting off work communications as soon as the day ends, working and relaxing in different rooms, etc. The most important thing is that after hours, you are giving yourself fully to your relaxation needs. When it’s time to return you’ll feel refreshed, alert, and much more able to focus because your needs have already been tended to.

2. Utilize Timers for Each Task

Realistically, the duration of any given task can vary in uniformity and length. But setting a timer creates a new psychological environment, one in which you are present for this amount of time and this amount only, regardless of how long it is. When the timer ends, you are free. Believe it or not, setting a timer requires focus, even if you aren’t sure about the length of time a task will take. However, your timer will help you focus and work faster and makes it easier to stay on task by providing this target of freedom.

Say you have a short story transcript to be edited by the end of the day. You don’t know how long it will take and are avoiding the task out of dread. Instead of scrambling at the last minute, set a timer for one hour, clear your mind of anything but the task (including the deadline), and begin. You’ll find the task to be a little easier when you know better how long it will take — and give a concentrated push to be finished.

3. Create an Environment for Focus

Alongside your timer, try to adapt your surroundings to the task at hand. Keep an open mind at this point because even the smallest change can make a difference for you. You can move a pen that you keep hitting with your arm or move all electronics out of your sight. Part of creating this environment can be put into action in advance as well, even just by outlining a plan for the day and setting the kinds of rules for yourself as mentioned in this article by Calendar.

To continue the previous example, let’s say you’re doing your transcript editing at home. To craft the ideal environment, you can turn off your electronics, dress comfortably, make a cup of tea, put on a sound generator in some sound-dampening headphones, and close everything on your computer but the transcript. Whatever makes you feel focused in your space will work best.

4. Steer Clear of Your Unique Distractions

Read up on distractions and take some notes about the ones that affect your time management. Here is a great list of distractions such as this one you can put far away from yourself. Your needs will likely be different from anyone else’s. Chances are, you have particular things that distract you uniquely more than others. It’s easy to forget these distractions are even there, or to get used to them in the space, without being freed from their influence. Take a moment to sit in your space and note everything that draws your attention in a distracting way.

These distractions can take the form of imagery to be changed, like a decoration on the wall, or a bright light shining through your window. Maybe you’ve found that your emotions are distracting you the most, in which case you can take a break to do some mindfulness exercises. You should do everything that you need to make this your space of focus, even if it seems strange or unconventional.

5. Experiment With Your Time Management System

Above all, managing your time is just that — managing your time for the sake of your own productivity. It’s easy to try different methods that many people use, but it can be difficult to stick with them because they aren’t tailored for you. You might find that what works best for you may even be the opposite of what you’ve heard (like letting yourself get distracted so you can come back with fuller focus). In the end, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it helps you achieve your time management goals.

Remember, the objective is not to implement time-saving methods, but rather, succinctly, to save time itself. Try not to get caught up in common methods that aren’t helping just because they might down the line. The concept of a method that will always help everyone is one of many time-saving myths. Just sit down, look around, and do what you need to do to manage your time.

5 Unique Time Management Hacks That Have Been Proven to Work was originally published on Calendar by Deanna Ritchie.

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How to Keep Your Office Running Smoothly During Spring Break

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How to Keep Office Running Smoothly Spring Break

Spring break is known for crazy beach parties and exotic getaways. But for many people, spring break means business as usual. For your business, this means managing your team and operations during one of the more interesting times of the year.

With so many people out of school or taking time off from work, there are a lot of adjustments you need to make to make this week a successful one. Here’s a little advice to help you get through the break:

Avoid Internal Miscommunication

Before spring break even begins, communicate with your team and make sure everyone is on the same page. Everyone should know who is taking time off during the break and who will be taking their place to complete tasks and manage workflows. When there’s proper communication in place, nothing will fall through the cracks.

One idea you can implement is designating an out-of-office contact who is in the loop about current projects. They can be a quick phone call or message away when an employee has a question about a task that the out-of-office employee normally handles. That person can enjoy their spring break without leaving the rest of their team high and dry.

Schedule Everything

A good schedule will keep your business on the right track even when spring break takes a lot of people out of your orbit. For instance, you should have your employees’ schedules set well in advance. If workers are trying to ask for time off at the last minute, things will get complicated rather quickly.

Whether you use scheduling software or appointment software, just keep in mind that it’s absolutely essential to plan. It’s also important to have a collaborative schedule that the entire team has access to. This can help avoid unnecessary questions about where someone is during spring break, when they return, and who is scheduled to work over the break.

You won’t always be able to stick to your perfectly organized schedule. Unexpected events will occur, and you’ll have to make adjustments along the way. Having an established schedule will make it easier to make those adjustments and roll with the punches.

Keep Customers in the Loop

As you make adjustments to prepare for the upcoming spring break, don’t forget to keep your customers in the loop. For example, if you have several employees taking time off, you may want to post a notice that you are unable to accept as many appointments or take care of as many customers during this time. If customers know this is the case beforehand, you won’t get backlogged by frustrated customers assuming that business is running as usual.

Many businesses keep their customers in the loop through social media posts. This is a great way to connect with customers as well as increase your visibility to potential new customers. However, not everyone will be checking social media pages for business updates. You should also be updating your company website regularly, especially if you’re dealing with online appointment bookings. An email newsletter can also help inform customers of upcoming changes they need to be aware of.

Add Some Incentives

Your business might not be worried about employees taking time off for spring break. But it might struggle with employees clocking in and feeling unmotivated because they wish they were on vacation. Whether it’s due to lingering travel concerns or a tight budget, your active employees could use a little push during spring break to keep motivation and morale high.

A few incentives should do the trick. A week-long sales competition with some tantalizing rewards can perk up the office and keep morale going strong. Offering a prize like a paid company vacation or the newest video game console should help pick up the pace of sales.

A guaranteed incentive will shine some light at the end of the tunnel as well. The office atmosphere will be a little lighter if employees are looking forward to a nice team dinner on Friday night rather than going home without any spring break plans.

Enable Remote Work

If there are aspects of your business that can be performed digitally, give it a whirl during this upcoming spring break. Your employees who want some extra time off during this time period will be able to do so while still being able to complete some necessary tasks. This may even set a precedent moving forward where hybrid work is enabled and allows employees to spend more time at home with their families.

There are many ways your business can enable remote work. A phone system can be set up in a home office to field calls from customers. Outgoing calls for sales or appointment confirmations can be made through a remote phone system. Any digital aspects of your business can also be done from home, such as payroll, marketing, and scheduling.

For many businesses, there has to be at least one person in-house in order for operations to continue and likely more if you run a customer-facing business such as a salon. It might not seem fair to employees that their coworkers are able to work from home, so consider incentives you can offer to make it up to them. Perhaps an extra paid vacation day at a slower time of the year will provide the needed motivation.

While it might not be as exciting to be working rather than vacationing over spring break, you can make it tolerable and even fun. You can also use these strategies for other holidays to keep your business running smoothly no matter what logistical hurdles arise.

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Adding Your Goals to Your Calendar is Not Difficult

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your goals

Have you already given up on your goals for New Year’s Resolutions? Don’t be too hard on yourself. Only 8% of people actually reach their goals. But, why?

Well, there are a lot of factors. But, here’s a problem that often gets overlooked. We don’t set goals correctly.

Typically, when we set goals, we assign a deadline to them. And that can be counterproductive.

“We focus on the end goal that we want to achieve and the deadline we want to do it by,” explains James Clear. “We say things like, ‘I want to lose 20 pounds by the summer’ or ‘I want to add 50 pounds to my bench press in the next 12 weeks.’”

“The problem with this is that if we don’t magically hit the arbitrary timeline that we set in the beginning, then we feel like a failure … even if we are better off than we were at the start,” he adds. “The end result, sadly, is that we often give up if we don’t reach our goal by the initial deadline.”

“In my experience, a better way to achieve your goals is to set a schedule to operate by rather than a deadline to perform by,” adds James.

“Instead of giving yourself a deadline to accomplish a particular goal by (and then feeling like a failure if you don’t achieve it), you should choose a goal that is important to you and then set a schedule to work towards it consistently,” he suggests.

I can get behind that. But, to make this possible, you need a Calendar. So, to make this less intimidating for you, here are eight pointers on how to add your goals to your Calendar as easily as possible.

1. Determine how long you will need to accomplish each task (to plan your day accordingly).

Have you ever had one of those mornings when you woke-up feeling like the world was at your fingertips? In your mind, you tell yourself that you’re going to cross everything off your to-do list. You’re also going to finally return those essential phone calls, schedule meetings for the next year, and still make it to the gym — while somewhere still squeezing in family time.

I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm. But, seriously, how likely are you to succeed in accomplishing all of that?

In addition, most of us drastically underestimate the amount of time we spend every day managing email, making phone calls, preparing meetings, and commuting.

When it’s all said and done, you’re lucky if you’ve accomplished half of what you hoped. In response, you feel defeated and frustrated because your expectations were not met.

This is precisely when a Calendar can be useful. It can help you plan your day more effectively by estimating your time more accurately. And, when you know how you’re time is being spent, you can learn how to schedule your goals appropriately.

To help you figure this out, you can use time tracking tools or a productivity journal — or both if you prefer. Ideally, the longer you record your daily activities, the more accurate picture you’ll have.

2. Know thy goals.

With that out of the way, which goals deserve to be scheduled? That varies from person to person based on their priorities and values. But, whatever they are, they need to be specific and challenging.

According to Edwin Locke and Gary Latham’s research, people who follow these two principles (specific and challenging goals) perform better 90 percent of the time. For example, if your goal is to shed 30 pounds before the start of summer, that might be too ambitious. It’s also too vague and not specific enough.

Instead, break this goal down to be more specific and achievable. For instance, “In March, I will lose five pounds by reducing sugar, bread, and sodas. In addition, I will walk briskly for 20 minutes a day.” The more precise your goals are, the more likely you are to reach them.

In short, there are definitely right and wrong ways to set goals. However, setting your goals incorrectly will almost certainly lead you to miss something. In turn, this will force you to go back and redo things, or otherwise deviate from your intended course.

With that said, once you’ve identified your smart goals, you can insert them into your Calendar so that you don’t schedule anything else ahead of them. So, for example, you could schedule your brisk walk daily from 1 pm to 1:20 pm.

3. Choose your Calendaring method.

You know how you’re spending your time and have set your goals correctly. What’s next? Well, it’s your Calendaring method.

By this, I mean do you want to use an online Calendar? App? Paper planner? That’s totally up to you as each has its own pros and cons.

For example, an online Calendar or app gives you 24/7 access to your schedule. That can come in handy when you need to update or review your Calendar. What’s more, you can receive reminders, customize, or share your Calendar with others to help with accountability or prevent conflicts.

At the same time, digital Calendars can quickly become cluttered or time-consuming if you’re frequently adding notes. In addition, Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University in California conducted a study with 267 participants on goal setting. Putting your goals on paper increases your chances of achieving them by 42 percent.

Overall, there’s no right or wrong Calendaring method. The most important takeaway here is that you actually have a Calendar to add your goals to you it.

4. Divide your day into blocks of time.

As with your Calendaring method, this is totally up to you. It depends on what time of the day you’re most productive. For example, most people are most alert and energetic between 8 and 9 am. As a result, you should focus on your most important task or goal during that time.

Moreover, you may want to try 52 minutes of work followed by 17 minutes of rest when working towards a daily goal. In sports, this is called interval training. The authors of Peak Performance, Brad Stulberg, and Steve Magness, concluded it wasn’t only for gifted athletes to adopt an interval-based productivity approach.

According to one study, its most productive employees usually spend 52 minutes immersed in their work, then take a break of 17 minutes before returning to their work. Therefore, to remain productive toward meeting your goals, you have to work smarter by taking frequent breaks throughout.

5. Let’s be honest; less is always more.

If you are prone to packing too many tasks into one day, you’re not alone. However, you may be headed in the direction of Burnoutville.

A Calendar can show you how full your schedule actually is. You can use this visual to keep your daily goals realistic and spread out your activities.

Here are a few more tips:

  • Keep your Calendar light. Trying to fill your day with too much may leave you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and less likely to meet your goals.
  • Make time for the things you care about. Plan activities and hobbies that you enjoy in your Calendar. By switching off ‘busy mode,’ you have a chance to rest and recharge to stay energized and focused on your goals.
  • Schedule time for breaks between your meetings, appointments, and tasks. You can make the most of your momentary pauses by reflecting, preparing, and resting your mind. During these breaks, go for a walk or just sit silently in reflection.

This structure may make you wonder how you’ll accomplish your priorities. However, not taking frequent breaks can leave you feeling zapped and overextended.

6. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Want to succeed in reaching your goals? Then you need to stay focused by reducing distractions.

As an example, let’s go back to your weight goal. If you surround yourself with people who don’t have a healthy diet, then there’s a good chance you’ll be eating just as poorly. Or, what if you don’t go grocery shopping and the only thing to eat in your home is junk food? And, if you don’t protect your time, someone meets to schedule a meeting with you during your walk.

I know. That’s a lot I just threw at you. But, in short, you can keep your eye on the prize by;

  • Add your goals to your Calendar before anything else. This way, if someone tries to schedule time with you, it won’t be during that block.
  • Share your Calendar. Another way to prevent others from eating into your valuable time. When they view your Calendar, they can see when you aren’t available and when you’re free.
  • Block out electronic distractions. If you need an hour to focus on your goals, then block or turn off any notifications during that time so that you won’t get distracted.
  • Schedule declutter and organization time. Whether it’s a daily, weekly, or monthly event, your environment plays a huge role in achieving your goals. According to research, you have a harder time focusing on one visual stimulus when multiple ones compete for your attention. So, set aside time to declutter and organize everything from your desk to Calendar on a consistent basis.

7. Record your progress.

According to research published by the American Psychological Association, the more often you monitor your progress, the more likely you are to succeed if you have a goal. In addition, by reporting your progress publicly or physically recording it, you increase your chances of success even more.

“Monitoring goal progress is a crucial process that comes into play between setting and attaining a goal, ensuring that the goals are translated into action,” said lead author Benjamin Harkin, PhD, of the University of Sheffield. The study appears in the journal Psychological Bulletin. “This review suggests that prompting progress monitoring improves behavioral performance and the likelihood of attaining one’s goals.”

How often should you track your progress? Again, that depends. When it comes to daily goals, you should reflect on what worked on what didn’t at the end of every day. You can do this every couple of days or make this a weekly event for larger goals. No matter how often you do, make sure that this is also scheduled in your Calendar.

8. Follow through.

“Ok, so you’ve created your schedule, figured out the tasks/steps you need to take to accomplish your larger goals, and put them tidily into your daily planner. Now what?” asks entrepreneur Alexandra Hsie.

“The follow-through is the hardest.” And while sticking to your schedule helps, this is all about making incremental changes.

“Establish small habits that build up into greater habits,” Alexandra advises. “For example, want to wake up earlier? Change your wakeup time by fifteen minutes each day until you get to your goal wakeup time.”

What if you’re still missing your goal? Your wakeup time should be changed by 15 minutes every week instead of daily. “The point here is to make a large goal, like waking up at 6 am when you generally get up at 11 am, a set of manageable and small tasks that build into a habit.”

Another tip? Organize a group of people to hold you accountable for your goals. For example, if you want to lose weight, schedule a time to go with friends or have a text chain to motivate each other.

Also, be sure to recognize and celebrate your accomplishments. “Say out loud to others what you’ve achieved that day. Accept their congratulations and allow yourself to be proud of what you’ve done,” suggest Alexandra. “And if that feels weird to you, at least take a moment to yourself to fully realize what you’ve accomplished because you deserve to be recognized for all of your hard work.”

Image Credit: Freestocks; Pexels; Thank you!

Adding Your Goals to Your Calendar is Not Difficult was originally published on Calendar by John Hall.

Maintaining a Schedule Can Help You Live Longer

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Maintaining Schedule Help Live Longer

Some may go on and on about how a schedule of activities or routines inhibits creativity or spontaneity. Of course, there may be a situation or two where that would be true — however, there are other situations in which this is not the case. Maintaining a schedule frees up time for your creative ventures.

People who do not adhere to a schedule, are more likely to skip appointments, postpone necessary work, live or work in an unorganized environment, and haphazardly finish projects if they finish at all.

It’s a recipe for catastrophe in every sense of the word. So how do you plan for uncertain times?

If you want to be successful, you must recognize the importance of having a schedule – one that sets dates and times that will allow you to arrive on time, finish the duties at hand, and prepare for extra successes.

The Best Way to Get Started With a Schedule

So, what is the best way to get started with a schedule? One of the most important things you can do is ask crucial questions. It is to ensure that you fully comprehend the timetable given to you.

For some individuals, keeping a timetable is as easy as checking off the items on a to-do list as they come across them on their computer. On the other hand, others may find that more specifics allow them to simplify a timetable or completely integrate a calendar into other parts of their lives.

Asking which activities on the schedule are the top priorities or which items on the plan may be postponed or swapped with other things are examples of questions you would ask.

Track Your Time — do Some Research

After completing your research, you may find that you need to change certain aspects of your life. You may find there is no link to your work or school schedule. As you would expect, not all of these activities are time-suckers; instead, they merely need a reorganization of your time.

Taking a two-hour lunch break, for example, may need to be shortened to one hour or half an hour to complete other tasks on your to-do list within that period.

If your goal is to spend the early Saturday morning hours with research at the library it may be necessary to shift your shopping habits to Sunday nights if you have been used to doing it on Saturday mornings. And remember that not all timetables are etched in stone. For example, you may change your schedule to accommodate new jobs or projects that need more or less time to complete than initially planned.

Following your experience, a few well-placed questions, and some minor rearranging, you will have a timetable that you can safely follow—knowing that your new schedule will lead you to achieve the essential tasks vital to your life. Much less effort has to be expended when you make a reasonable plan for your essential work.

The times, they are a-changin.’

Yes, the times change. Our schedules reflect this volatility — or they should. But sometimes, we keep our heads in the sand. Like the ostrich, we do not wish to see what’s happening around us, and we may try to duck out on reality. With careful observation, you’ll be able to see what types of procrastination are interrupting your schedule. Don’t be one that refuses to schedule in needed changes in your life. Go ahead and admit that your time management skills need a little refurbishing and just do it.

Being Flexible is Not the Same as Being Careless

When scheduling conflicts arise, as they will, a quick response is usually best. However, hemming, hawing, and beating around the bush is an excellent way of alienating others. Instead, be decisive with what commitments you say you will make, then stick with your decision. Opportunity melts like frost, and, especially as an entrepreneur — you have to take the reins and move quickly.

The most significant fatality to time management success is being noncommittal and deciding not to decide. After all, who looks back with pride at all the appointments they didn’t keep — and the decisions that were put off? There never seems like enough time, but actions that were never planned won’t be something you are proud of in the future.

It’s all in the timing

Professional comics say it’s all in the timing and point to the times to speed up and when to slow down. When the comedians hold a pause or stomp the punchline at the right moment — it’s magical. Timing can basically be applied in the same way for business leaders and organization managers. Timing is everything.

The Bible intones “there is a time and season for everything.’” So it is in business — there’s a time to start — and a time to end. A time to let go. A time to meet — and a time to lock the door and go over the audit yourself.

The trick is to know when to do what. And that trick is simple. Psychology Today has a great time management test. IF you follow basic time management principles, you can adapt to your particular circumstances. And IF you take advantage of the latest time management technology and theory, you will be a lot further ahead than if you don’t.

Basics of Time Management and Living Longer and Peacefully

Every MBA course offers dozens of classes on how to untangle the basics of time management.

Nobody has an easy schedule. Nobody. Not the janitor. Or the CEO. Not even the poet in her ivory tower. But once you learn to dance to the tune that time plays for you, life becomes more bearable and more your own.

Some say that minutes are hard cider, hours champagne, and days become flagons of the finest mead. Just ask those who seem to have nothing to do. An accident? Nope. They have come to grips with their time and they wrestle it to the ground.

If you plan correctly and make time yours — you’ll come out on top. You shouldn’t dream of doing anything less!

Image Credit: Jess Bailey Designs; Pexels; Thank you!

5 Ways Businesses Can Bring In More Customers This Spring

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Bring More Customers Business This Spring

People tend to get out and patronize businesses more frequently when the weather is nice in the spring. However, they may also need an incentive to do so. That’s where marketing comes in. When running a business, you need to embrace the changing season and break out some fresh strategies that will bring in new customers.

Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar shop or a completely digital business, there are several things you can do to increase your customer base this spring. Here are five ideas to try en route to a successful second quarter:

1. Boost Your Marketing Efforts

Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to turn the heat up on your marketing game. You must grab the attention of consumers as soon as they start making their way outside. If you’ve positioned yourself to stand out, then once the weather is nice, your business will be booming.

Use all of your marketing channels to promote your business. Create a “Spring Discount” post to put on your website and showcase your new products and service offerings on social media. Try to put some form of marketing out every single day to maximize your exposure.

2. Consider Growing Your Team

Another way to attract more customers is to grow your team. With added employees, you can accomplish more with your business, such as helping more customers in a single time slot or increasing your deliveries. There are three different ways to grow your team this spring.

First, look at hiring some seasonal help. This is something that delivery companies often do around the holidays when there’s a huge influx of packages. Seasonal workers don’t require a long-term commitment and will be a great help when you’re running small promotions.

Your other options are hiring additional full-time employees or contractors. For example, you can hire a new full-time team member who specializes in digital marketing. Alternatively, you could engage a contracted marketer who only gets paid for specific campaigns, like the ones you’re planning to implement this spring.

3. Know Current Trends in Your Business Niche

Trends in business are constantly changing. While your company should have a model of consistency, you need to keep an eye out for trends as they arise. Adding new looks and stylish offerings to your product and service lines can give you considerable boosts in sales and foot traffic when implemented correctly. After the trend fades, you’ll still have your established business model standing strong.

Let’s say you’re a wedding planner looking to book a bunch of springtime weddings. You’ll have better success if you know the latest wedding trends. This could be a specific flower arrangement, color scheme, or even a playlist that the betrothed couple fell in love with on social media. Have all of this at the ready, and use it in your marketing, and you’ll have plenty of customers asking for your services.

4. Watch Your Competitors

Your business won’t be the only one making moves in the springtime. Keeping an eye on your rivals will help you stay competitive as you strive to draw in new customers. If you’re not aware of the strategies they’re implementing, it will be more difficult to optimize your own.

For example, you might be the owner of a local gym with a competing gym a few blocks away. By doing your homework, you find out that they’re unrolling a program to incentivize new membership signups. With that information, you will know to offer something even better to attract those same new members.

You should also learn from the mistakes your competitors make. If a competing salon runs a first-time customer promotion and loses money, you’ll know not to run the same deal. Instead, make some adjustments to their promotion so it works better for your business.

5. Get Involved Locally

Your community will likely be putting on events to celebrate the changing of the season. Getting involved in these events will help you put your business on the map as well as give back to the customers who live in the surrounding area.

If you run a veterinary clinic, offer to set up a booth at the community pet adoption event and provide pet treat samples and discounted products. Own a med spa? Sign up for a space at the next community wellness event. Put up a banner, provide product samples, and hand out fliers, and you’re sure to pick up some new customers from each event you attend.

Whether your business typically slows in the winter or you’ve enjoyed a steady shopping season during the colder months, a little spring marketing can go a long way toward boosting your business. Shed that winter coat and get ready for the best spring your business has ever experienced. If you start laying out your spring marketing plans before the last bit of snow melts, new customers will be lining up outside your door in no time.

Image Credit: Thirdman; Pexels; Thank you!

4 Recommendations for Teams in 2022

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Recommendations Teams 2022

The mixed work model will likely be commonplace throughout 2022 and well into the future, so we may as well get used to it and learn to do it well. Consider these suggestions to help you create a great mixed-team work approach.

COVID brought on the full-hybrid work model, and as long as it continues to work well, it will likely be the work model forever. Teams will experience growing pains until hybrid work can work out the kinks and become the norm. While no one technique works for all individuals, positions, or projects — consider these suggestions. Creating a productivity schedule is crucial.

Develop the hybrid work model with your company.

There is no one-size-fits-all hybrid work paradigm; it must match your organization’s culture and personnel. The key to success is co-creating that model with your team and providing communication avenues and expectations.

Avoid making top-down judgments with your hybrid worker without consulting a few team members. All decisions, no matter how small, immediately affect your employees. Ask about employee preferences and attempt to fulfill them. Take time to listen to individual needs so that discontent and anger don’t erode your culture and morale.

1. Agree on the office’s role in the hybrid environment.

Consider which structures work best for your team. Take care of your workers, and they will care for your consumers. Popular hybrid work arrangements include remote-first with office days or office-first with remote days. Some firms only meet in person once a month — but your very individual business needs will have to dictate many of your decisions.

Agree on the office’s role in the hybrid environment. Is it to encourage cooperation or relationships? Collect everyone’s ideas and don’t simply go back to work because that’s what you used to do. Alternatives to your enormous, unoccupied workplace may also benefit your yearly budget.

2. Trust your staff

Let people work in ways that make them happy and productive.

Set goals and deadlines for your team instead of time monitoring. It’s challenging to be productive and present when working remotely. However, measures should not be considered a punishment but a tool to help personnel achieve their objectives.

Most employees don’t work the eight hours they’re at the office because they have spontaneous meetings and strong connections with coworkers. Consider: managers should ignore time as a productivity indicator and trust staff to accomplish their jobs well. Time as an indicator is a sign that the objectives are too simple and that the workers are distant since they don’t need to cooperate as much or “look busy.”

Otherwise, you risk the “watermelon effect” — excellent “green” performance, but a significant chunk of red underneath the surface, representing an awful employee experience. Employees may address issues with coworkers rather than management at the (virtual) water cooler.

3. Meetings: rethink

Don’t be a victim of your success.

We need to discover new working methods to not spend all our time in meetings and our weekends and nights on “serious work.” So we need more asynchronous work.

Adopt a facilitator’s approach to developing new working ways — concentrate on understanding human interactions and structuring work to fit them best.

Asking check-in and check-out questions helps to keep meetings sociable. Having off-topic talks and connecting with people is vital.

4. Foster connections and interactions

Consider alternatives like walk & talks, virtual coworking, music quizzes, open office hours, and buddy systems.

During their initial weeks or months at the organization, a “work buddy” meets with new workers one-on-one to facilitate a seamless transition.

This allows for knowledge exchange and learning even while working remotely. Younger workers who rely on senior staff for information appreciate this exchange.

Encourage your staff to plan walking meetings or catch-ups with one other. Walk & Talks help you exercise and interact with others. Plus, they help alleviate our collective Zoom fatigue.

Leaders and workers may add open (virtual) office hours to their calendars or status bars to encourage more spontaneous talks. During specific time windows, anybody may phone that individual to bounce ideas off, discuss a problem, or check in.

Virtual coworking allows people to work together yet on their projects. A group video conference is great for collaborating on separate tasks. People feel more accountable and productive when cameras and microphones are on.

Having the appropriate tools helps to facilitate teamwork.

There will be an issue with your team when you introduce information or tools that:

a) team doesn’t grasp the purpose of and

b) tool doesn’t enhance the team workflows or productivity.

Also, the tools must easily integrate synchronous and asynchronous operations. Tools and admin for their own sake are harmful, so giving people the correct tools and listening to their comments goes a long way. If tools aren’t helpful after a long test period, destroy them. Don’t utilize them because it’s tradition.

Teams in hybrid mode

Balance is essential since individuals have varying amounts of energy while socializing. You don’t want your staff exhausted or lonely. Using these suggestions might assist your employees in shifting to the hybrid model in a manner that seems so natural you’ll soon be calling it work.

Image Credit: Fauxels; Pexels; Thank you!

4 Ways to Get Your Customers on a Regular Appointment Schedule

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Get Your Customers Regular Appointment Schedule

Life is so much easier when you have a well-planned schedule in front of you. Unfortunately for appointment-based businesses, this isn’t always the reality. Customers can be quite spotty when it comes to making their appointments, which leads to a lot of last-minute adjusting of schedules and bookings.

While a lot of appointment booking is out of your control, there are some things that your business can do to promote a more regular appointment schedule from your customers. Being able to plan further out in advance allows you to be more prepared to serve every customer well and not lose time and efficiency in a scramble.

If you’re ready for more appointment continuity and stability, here are a few ideas you can try this year:

1. Enable Recurring Appointments

There are a lot of customers who would appreciate a regular appointment schedule as much as you do. One way you can make this possible is by enabling recurring appointments. This allows customers to book appointments on a regular cadence rather than sporadically.

For example, your car garage might get a lot of business doing oil changes. Customers who make daily commutes and like to take care of their vehicles might come in for a bimonthly oil change as part of their maintenance routine. Being able to designate a particular day of the month makes it easier for them to organize their schedule, in addition to helping your business to get regular bookings.

Recurring appointments also work well for small businesses that have personal interactions with their customers. A customer might look forward to the hour she gets to spend with her masseuse each week, and being able to set a recurring appointment in her calendar ensures that her preferred booking slot is always secured.

2. Send Automated Text Messages

Sometimes your customers need a little nudge to kick-start their appointment streak again. Automated text messages are a quick and effective way to reach out to your customers who haven’t scheduled an appointment in some time. Such messages can notify them about upcoming deals they won’t want to miss or be used to send them a personalized offer.

Within an automated text message, you can include a direct link to your online appointment software. Send the right message to the right customer at the right time, and you can start getting bookings from them immediately. Of course, you should always leave the option available to opt-in and out of messaging as customers see fit. Otherwise, your text messages will drive customers away rather than pull them back in.

Emails and phone calls can also be effective methods of issuing reminders. Best of all, allowing customers to choose how they receive messages means you know that your nudging messages are being sent in the best way possible to every single person.

3. Keep Them in the Loop

If you keep customers in the loop with everything going on with your business, they’ll have more reasons to visit your website and regularly book future appointments. New information can also reinvigorate the interest that consumers have in your business.

If you don’t already, try creating and sending out a monthly newsletter containing information regarding upcoming events at your business. This can include special promotions, new services you’re offering, and other announcements as you see fit. Learning that you now offer a trendy new beauty service or will be offering two-for-one mani-pedis next month may be just the thing to spark a patron’s interest. Full calendars of events will prompt many customers to start booking their appointment slots earlier than normal.

Some pieces of news will need to be issued more immediately. For instance, if you’re planning on altering your business hours for an upcoming holiday, you should let your customers know as soon as possible so they can plan their appointments accordingly. Last-minute changes on your end will only cause complications with existing bookings.

4. Incentivize Consistency

If consistency is what you want from your customers, incentivize that behavior. Many businesses encourage return visits by handing out punch cards that provide additional services or rewards after so many uses. You can take this a step further by adding some more parameters.

Many appointment-based businesses prefer a regular appointment schedule over a quick string of appointments booked in pursuit of punch-card rewards. To change the trajectory of your incentives, you could build a reward program that offers points for cyclical visits. Bonus points can be awarded for consistent streaks set by customers, such as triple points earned for three consecutive monthly appointments.

Of course, your incentives program should be specifically tailored to your business, what it offers, and the customer base you’re working with. By thoughtfully taking your business’s particular variables into account, you’re bound to find a formula that works.

While you’ll never have a set-in-stone schedule as an appointment-based business, there are things you can do to promote continuity. Embrace these tips, you’ll benefit from the consistency they can help bring to your organization.

Image Credit: Mart Production; Pexels; Thank you!

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