Your Calendar and You: Put an End to Missed Appointments and Deadlines

Many people struggle with calendar management, something I often see with clients. It is usually due to keeping more than one calendar and/or not making their calendar a priority. With a little TLC, your calendar can bring calm to chaos and order to your workflow.

To successfully organize your calendar, I recommend:

1. Use One Calendar. Having too many calendars is confusing and increases the risk of double-booking, missing deadlines, and forgetting personal obligations. There is only one you, and you can only be in one place at a time; keeping one calendar creates a balance (I am all about balance). I recommend using the calendar associated with your business and allowing access so that it can be viewed on your phone, tablet, and computer.

2. Color Code Your Calendar. Color-code your calendar entries to bring visual clarity. Pick colors that work best for you. For example, I use orange for meetings where I need to be out of the office (including travel time), purple for meetings that cannot be moved, red for urgent tasks, grey for daily tasks, yellow for client work sessions, and blue for personal obligations.

3. Add it to Your Calendar. Whatever you need to get done, add it to your calendar. No more Post-its! Add reminders, meetings, tasks, and appointments to your calendar so they are all on it. Vacation time, need to make that vet appointment, get the car inspected, project deadlines, daily walk, dinner with friends? Add it to your calendar. I live by my calendar… if it’s not on my calendar, it will likely be forgotten. 

4. Block Your Time. Adding deadlines and important meetings to your calendar as soon as possible is a must. I recommend you take it a step further and schedule blocks of time to complete the work, meet deadlines, and prepare for upcoming meetings. When I have an important deadline coming up, I block the time to do the work. I like to work backward from a project deadline or upcoming meeting, allowing myself ample time to get the work done ahead of time… less stress and happy clients.

5. Review Your Calendar Periodically. As priorities shift and deadlines change, be certain your calendar reflects those changes. I like to review my calendar in monthly view each Friday to ensure I am staying on top of upcoming deadlines, in weekly view each Sunday to prepare for the upcoming week, and at the end of each day to prepare for the following day’s work (adjusting as needed). 

Your calendar is one of the simplest and most effective tools for bringing order to a busy week. A little structure goes a long way.