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Be Productive Everyday – 25 Daily Calendar Productivity Tips

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For most of us, calendars and productivity are integrally linked. But, that’s only possible if you’re correctly managing and organizing your calendar every day. While that may sound like a daunting task, it’s achievable if you implement the following 25 tips to be productive every day.

1. Map out your week on Sunday.

I’d rather spend my Sunday vegging out. I’d be perfectly fine with watching football and munching on pizza. But I’ll be honest with you. By Sunday evening, I’ve had my fill of football — unless the night game is worth paying attention to. Even though I’ve found that this is the best time to plan my week.

Write down everything that you need to get done this week. Then, filter your list. Determine what’s most essential and add them to your calendar. For items that aren’t as important, schedule them when you have the availability. You may also be able to hand off specific tasks to others or drop them entirely from your schedule.

Also, review what you already have penciled in. For example, let’s say you booked an appointment or meeting months ago. Then you’re going to have to plan your day around that event.

I’d also add that you can use your Sundays to prepare for the week. If you want to watch football, then run your errands during the morning. And, you can still keep tabs on the games while cooking your meals for the week, doing laundry, or tidying up. These are all small items that you can knock out on Sunday so that they’re not distracting you throughout the week.

2. Set your intention for the day.

Benjamin Franklin began each day with a question: What good shall I do this day? He asked this question before he did anything else each day. And I love it.

Setting intention brings you back into the moment. It forces you to identify and live by your values and virtues. It also has the power to increase your emotional and physical energy.

Most importantly, intentions will direct and remind you where you want to go for the day. As an example, you have a meeting today at one. Your intention is good to make it valuable and productive for attendees. Determining this first thing in the morning will get you in the right mindset to achieve this. It will also keep you focused and encourage you to knock the meeting out of the park.

3. Have your daily agenda sent to you.

Do you use Google Calendar? If so, you can have your Daily agenda sent directly to your Gmail account. Just go into Google Calendar and then “Settings for my calendars.” Scroll “General notifications” and choose “email” under “Daily agenda.”

Outlook users can also take advantage of this feature. Go into your web app and head into “Your app settings” and choose “Calendar.” Under Reminders, select the checkmark next to “Get daily agenda email for calendar and tasks.”

4. Don’t underestimate the power of simplicity.

Search for “how to be productive.” The Big G will return a whooping 240,000,000 results.

Here’s the thing you’re going to find plenty of useful advice. But, you’re also going to come across several complicated productivity secrets.

Want to know the secret to be efficient and effective daily schedules, though? They’re simple.

Go back and look at Franklin’s daily schedule. It’s so open and straightforward, while also providing structure and encouraging a routine.

Franklin’s schedule only included six blocks:

  • Getting ready for the day: shower, breakfast, personal study, and prepare for work (3 hours)
  • Morning work (4 hours)
  • Review of current projects and to eat lunch (2 hours)
  • Afternoon work (4 hours)
  • Dinner and rest and wrapping up the day (4 hours)
  • Sleep (7 hours)

That’s it. It’s so straightforward that anyone could use it as a template if they want to have a more productive day.

5. Take into account your circadian rhythms.

“Humans have a well-defined internal clock that shapes our energy levels throughout the day: our circadian process, which is often referred to as a circadian rhythm because it tends to be very regular,’ writes Christopher Barnes on HBR. “If you’ve ever had jet lag, then you know how persistent circadian rhythms can be,” he adds. “This natural — and hardwired — ebb and flow in our ability to feel alert or sleepy has important implications for” everyone.

How does this affect your calendar and productivity? When planning our day, we should take into account our own circadian rhythms.

“The most important tasks should be conducted when people are at or near their peaks in alertness (within an hour or so of noon and 6 pm),” recommends Barnes. “The least important tasks should be scheduled for times in which alertness is lower (very early in the morning, around 3 pm, and late at night).”

6. Block out proactive and reactive blocks.

“Time blocking is simply a time management technique where you set aside a specific amount of time for a particular task,” writes Howie Jones in a previous Calendar article. “For example, instead of checking your phone every time you receive an email or social notification, you would do this at clearly defined times.” Howie does this before diving into his work in the morning. “There’s another block after lunch. And, the final one is later in the afternoon before calling work a day.”

However, you decide to block out your time is up to you. But, I suggest that you block out both proactive and reactive blocks. Proactive blocks are reserved for your most important tasks. These have to get done — no exceptions. Reactive blocks are unexpected occurrences, like an emergency meeting.

To achieve this, make sure that you set hard boundaries when it comes to your proactive blocks, such as turning off your phone. To address the reactive blocks, leave a couple of time slots in your calendar free.

7. Use the 52/17 Rule.

After tracking the habits of their top 10 percent most productive users, Desktop found that the most productive people work for 52 minutes, followed by 17 minutes of rest. The reason? We need these breaks to help us recharge and refocus.

So, in your calendar, block out around an hour for your most important work. Then, schedule a break for around 17-minutes and so forth. Don’t be afraid to adjust these times, however, to suit your own rhythms. Some people might be able to work for 90-minutes before having to take a break.

8. Schedule “no meeting” time blocks.

Meetings, while necessary, can be a massive waste of time. Even worse, they can pry you away from more important matters or interrupt your flow. To counter this, make sure there are specific chunks of time where you never accept a meeting. For me, I never take a meeting in the morning since that’s when I’m most productive. Instead, I book them in the afternoon.

You could also take this a step further by banning meetings altogether on specific days. I also prefer to schedule all of my meetings on the same day so that I don’t have to bounce between work mode and meeting mode.

9. Theming your days.

Theming your days is a simple productivity technique. As opposed to switching between tasks all day, you would focus on one theme for the entire day. For instance, Mondays could be spent developing and creating content ideas like blog posts for the week. Tuesdays would be for your most challenging work, and so on. Because energy begins to dip, and we can’t wait for the weekend, Fridays are perfect for meetings or tying up loose ends.

After you’ve identified your themes, add them to your schedule. So, on Monday, you could brainstorm from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Following a 15-minute break, your next block would be writing, following by lunch.

10. Be realistic with your time.

So many of us have fallen prey to this. We create ambitious and lengthy daily to-do-lists. The problem? These lists never account for time. As a result, you end biting off more then you can chew.

Focus on only between 3-5 tasks per day. These should be your priorities. They should also be scheduled in your calendar so that they become a priority — it also helps you weed out distractions. The key, though is to block out the right amount of time. So, if you only need an hour for a specific task, then don’t block out two hours.

Review past calendars to see how you spent your time. If that’s not helpful, then track your time for a week or two.

11. Don’t be a captive to calendar defaults.

When you create a new event in a calendar, you’ll notice that the default time is an hour. Just because this is the default, doesn’t mean you have to stick with it. If you only need 30-minutes for a meeting, then change the event time. Remember, time is your most valuable resource. So make sure that not wasting it be being tied to default times.

12.

Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. And I did not forget to add a title here. I left it intentionally blank to illustrate a point: the importance of scheduling nothing.

As opposed to booking every minute of your calendar, leave some slots blank. It’s a technique championed by people like LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. He used this buffer “to think big, catch up on the latest industry news, get out from under that pile of unread emails, or take a walk. ”

For me, it’s an opportunity to escape temporarily. I go for at least a 15-minute walk with my dog. It gives us both a chance to stretch our legs. But, it also allows me to clear my head and think. I usually leave my phone behind, too, as a way to disconnect.

As an added perk, you can use those blocks of nothingness to handle any unexpected circumstances that may have landed in your lap.

13. “OOO.”

“OOO” is short for “out-of-office.” These are blocks when you’re unavailable. Examples would be when you’re traveling, taking your lunch break, on vacation. Add these blocks to your calendar so that they don’t get filled by something else.

And, it wouldn’t hurt to also create an out of office message — which is easy to do if you use Google or Outlook. Now when someone tries to book you during this time slot, the message will automatically let them know that you’re out of the office, and when you’ll return.

14. There’s an app for that, so use it.

Yes. As you already know, your online calendar also comes in app form. If you haven’t done so yet, download it to your phone. Now your calendar will always be with you. Just make sure to sync your calendar across all of your devices to prevent confusion.

Also, like peanut butter and jelly, pair your calendar with the right tools. For example, Calendar integrates with Google, Apple, and Outlook calendars. It uses machine learning to figure out your schedule to make smart suggestions on how and when to plan meetings. Most online calendars can also connect with Slack to streamline communicating with others. And, they even work with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home so that you can quickly add new events as they appear.

15. Go light on the details.

“Adding details to your schedule is beneficial,” explains Calendar’s Angela Ruth. “For instance, when you just booked a conference call, it would help if you had some necessary information about the person on the other end of the line, such as their name, position, and meaning of the chat.”

“At the same time, you don’t want to include too many details, like their entire life story,” adds Angela. “Doing so will make your schedule too cumbersome to manage.” And, if you’re working with others and share your calendar with them, “it may annoy the daylights out of them. Like you know, they probably only need the most relevant information to complete a task or prepare for a meeting.”

16. Be more thoughtful about lunch.

When it comes to lunch, I’m a stickler about stepping away from work and making the most of this time. Personally, I get skeeved out by people who eat at their desks. It’s just so unhygienic. Besides, when you take an actual lunch break, you have the chance to do the following:

  • Eating healthy and nutritious food will boost your brainpower.
  • Taking a break will sustain your concentration and energy levels.
  • Practicing mindfulness or taking a nap will clear your head and improve your memory.
  • Exercising or walking outside reduces stress, improves your mood, and refreshes your attention span.
  • Going outside the office can spark creativity.
  • Lunch is a great time to meet with others.

17. Set reminders strategically.

Online calendars allow you to set reminders so that you won’t forget important dates and times. But, don’t roll with the default reminder setting. Be more strategic by setting reminders that more helpful.

For example, if you have a meeting this afternoon at 3, what’s the point of having a reminder go off five-minutes prior? Instead, you could set a reminder for 30-minutes ahead of time so that you have enough time to commute and prepare for the meeting.

18. Get rough with your schedule.

Not literally. Rough scheduling is simply not scheduling all of your leisure time. When you allow for spontaneity, like running into an old friend and grabbing a coffee, it makes you happier. Researchers state that this is because when scheduled, leisure tasks feel more like a chore. And, by the way, when you’re happier, you’re more productive overall.

19. Never accept last-minute time requests.

Unless it’s an end-of-the-world type of emergency, never accept a last-minute time request. It’s the best way to protect your calendar bt not letting less important items leapfrog your priorities.

20. Keep your calendar weird.

When planning a meeting or grabbing lunch with an acquaintance, consider scheduling the event at an odd time. For instance, meet at 1:13 p.m. instead of 1. Not only will the event stand out, but it will also encourage everyone to be on time. The reason? It’s so specific there isn’t time for tomfoolery.

21. Highlight important information.

Remember when you were back in school? If you were like me, you highlighted vital information in your textbook. Listen, I spent a lot of money on that book, and I could do with it whatever I wanted. I’m probably still paying it off!

Anyway, like your textbook, you should make essential calendar entries pop. For example, use different colors, all caps, or boldface for the daily entries that deserve most of your attention and focus.

22. Capture new information ASAP.

Whenever a new task or event pops-up, add it to your calendar sooner than later. Let’s say that you just agreed to meet a client for lunch two weeks from now. If you don’t create that event, you may forget about it and schedule something else.

23. Don’t be shy.

You don’t have to be like Cat Stevens and “let your feelings roll on by.” But, you shouldn’t keep your calendar to yourself. Share your calendar either through email or embed it on your site. Now people like your coworkers or family know when you’re busy or free to be interrupted. It also makes scheduling future events easier by eliminating those pesky back-and-forth exchanges.

24. Maximize your downtime.

Whether it’s during a break or when you get home for the day — make the most of your downtime. Learning something new, networking, reading, and just relaxing are all excellent ways to spend your downtime. The reason? These activities can help your destress or help you become more proficient.

Also, protect your downtime just as you would with an appointment or deadline. If you’ve set aside to attend a workshop, then don’t commit to something else during that time.

25. Reflect on your day.

Bear with here, but this is the last time I namedrop Ben Franklin.

At the end of every day, he asked: What good have I done today? He took note of what went wrong, as well as what didn’t. Franklin could then use this to improve his daily schedule going forward.

Also, when you reflect, you can see how you spent your day. From here, you can identify and eliminate any time-wasting activities from your calendar so that you can focus on what truly matters.

4 Ways Entrepreneurs Go Wrong With Online Scheduling Software

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Entrepreneurial work has a way of snowballing. What started as an idea soon turns into a weeklong project, which then swallows an entrepreneur’s entire life. 

Scheduling is a key solution for keeping productivity high. But that doesn’t mean online scheduling is free of issues. Although it might seem like a simple task, calendar management can be a big challenge for a busy person. 

Here are four of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face with online appointment scheduling, complete with tips around how to overcome them:

  • They overbook themselves.

As the owner of a business, people expect you to be busy. But your time is still limited; treat it as such. Overbooking yourself can lead to many frustrations: You’ll feel overwhelmed, your clients will be unhappy, and people within your organization won’t like it either. It’s not particularly motivating to work for someone who has to cancel meetings constantly.

The solution: Protect your time. If people are constantly trying to book a meeting at times when you’re doing deep work, try time blocking. The idea is to fill every 15-minute slot on your calendar with something, even if it’s just relaxing at home or eating dinner. Personal priorities matter, too. 

  • Their online scheduler doesn’t have the right functionality.

Maybe you want to minimize back-and-forth scheduling emails. Perhaps suggestions around meeting locations matter to you. Every online scheduling solution works a little differently. If yours doesn’t have the features you need, look elsewhere.

The solution: Do your research, and pick something that fits your specific needs. Features popular with entrepreneurs include:

  • Meeting notifications and reminders to ensure you never miss a meeting
  • Daily limits so you can cap the number of meetings on your schedule
  • Time zone detection so you’re never confused about the time of a meeting
  • Customizations so you can align your appointment scheduling software with your brand
  • Team scheduling to encourage collaborative work
  • Up-to-date contact information to easily locate information about a client

There are plenty of other features out there; the challenge is understanding what you actually need and finding tools with those features. 

  • They said “yes” to things that aren’t on their calendar.

If you’re going to master online scheduling, you have to learn to say “no” to meetings. When you constantly say “yes” — especially to things that aren’t on your calendar — you’ll feel overwhelmed. 

The solution: Only accept appointments that are on your calendar. If anyone wants a block of your time, even if it’s just for a 15-minute touch base, tell them to add it to your calendar. Ask meetings to be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance so you have time to prepare for them. This may seem like a pain at times, but it’ll save you time and stress in the long run. 

  • They don’t know how to prioritize their meetings.

You may be using an online appointment scheduler that is perfect for you and fits all the needs of your organization. Unfortunately, if you don’t know how to prioritize meetings, your days will still feel crazy, which kind of defeats the purpose of an appointment scheduler.

The solution: An online appointment scheduler can help you prioritize. Follow the 1-3-5 scheduling rule. Identify your No. 1 priority and make that the focus for your day. Then, determine your three medium priorities (these may be related to your top priority), and lastly, schedule no more than five small must-to-do priorities.

If you can master online appointment scheduling, you’ll be more productive and present for your business. You’ll turn your calendar into an advantageous tool, rather than a chore you have to keep up with. Start managing your schedule like a pro, and the results will be borne out in your business.

5 Tips for Setting Your Calendar Availability

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Double-booking yourself, setting up an appointment that interferes with your personal schedule, or simply feeling overworked: None of it feels good, and all of it can be solved with some simple changes to your calendar.

Your calendar’s availability settings can and should be customized. Remember, it’s your calendar: Whether you’re available, when you’re available, where you’re available, and with whom you’re available to meet are all up to you. 

To take control of your calendar, use these five tips to set your calendar availability:

  • Align your availability with the company’s.

First and foremost, wrap your professional availability around your company’s business hours. Doing so gives you a reason to say “no” to meetings outside of a specific time range, which is important for your work-life balance. 

It may be hard at first, but you have to get used to saying “no” to pointless or ill-timed meetings. Either offer a time that works better for you, or propose an alternative communication solution, such as email.

Getting tough with people about your availability is key for productivity. Define your hours of operation, and don’t accept meetings outside of that time frame. 

  • Decide on “never ever” hours.

Just because your company is open does not mean you need to be open for meetings during that time. Decide as a company on an online scheduling tool that lets everyone see who’s available and who isn’t at a given time. 

Perhaps you know that you do your best work first thing in the mornings. Go ahead and block off the hours before 10 a.m. for deep work. Many calendar tools let you select “Apply to all weekdays.” This setting is also useful for scheduling recurring meetings, such as a weekly client touch-base.

  • Control how availability is displayed.

Clients do not need to see every appointment on your calendar. At best, they’ll be confused by the mess of meetings that are not relevant to them; at worst, they might see sensitive or private information.

Until you’ve checked a setting to the contrary, assume that everything you put on your calendar is public. Once you’ve found that setting, operate on a “need to know” basis. If a client questions why they can’t see all of your appointments, be respectful but firm.

To help clients know what to expect, share meeting details such as:

  • When you’ll be available to meet
  • What to expect during meetings
  • What number to call or website to visit to join the virtual meeting room
  • Any software the client needs to install for the meeting
  • Who else might need to be in the meetings

Setting general meeting expectations is important, but it is not a substitute for confirming all appointments via email. If you do not bother to communicate with a client between the time a meeting is scheduled until the time it actually occurs, you’ll have more no-shows than you’d like.

  • Sync your personal and professional calendars.

Between your professional and personal lives, it can be hard to keep up with all of your appointments. Avoid conflicts by syncing your calendars. Looking back and forth between separate ones can open the door to mistakes, not to mention the productivity lost in the process. 

Many tools, including Calendar and Google Calendar, put you in the driver’s seat on which meeting details are displayed. Those who view your work calendar can only see your work events, not the private information associated with your personal ones. The same is true of your personal connections who can see a synced version of your work calendar. 

  • Give people a heads up about exceptions. 

There will be normal work days when you’re out of the office for PTO, a conference, or a client visit. On the flip side, there may be days off when you need to work a few hours. 

Try not to catch people off guard. At least 48 hours in advance (and preferably a week), send a notification via email that you will or won’t be available outside of your normal schedule. Be sure to block off (or open up) the time on your calendar. And if you’ll be completely offline, remember to set an out-of-office responder. 

When you take the time to properly set up your calendar availability, you’ll raise the ceiling on how much you can achieve in a day. In doing so, you’ll make not just your life easier, but also that of your clients and team members. Who knew taking charge of your calendar availability could make such a difference?

7 Crucial Components You Must Schedule Into Your Day

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With so much to do on any given day, knowing how to prioritize your time can feel overwhelming. We all have a limited number of hours available. We have to use that time to maximize our productivity, but we also have to make sure that we take the opportunity to facilitate our health and wellbeing. Establishing healthy habits part of your daily schedule ensures your health doesn’t get pushed aside.

Below we created a list of 7 crucial components to schedule into your day to keep your health, mental clarity, and productivity all in perfect balance.

1. Nighttime Routine

When it comes to our physical and psychological health, a good night’s sleep is vital. Yet, many Americans do not receive the rest they need to function correctly. The CDC reports that a third of US adults get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. Since insufficient rest is linked to serious chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and obesity, this is a cause for concern.

The CDC has gone so far as to declare sleep deprivation as a “public health problem.” So what does all of this mean for your daily routine? Experts suggest that establishing a nighttime routine can significantly improve the quality of your sleep and help you fall asleep faster.

Our list below includes essential components for your nighttime routine.

  •  Set your bedtime.
    To ensure you get a full night’s sleep, establish a set bedtime. When you go to bed at the same time every night, your body will naturally begin to relax and prepare for sleep on its own. To help make this part of your daily routine, consider setting the alarm for one hour before you plan to go to bed. When this alarm goes off, you’ll know you have plenty of time to complete your nighttime routine and get to sleep on.
  • Perform relaxing activities.
    Before bed, relaxing and soothing activities can help you fall asleep faster. Consider reading, taking a warm bath or shower, performing breathing exercises, or journaling. These activities can calm the mind and help you relieve stress from your daily life.
  • Create a restful environment.
    Trying to find adequate sleep in a space that is cluttered can prove impossible. Remove any items from your sleep space that may trigger stress or anxiety. Mail, laundry, work-related issues, computers, and exercise equipment should be banned from your bedroom. It’s also important to consider your mattress. Sleeping on an inadequate mattress or pillow night after night can severely disrupt your sleep. Be sure your mattress is supportive, comfortable, and suited to your needs, and get the best pillow to complete your sleep setup.
  • Avoid large meals before bed.
    When our bodies work hard to digest food, it can be challenging to unwind and rest. Therefore, medical experts suggest avoiding large, heavy meals before bed. Try to give your body at least 3 hours to digest food fully before retiring to bed.
  • Reduce screen time.
    Our bodies naturally produce melatonin to help us relax and prepare for sleep. Since light can interfere with the production of melatonin, experts suggest reducing the amount of screen time at least 2 hours before bed. Less screen time ensures you fall asleep faster.

Incorporating some or all of the above components into your nighttime routine should help improve your sleep quality. For balance and productivity, a bedtime routine is essential.

2. Morning Routine

How you end, your day is just as important as how you start it. The morning is a perfect time to plan for the day ahead and organize your goals before your day begins. To establish a morning routine that will set you up for a productive afternoon and evening, consider our tips below.

  • Evaluate goals.
    First, consider your goal for the day. You may have several things you want to accomplish, but by identifying the most critical tasks, you will be better able to prioritize your time.
  • Review schedule.
    Once you have established the critical tasks for the day, you can create a realistic timeline for completing them. Be sure to review appointments, meetings, and productivity time so you can identify any open slots.
  • Plan meals.
    Planning out your breakfast, lunch, and dinner can go a long way in reducing daily stress. If you go into an office each day, consider packing your lunch. Taking your lunch to work can save money, help you eat healthier, and give you more
    time to relax. Arranging your dinners in advance will also prevent you from having to stress over what to make after a long day. To help yourself prepare, consider writing out your meal plans in the morning before the day begins. Additionally, you can use the weekends to create meal plans for the entire week.
  • Exercise.
    Exercise can take place at any time of the day; however, many experts suggest that the morning is the best time to take part in physical activities. Morning exercise is excellent for helping the body wake up, jump-starting metabolism, and burning stored fat.
  • Make your bed.
    Completing small tasks like making your bed each morning can help you feel accomplished and in control as you start your day. Though this may seem a trivial task to some people, making your bed can set the tone for a productive day. It also leaves your bedroom tidy and organized, which will help you feel more relaxed when you return to bed at the end of the day.
  • Create a getting out the door routine.
    Mornings can often feel hectic as you try to get out of the door. To help reduce morning stress, consider doing a bit of prep the evening before. Place essential items you will need for the day close by the door. For example, laptops, briefcases or backpacks, lunches, and water bottles, keys, purses or wallets, gym clothes, and shoes should be placed in the same place each evening, so they are ready to go in the morning.

Incorporating any of these small tasks into your morning routine can give you a jump start on your day and leave you feeling focused.

3. Exercise

As we mentioned above, exercise tends to be most effective in the morning. However, if you are unable to make exercise part of your morning routine, be sure to schedule a workout elsewhere in your day.

Just like sleep, exercise is critical to your health. Experts note that regular physical activity helps to prevent significant health issues such as stroke, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, and some forms of cancer. If you don’t currently have a regular fitness routine, consider starting small with a 7-minute workout. Even this short routine can help make exercise a permanent part of your daily life.

4. Downtime

The term “downtime” means something different to everyone. What helps each person relax and let go of stress will be specific to their interests, lifestyle, and hobbies. However, making time for leisure activities within your day is vital for your mental clarity. Our list below includes some healthy things you may want to consider incorporating.

  • Spend time with family and friends.
  • Read.
  • Participate in your favorite hobby.
  • Laugh.
  • Enjoy a favorite beverage or meal.
  • Cook.
  • Go for a walk.
  • Journal

Above all, what you do in your downtime should make you happy and leave you feeling centered. Be sure to schedule in your downtime so that it always remains a priority.

5. Productivity

Most of us need to think that we have been productive at some point in the day. Whether you work a traditional 9 to 5 job, do freelance work, or own a business, you will need to schedule your work.

To keep your operating hours productive, consider decluttering your workspace, removing distractions, placing tasks in manageable “chunks,” and delegating or outsourcing projects if you find your workload unmanageable. It is essential to set a specific number of uninterrupted hours of productivity each day. A set schedule will ensure that your professional life does not interfere with your health or wellbeing. Work quickly from your phone while on the train, trax, or uber when you can.

6. Outdoor Time

Outdoor time is good for the brain and the body. Natural sunlight improves mood and focus. Studies show that going outdoors during that day:

  • Reduces stress.
  • Boosts the immune system.
  • Improves energy levels.
  • Helps reduce or dissipate depression.
  • Lifts anxiety.
  • Gives you your daily dose of vitamin D.

Scheduling even a small amount of outdoor time into each day can have significant effects on your overall health. To make coordinating outdoor time easier, consider eating your lunch at a nearby park, completing your exercise routine outside, going for a short walk in the morning or evening, or finding longer hikes you can achieve or complete on the weekends. Even if you live in a busy city, chances are you will be able to find nearby green spaces or hiking trails.

7. Gratitude

When we are in the midst of your busy lives, it can be challenging to stop and take a moment to be thankful. During your day, try to make time to express gratitude. You can do this first thing in the morning upon waking or just before bed.

Consider starting a gratitude journal, or letting those around you know that you appreciate them. Taking a small amount of time to be grateful for what you can help reduce stress and improve mental clarity.

Addition Scheduling Tips

It is important to remember that establishing healthy habits takes time. Remember to start small and gradually increase the number of tasks you schedule. For example, if you have begun incorporating a 7-minute exercise routine into your day, after a month of completing this task regularly, you may want to increase the intensity and duration of the workout. Always have a self-care routine. Self-care will be your secret weapon to physical and mental health, as well as higher productivity.

Additionally, it will be helpful to keep your momentum going. If you begin by establishing a set bedtime, try your best to maintain that habit. If you miss a day, don’t fret, aim to stay consistent afterward. Before long, these habits will become second nature.

6 Meetings That Boost Productivity on Remote Teams

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Every company has a unique mix of purpose, goals, and culture. As a result, they also have unique workflows.

Although some teams are still completely in-office operations, about 70% of people globally work remotely at least once a week. To keep communication lines strong and productivity high, remote teams have to be deliberate about when and why they meet. 

Which types of meetings actually matter for remote teams, and how should they be conducted? Here’s our take:

1. Daily or weekly check-ins

In fast-paced, deadline-driven work environments, it’s crucial to keep remote employees on the same page as on-site staff. Starting each day with a 15-minute stand-up meeting ensures that each team member gets a chance to discuss their workload and ask for any support they might need. 

If a daily meeting sounds like overkill for your remote team, consider a weekly one instead. Keep it to 30 minutes or less, if at all possible. This is enough time for a round-up of goals, accomplishments, and concerns — but not enough for the meeting to devolve into pointless conversation. These meetings promote time-blocking while reducing the need for back-and-forth email chains. 

2. Quick follow-ups

Does a project brief, report, or email need more clarification? Is there something you need to chat through before you can take the next step?

Rather than adding to the flurry of digital messages, hop on a call. A five- to ten-minute conversation is all it takes, in most cases, to get clarity.

This is especially important for highly collaborative teams. A quick follow-up meeting can prevent multiple members of a team from heading down the wrong path. 

3. Monthly status updates

Sometimes, a particularly important project deserves its own series of meetings. To keep long-term initiatives on track, consider scheduling monthly or quarterly meetings to touch base. 

What sorts of projects do these meetings make sense for? Marketing campaigns, sales strategies, and product development are common ones. Recruitment and cultural curation initiatives also deserve periodic updates.

Because these meetings happen less frequently, take steps to prevent poor time management. Prepare an agenda with clear action items beforehand. Know who plans to present, and ask them to send summaries of those presentations to the team afterward. Be sure to make time for participants’ questions or concerns. 

4. Brainstorms

The hardest part of any project is starting it. Keep your remote team’s productivity high with opportunities to brainstorm around roadblocks. Virtual brainstorm sessions should last anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes, allowing team members to generate and share project-related ideas freely. 

In these meetings, visual aids are great ways to jog ideas. Consider conducting your virtual brainstorms via videoconference in a room with a whiteboard. At the very least, use screen-sharing so everyone can see the notes and ideas generated so far. 

5. Leadership Q&As

Remote team members get less (and in some cases, no) face time with managers and executives. A great way to maintain communication between them is with Q&A sessions. These types of meetings are best used to discuss team-wide concerns and ongoing cultural issues. Just be sure to schedule them well in advance so workers can prepare questions and leaders can think through their talking points. 

If your company works with subject matter experts, Q&A sessions can also be used to share specialists’ advice with the rest of the team. Employees may not need to understand every detail, but they should be able to get their questions answered. 

6. Cross-team collaborations 

When two or more teams are working on the same project, they need to set common goals and track progress together. Get both groups together to talk through challenges and workflows.

Perhaps your web and product teams are working on an e-commerce launch. Key players from both teams should share their strategies and discuss how the other can help. On-site product details should match the product’s actual functionality.

Schedule these conversations for 15, 30, or 45 minutes. Anything longer should be split into multiple meetings, and anything shorter should be treated as a check-in meeting. Timed right, collaborative meetings boost quality of work and efficiency. 

Remote workers may be physically separated, but that shouldn’t get in the way of their productivity. Scheduling meetings strategically is the best way to keep everyone working well together. And that sort of collaboration is how companies stay ahead of the curve. 

What Are the Main Priorities in Your Business Life?

By | Business Tips, Time Management | No Comments
To-Do List

Regardless of whether you’re looking to climb your way up the corporate ladder or grow your business, we need to have priorities for our professional life. Without establishing your priorities, we won’t be as effective at our jobs or meet goals and deadlines. Priorities are also needed to protect resources like time and money. Essential to business and personal growth — are priorities.

But, you already knew that, right?

Even if you are aware of the importance of priorities, what are the main ones for you to focus on? Well, here are six main priorities that are required if you want to thrive in your business life.

Determining your “big three.”

Here’s an experiment. Write down all of the tasks that are tied to your professionally for the next month. I have no doubt that it’s quite the list. And, it probably contains several high priority items. But, in reality, this list could be drastically trimmed down.

I know what you’re thinking, “I can’t trim down my list; it isn’t possible because everything on my list is a top priority.”

“If you review your list carefully, item by item, you will find that only three items on your entire list account for 90% of your value to your business,” writes Brian Tracy. So, how can you determine your “big three”? “Make a list of ALL your work tasks and responsibilities, from the first day of the month to the last day, and throughout the year,” suggests Tracy. “Then answer these three magic questions.”

The first question would be, “If I could only do one thing on this list, all day long, which one activity would contribute the greatest value to my business?” Because it’s so important, it will probably stand out from the rest of the items on your list. If you’re uncertain, it should be the one thing that will have the most significant impact on your business or career.

The second would is, “If I could only do two things on this list, all day long, what would be the second activity that would make the greatest contribution to my business?” These items should also jump out at you. However, they may not seem as apparent at first.

The third question is, “If I could only do three things on this list, all day long, what would be the third activity that would contribute the most value to my business?” As a general rule of thumb, only focus on completing three tasks for the day. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to accomplish any more than that.

Enhancing your time management skills.

Time management should never be overlooked. Sure. It’s nice to have some downtime. But, managing your time is a surefire way to improve your business life.

The most obvious reason is that you’ll be able to achieve more in less time. Because you’re more productive, you’re ready to meet deadlines. You will also earn the reputation of someone who is never late and is reliable. I don’t know about you. But, that is someone that I would want to business with or retain if I were a business owner.

Additionally, time management can be beneficial to your health. Since you have the time to attend to your well-being and aren’t working excessive hours, you’re less stressed. You’re also able to find time to exercise, make healthy meals, meditate, or get enough sleep. And, because you aren’t behind on your work, you’re not as anxious.

To get you on the right path, here are the necessary time management skills that you should develop:

  • Work the hours that best suit you.
  • Keep a time log.
  • Focus only on what you do best.
  • Implement the “two-minute” rule.
  • Break your activities down into simple problems.
  • Don’t fall into the “urgency” trap.
  • Schedule “me” time.
  • Cluster similar tasks.
  • Identify and eliminate distractions.
  • Arm yourself with the right tools.

Feeling in-balance.

Work-life is often a perk that employees demand. Some studies have previously found that this was a top priority for demographics like millennials. But, it’s also top of mind for small business owners.

It’s easy to understand why. Even if you’re a workaholic and love what you do professionally, you also need time away from work.

The reasons vary from person-to-person. But, mainly when you don’t let work bleed into your personal life, you have a chance to rest and recharge. You can also spend time doing things that are truly important to you. As a result, when you return to work, you’ll be more focused and rejuvenated enough to persevere.

Of course, this is easier said than done. Thanks to technology, we’re expected to be on-call 24/7/365. Sometimes you need to be kept in the loop, especially when you have to address an emergency.

Some ways that this is possible is by maximizing your time at work, stop overcommitting, and not bringing work at home. You should also establish boundaries. For example, if you’re spending time with friends or family on a Saturday night, then don’t respond to any work-related correspondence.

Innovating, learning, and growing.

If you want to advance your career and stay ahead of your competitors, then innovating, learning, and growing must be the main priority for you professionally.

For example, you should always be brainstorming ways to improve a product, service, or process. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. But, you should be on the lookout for ways to update or upgrade these areas. It may make you more efficient and stand out from the pack.

What’s more, you should seek out opportunities to learn and grow both professionally and personally. As an example, if you were to enhance your skillset, you would be more proficient at your job. Not only will this make you more valuable, but it will also help you work smarter and not harder.

You should also stay up-to-date on the latest trends, technologies, and external factors that may influence you professionally. Again, besides making you more useful, this will also help you adept.

And you should also find ways to grow. For instance, you may want to improve your communication skills by taking a public speaking class. You can use this new talent to make your meetings more effective. You could also apply to seek out speaking engagements to help you become an authority figure.

Getting to know the people in your neighborhood.

You don’t have to get to know everyone in your neighborhood — unless you want to. But, when you’re surrounded by kids, sometimes you have to do things like watch the 50th anniversary special of Sesame Street. I’m not complaining. But, I do have this song stuck in my head now.

Anyway, your neighborhood, when it comes to your business life, would be your business partner, employees, customers, or investors. The reason? Well, it will help foster a more positive and collaborative work environment. You’ll also be able to ease the pain points of your customers. And, if you need funding, you’ll know which investors to connect with.

Growing your network.

Whether if you do this online or in-person, growing your network is a priority that I feel many of us neglect. After all, networking is another way to improve your skillset or stay abreast of the latest trends. It can also help you find mentors, partners, or clients.

If you’re job searching, networking is a great way to mingle with potential employers or get hooked up with a referral. And, if you are self-employed, networking can be used to build your brand.

Do a little digging and find local meetups or conferences that you should attend for the upcoming year. And block out specific times in your calendar to schedule a phone with an industry expert or interact with your audience on social media.

4 Business To-Dos to Tackle For Spring Cleaning

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Business professional sitting outside working on laptop next to spring flowers

Just as spring brings nature back to life, spring can also be a time to renew your business. Spring-cleaning your company can mean less clutter, more clients, and more time to interview prospective employees.

But unlike your home, spring-cleaning your business isn’t as simple as throwing things in the dumpster. Here’s how to be strategic about it:

1. Give your brand a fresh look. 

You know the saying: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Although this applies in certain contexts, your company’s brand is not one of them.

Ask yourself: Is our website outdated? Does our motto still ring true? Does our product’s packaging attract attention? If you’re second guessing the success of something, chances are it should be changed. 

According to Forbes contributor Jessica Kleinman, there are five words to live by during the rebranding process: research, input, goals, support and process. 

Rebranding brings drastic changes, so you must be prepared before making any decisions. Start by meeting with your team to talk about the pros and cons of your company’s brand. Compile the feedback, and then make the final call about what’s in your budget to improve. 

When announcing your plans, explain how you expect the company to benefit from the brand changes. Support is key: If your team isn’t behind the changes, make tweaks until you all agree. Build all those details into a brand style guide. 

2. Get organized. 

Spring means it’s time to kiss the office clutter goodbye. 

Start by throwing away anything that you no longer need. This means no more stacks of papers, capless pens, and broken staplers sitting on your desk. Next, find an organizing strategy that works for you. Try out color coding, filing documents chronologically, or digitizing old records. 

Once your physical space is decluttered to your liking, shift your sights to your schedule. This is the work of becoming a better time manager: Create a master list of the tasks on your calendar, decide on what’s important, and adopt a prioritization method. 

Just like the organization of your desk, how you shift your schedule requires you to decide on a system that works for you. You could use the chunking method (blocking out specific times for uninterrupted work) or the ABCDE method (assigning a letter to a task depending on importance), for example.

3. Reflect on old goals and create new ones. 

This business to-do is similar to a New Year’s resolution — except that the chances of success are hopefully greater.

Whether you’re assessing personal or team goals, it’s important to think about previous ones. Did you achieve them, or did you forget about them? Can they be altered and improved?

Whatever the answer, one helpful approach to goal reflection or setting is the SMART method. Pin down what your goal is and then follow the break down. 

A SMART goal should be:

  1. Specific: Achieve specificity by using the 6 Ws: who, what, when, where, which and why? If the goal doesn’t answer these, narrow it more. For example, would you rather “get more clients” or “increase your account volume by 50% in eight months”? 
  2. Measurable: From minutes spent on the phone to dollar amounts, use measurable parameters to anchor your goal.
  3. Attainable: Your goals should be within your reach. It’s important to challenge yourself, but be realistic and recognize your limitations.
  4. Relevant: Any goals set should align with the company’s mission. 
  5. Timely: Create a clear timeline with action items to work toward goal achievement. 

A goal with these five components has a greater chance of becoming a reality than one without them. And when your employees understand what, exactly, you want to achieve, they’ll be more likely to buy in. 

4. Plan a getaway. 

All work and no play isn’t sustainable. If you’ve been working hard, it’s time to reward yourself with that long-awaited vacation. 

To avoid inconveniencing yourself or coworkers, avoid overlapping out-of-office periods. Also, do any work you can ahead of time. Write down deadlines or delegate tasks for anything you can’t finish before taking off. 

Do your best to minimize the amount of work you’ll have to do when you get back. Vacations are a time to kick back and relax. They give you time to clear your head in order to hit the ground running once you return. Increased productivity, less stress, and better mental health lie on the other side of your trip. 

If you’re a city person, why not spend a few days in New York City or Chicago? For seclusion, opt for a backpacking trip through the wilderness or a yoga retreat. 

Don’t let spring pass you by before planting seeds for a stronger year. Plan ahead, focus on business needs, and don’t forget to take care of yourself as a person, too. 

Time Blocking 101: Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Your Daily Schedule

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Let’s get down to brass tacks. You’re here because you’re on a journey to find a way to manage your time better while boosting your productivity. While there hundreds, if not thousands, of options to achieve this goal, one surefire technique is time-blocking.

If you’re not familiar with time-blocking, then you’ve come to the right place. In the following article, I’ll describe what time-blocking is, why it rocks, and guide on how to implement it into your daily schedule.

What is time blocking, and why is it effective.

“Time blocking is simply a time management technique where you set aside a specific amount of time for a particular task,” explains Calendar’s Howie Jones. “For example, instead of checking your phone every time you receive an email or social notification, you would do this at clearly defined times.” However, how you decide to block out your day is at your discretion.

For Jones, he sets aside a block to check his inbox and social media before diving into his work in the morning. “There’s another block after lunch,” he adds. “And, the final one is later in the afternoon before calling work a day.”

Others, such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk, are fans of micro scheduling where their entire day consists of five-minute blocks. But, a more common practice would be to reserve an amount of time, like around an hour, to complete an important task or attend a meeting. A short break follows it, usually no more than 20-minutes, before getting back to the grind.

That’s all well and good. But why is time-blocking so effective?

For starters, while useful at times, to-do-lists are inferior. Mainly this is because they don’t account for time. You may have ten items you want to accomplish today. But, if the first two take longer than expected, you’re never going to complete the rest. Because of this, we tend to tackle those more manageable and less critical tasks first, meaning those delicious frogs just sit there getting cold.

Moreover, time-blocking discourages you to multitask. “By scheduling chunks of time for a specific task or problem, you’re promoting deep focused work,” explains Jones. “It also helps you focus less on ‘shallow work,’ which is urgent, but not essential activities.”

Time blocking also fights backs against perfectionism and procrastination since there’s a time limit attached to your daily responsibilities. It also makes it easier for you to reject requests for your time. And, it helps you reflect on your priorities by giving you a document of what you did and did not accomplish in a specific timeframe.

Are you ready to harness the power of time-blocking? If so, here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you finally take control of your daily schedule.

Step 1: Untangle your mind.

Before you start adding blocks of time to your calendar, you first need to determine how you’re going to fill them.

It would be like building a shelf from scratch — if you possessed such a talent. You need to do a lot of planning upfront. If not, you may have a shelf that serves no purpose because the dimensions are all wrong. But, if you knew that you wanted this shelf to hold your vinyl collection, then you would first lookup plans. Now you would purchase the right materials to meet your storage needs.

Like most of us, though, there are probably a million things you have to do swirling around in your head. So, get them out of there by doing a brain dump.

It’s a simple activity where you literally write down everything that you must do. You can use a pen and paper, an app like Evernote, or your phone’s note app. Start by listing your commitments like attending a meeting or handing in an assignment by a specific date. Other items to include here would be things like your morning ritual, daily commute, or anything pertaining to your goals.

You’ll also want to include things that you would like to do but haven’t yet committed to them. And, also throw in anything that you wouldn’t mind doing down the road.

You don’t have to do this daily. But it’s something that you should frequently. Personally, I think that this should be a weekly activity, like Friday afternoon or Sunday evening.

Step 2: Identify your priorities.

With your list in tow, it’s time to prioritize it.

Thankfully, if you broke your list down into must, want, and perhaps, you’re halfway there. But, you still need to analyze it so that you can identify the items that must get done this week. Anything else can either be scheduled for a later date, delegate to someone else, or erased from your list.

If you’re stuck because everything seems essential, here are a couple of strategies to prioritize your list:

  • Determine your MITs. These are no more than three things that absolutely have to get done today.
  • Use a priority matrix. Here, you would place everything on your list into the following quadrants: urgent and vital; necessary, but not urgent; critical, but not important; and neither urgent nor important.
  • Determine the value of your tasks with the ABCDE method. Just assign “A” to your most important task, “B” for important, “C” for perhaps, “D” equals delegate, and “E” is for eliminating.
  • The Pareto Principle. Focus on the handful of activities that deliver the most results.
  • Warren Buffett’s 2-list strategy. Jot down the 25 things you want to accomplish this week. Next, circle your top five and forget the rest.

Step 3: Prepare a daily blueprint.

Now that you’ve got your priorities figured out for the week let’s figure out where to place them in your calendar.

Your first option would be to work through your tasks in chronological order. Let’s say that you have then items that need to get down by Friday. Your first two tasks would be scheduled for Monday. Tasks three and four would be scheduled for Tuesday and so forth.

I like this. It’s pretty straightforward and not overwhelming. When I wake up on Monday, I know which fish to fry — as I do for the rest of the days of the week.

Of course, there are some considerations here. First, you need to estimate how long each of these tasks will take you. If each one eats up five hours, I doubt that you’ll complete both of them on the same day. It’s not that you can’t work a ten-hour day. But, that’s not feasible when you take into account breaks and distractions. In this case, you’re looking at more of a 12 plus hour day.

Another factor would be before commitments like conference calls, meetings, appointments, or hard deadlines. It’s going to be a challenge to tackle two large tasks when you’ve got two meetings already in your calendar.

And don’t forget to work around your energy levels. We all have different times when we’re most productive based on our own ultradian rhythms. Track your own so that you know when you’re most productive. As a general rule of thumb, we’re usually most alert and energetic a couple of hours after waking. Also, as the week goes on, energy levels begin to decrease.

With this in mind, you would want to schedule your most challenging tasks in the morning. You would then use the afternoon for less draining activities like meetings. Also, try to front-load your week so that you aren’t working on a high-objective item on Friday.

Step 4: Blockout your entire day.

Let’s take a breather here. I mean, I just threw a lot of information at you. But, we’re pretty much at the point you’ve all been waiting for — time blocking every day of your schedule.

Since you’ve already identified your priorities and came-up with a blueprint for your week, this shouldn’t be all that difficult. It probably goes something like this:

That’s an elementary daily schedule. But, I think you get the point. Your time has been accounted for the entire day. You’ve also blocked out time for your most important work and shallow tasks like email.

You’ve also dedicated chunks of time to your morning routine, daily commute, breaks, and family time. There’s even an unscheduled block of time just in case you didn’t complete your work in the morning, take care of back burner tasks, or you have to take care of an unexpected occurrence.

Step 5: Transition from block-to-block.

If you want to perfect the art of time blocking, then you must have buffers in-between each chunk of time. It’s unrealistic to believe that you’re going to jump immediately from one task to another. Your brain needs time to decompress and recharge.

What’s more, you need these transitional periods for things like traveling to a meeting. Let’s say that you have to go across town at 2 p.m. to meet with investors. You may have a meeting blocked out. But, if it takes you 20-minutes to get there, you should also block out from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. It’s just a simple way to prevent you from accidentally scheduling something else that may cause you to run late to the meeting.

Step 6: Turn off and tune out.

Another way for time blocking to be useful is to eradicate those pesky distractions. Alright, eradicate might be a bit harsh. But, you get the idea. Distractions interrupt you from getting things done.

The main culprit? Your smartphone. Thankfully, you can block apps at certain times by setting limits on your phone or using tools like Freedom or FocusMe. You can also put your phone on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. And, if that doesn’t work, you can always keep your phone in another room.

Besides your smartphone, you may also get distracted by co-workers or your family if you work at home. Sometimes this is unavoidable. But, you could close your office door when you need to focus on work. If they don’t get the hint, place a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on your door or share your calendar with them so that they can when you’re free to chat.

I suggest that you keep a distraction log. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just make a note of what interrupted you and when. For example, if a noisy trash truck causes you to lose focus every Wednesday morning, put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones around this time.

Step: 7: Revise as necessary.

Finally, revise as needed.

To do this, review your calendar from the past week. How productive were you? What didn’t go as planned? For the upcoming week, move some blocks around to see if those changes were beneficial or not.

It would also be wise to use a tool like Calendar that can analyze how you’re spending your time thanks to the magic of machine learning. It can then make smart suggestions. For instance, it can keep tabs on your meetings and then recommend when they should take place, along with whom to invite.

Productively Managing an Executive’s Calendar

By | Knowledge Base, Time Management | No Comments

Whether you’re an intern, assistant, or helping out a friend or family, you may be asked to help manage someone else’s calendar. That responsibility should never be taken lightly. They need their day to run as smoothly as possible to protect their business, reputation, and well-being. Here’s how to productively manage an executive’s calendar.

But, what if you’re new to calendar management? Well, here’s how you can effectively achieve that. And, as a perk, you can take this experience and apply it to your own life. Who knows? It may even help transform you into an effective leader yourself someday.

And, if you’re an executive who still manages their own calendar, then these tips will also apply to you.

Get to know your executive.

Imagine that it’s finally time for you to host your friends and family for a holiday feast or reunion. In all of your excitement, you probably didn’t take into consideration the dietary needs and preferences of your guests. Maybe someone is a vegan, while another suffers from celiac disease.

Did you also think about the distance that everyone has to travel to? If someone had to drive two hours to get to your house, having dinner at 8 p.m. may be too late for them if they weren’t staying over.

The point is, it takes a lot of planning to throw together a successful event. And, the same is true when it comes to an executive calendar.

You may be tempted to start filling their calendar however you like. But, remember, it’s your executive’s valuable time. That means you need to respect how they wish to spend it.

Spend some time shadowing them so that you know what their daily routine is like. Ask your boss when they prefer to have meetings or eat lunch. How do they prioritize their lists? When are they at peak productivity? How does your exec make time for their own well-being?

You could also review their past calendar to see how they spent their time.

Besides their individual inclinations, the rules of time management are undoubtedly different for employees and executives. But, you won’t know that if you don’t get actually to know your executive.

Think strategically.

There’s a misconception that when managing an executive calendar that you’re merely taking orders. They ask you to add a lunch date or schedule a team meeting, and that’s it. The thing is, to effectively manage an executive calendar, it’s the opposite.

You need to think broader and more strategically. Before filling up your boss’s calendar, you need to consider the bigger picture. Do the task event have a purpose. Does it align with their goals? What is the time commitment attached to the time request?

What’s more, you also have to realize that just because a slot is open doesn’t mean it’s available. For example, let’s say that there’s a blank block from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Because there isn’t anything scheduled, you book a conference call. But you didn’t notice that your boss has a meeting at 3 p.m. that’s on the other side of town. They wanted to leave that block open so that they could prepare and travel for that meeting.

Before adding something to their calendar, make sure that it’s not interfering with anything else on their calendar. You should also take into account travel time, jet lag, breaks, and work-life balance. For instance, avoid scheduling an urgent meeting on the day after they arrive home from an international trip or when it interrupts with their downtime.

Use a shared calendar.

There’s really no excuse for not having a shared calendar. A shared calendar should be readily accessible and come packed with benefits like keeping everyone in the loop. Besides, if your organization uses Office 365 or G Suite, then you already have a shared calendar at your fingertips.

Whenever someone asks what the executive’s availability is, send their calendar via email. Better yet, embed their calendar somewhere like the company’s website. It just avoids those lengthy back-and-forth communications when scheduling.

It’s essential to keep in mind, though, that you don’t want to share too much information. There’s no need for anyone else to know what your executive’s life is like outside of work. You should also customize the calendar by using the executive’s preferred view. You can also use color-coding or different fonts so that they can quickly identify calendar entries.

And, integrate the calendar with tools like Calendar. It works with Google, Outlook, and Apple calendars. But, it also used machine learning to make smart suggestions on how to schedule your executive’s time.

Run a better medical practice appointment schedule.

You don’t have to be involved with a medical practice to run your schedule like one. After all, medical practices must maximize their schedules to keep patients satisfied and keep the office running smoothly.

So, how can this be achieved? Well, here are some tips that accomplish this goal:

  • Always start on time. If meeting beings at 1 p.m., then that’s precisely when it should start. To prevent a late start, suggest that everyone arrives ten minutes early. Even better, the meeting invite could have a start time of 12:50.
  • Plan appropriately. A doctor’s office typically sees a bump during specific times of the year, as flu season. Knowing this, they make sure that they have enough help and resources to handle the increase in patients. For you, review past calendars to see when your executive is most in-demand so that you don’t fill their calendar with less essential objectives.
  • Forge a timeline. Medical practices know in-advance how many patients they can see per day. For you, be real on how much you and your executive can accomplish realistically every day — including how many meetings can be scheduled.
  • Group similar patients. It’s more useful for medical professionals to see patients with similar conditions or histories at the same time. Mainly because it keeps your boss in the right mindset. Also, it prevents them from continually putting away and getting right the same equipment. We call this batching. It’s pretty much the same concept where you group similar activities together.
  • Schedules should reflect the patient mix. “If you have 70% Fee for Service (FFS) patients and only 30% are insurance-based, then your schedule should reflect that,” explain the team over at liveClinic. “Block out only 30% of your daily schedule for capitated patients and leave the rest for open Fee-For-Service patients.” How does this apply to you? It’s similar to the Pareto Principle, where 80% of your executive’s outcome is produced by 20% input.
  • Create organized triage. Medical professionals also have to handle emergencies. In other words, they will only see a patient at the last minute, depending on the “the symptom, appointment urgency, and appointment length.” On your end, learn how to prioritize so that your boss doesn’t fall into the urgency trap.
  • Be open all day. Of course, this isn’t possible. Even though leaders are always “on,” they need downtime to recharge and rest. To protect this time, without completely neglecting their responsibilities, use automated tools that could take care of customer service inquiries. You could also create an out-of-office message informing the other party when to expect a response or what steps to decide if it’s an absolute emergency.

Update their calendar in real-time.

An employee asks if they can schedule a one-on-one. You look at the calendar and see that the executive is free next Wednesday at 3 p.m. Both of you agree on that date and time. Unfortunately, you get sidetracked and don’t add this to their calendar. In the meantime, someone else requests this same date and time. It’s free, so you go ahead and book that event. That’s definitely disrespectful to the employee.

The sooner you had a calendar entry, the better. It’s a surefire way to prevent conflicts.

Also, if an event has to be canceled or rescheduled, make a note of that in the calendar and notify the other people it impacts.

Bonus tip: Even if something hasn’t been set in stone, maybe the other party has to double-check their availability, add it to the calendar anyway.

Foresee the future.

Obviously, you don’t possess this power. But, there are simple ways to make it appear as if you do.

Stay on top of traffic and weather reports. I would just set up Google Alerts so that this doesn’t slip your mind. The reason you want to do this is that both can impact travel.

But, there’s more to this then being weather or traffic reporter. You also need to be their timekeeper. Do they have a conference call in fifteen minutes? Either shoot them an instant message or set up a calendar reminder to give them a head’s up. If they’re in a meeting, provide them with a signal when they have five minutes to bring the meeting to an end.

You could even do small things like having lunch ideas prepared. And, know which calendar entries can be pushed back or rescheduled. Knowing and understanding the motivations of your exec can be tricky when everything is a priority. But, date-specific entries or essential and urgent tasks usually take place before anything else.

One final word of advice here. Allow for some flexibility in your exec’s calendar. That means not overbooking the boss’s schedule where every minute of their day has been scheduled. Instead, leave some blank spaces so that they can attend to an emergency or have some free time to spend with their employees.

Review. Then review again.

Be proactive by reviewing their calendar frequently. Ideally, you should double-check your exec’s calendar every evening (right when you check your own calendar — or at least first thing in the morning. That may sound like overkill. But, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. For instance, let’s say you notice that a meeting invitee had to cancel at the last minute. You need to let your executive know the information as quickly as possible so that they’re not still planning their day around this event.

I’d also suggest that you review their calendar for the next two weeks. It allows you to address any possible conflicts and make sure that everything is still on track.

And, most importantly, make sure that their calendar has been successfully synced across all of their devices.

Find a system that works for both of you.

Finally, find a system that works for both of you. Even though you might do everything digitally, the other person may not be as tech-savvy. As such, you may want to print out their calendars for them so that they can still access their schedules offline.

While this takes some trial and error? Certainly. But, once you get into a groove, it will make managing an executive calendar much easier.

5 Tips for Balancing Your Clients’ Calendars With Your Own

By | Time Management | No Comments
Sever Ties with Bad Clients

It’s easy to be the client’s yes-man: agreeing to last-minute projects and too-fast turnarounds, booking back-to-back meetings, and worrying about how you’ll complete the work you take on.

Don’t get me wrong: Clients’ needs are important. In fact, they’re the reason you see profits at the end of the quarter. But if you’re constantly reacting to client needs, when will you have time to work on all of the other things that keep your company moving forward?

Resist the urge to overload your schedule. Not only does it put you at risk of letting a client down, but it can lead to all sorts of chronic health problems. 

Balancing your client’s calendar with your own can feel like walking on a tightrope. Cut yourself some slack with these five tips:

1. Know when you work best.

When do you feel most energized? It could be in the morning right after a cup of coffee, or in mid-afternoon as the office gets quiet and your inbox traffic slows. Identify the time of day when you’re at peak productivity.

No matter what part of the day works best for you, block this time out on your schedule for focused, distraction-free work. Don’t let the whirlwind of meetings and emails keep you from spending this time on your most pressing projects. 

This is the work of setting boundaries, which benefit everyone involved: You finish projects on time, and your client gets a better outcome. Don’t feel guilty for it. 

2. Use an online scheduling tool.

Although paper planners and calendars have their benefits, working from an online calendar is the best way to stay on top of the fast-paced work environment.

To that calendar, add not just your meetings and appointments, but also those blocks of time when you want to do deep work. Set it so that your team members and, if you so choose, your clients can see your availability. 

Giving clients open access to your calendar might be nerve-wracking. But think about the advantages of such a system: Clients who can see your calendar will understand that you can’t meet at a time that you’ve already committed to someone else. Make rearranging your schedule the last resort. 

3. Build a buffer into timeline estimates.

When setting the project timeline, be realistic. Give estimates according to when you could comfortably complete the work, not when you could do it if you pushed everything else out of the way.

Sure, it’s nice to impress a client with a quick turnaround. If you do that for every client, though, you’ll quickly run out of time and energy. 

Apply the “buffer” approach to your meeting schedule as well. Give yourself small blocks of time between appointments to decompress, answer emails, and prepare for the next one. 

4. Look at the big picture.

You know what times of year are most and least profitable for your business. The same is true of your clients.

It’s likely that your clients have an idea of how their year will look and what they might need in a given season. At the start of the calendar year, ask your long-term clients what projects they anticipate needing your help with. Not only does reaching out early show that you want to maintain your relationship with them, but it lets you know well in advance what’s coming.

Go ahead and add those projects to your calendar. Set reminders to follow up with each client for details as the start dates draw closer. 

5. Get creative.

Make use of every minute of your schedule. If you find yourself squandering interstitial periods, ask whether you could use them to buy yourself time elsewhere. 

For example, you could take lunch meetings or chat with clients over happy hour. If you usually commute to appointments, could you take some of them via a videoconferencing service?

Videoconferencing is a good solution for all sorts of meetings. Not only does it keep you at your desk, but it allows you to share your screen and record the conversation.

At the end of the day, remember that you’re the captain of your calendar. It’s OK to occasionally feel overwhelmed by your workload, but it shouldn’t be the norm. Client needs are important, yes, but you should not live by their beck and call.

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