“I’m Late…I’m Late…For A Very Important Date”
Have you ever felt like the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland, running from meeting to meeting without a second to catch your breath? Outside of the fact that our culture puts great pride in being busy all of the time, you simply have a hundred things to take care of as an business leader. Managing your schedule can be one of the best habits you get into. As a business owner, my new habits with managing my calendar have been crucial to my business (and my sanity).
Here are some of my habits that have helped me out:
1. Switch from paper to digital! It took me a while to do this, but now that I have, I don’t think I could ever go back to a handwritten calendar.
2. Sync my smartphone and my laptop. I use gmail to filter all of my emails, manage documents, and for my calendar! Since I have this same google account connected to my smartphone, my calendars can sync instantly!
3. Set up different calendars. I have a personal calendar, a birthdays/holidays calendar, a young life calendar, and a work calendar. I can hide any of them at any time if I so choose, or I can have them all turned on and look terribly impressive to anyone who sneaks a peek at my list of events. By separating events out by function, I can hide these calendars, share them when needed, or post them publicly without sharing unnecessary info.
4. Set up alerts. I have gone into my calendar settings and set up alerts to email me and send pop-ups 30 minutes before an event starts. At some point, this may get annoying, but so far the extra emails showing up have been more than helpful.
5. Put details into your event: I’ve started putting the address for a meeting and a phone number of the person I’m meeting with in each event. If I am running late for a meeting, it is easy to look up the event on my calendar to find the phone number to notify someone about my late arrival.
6. Record Tax Notes. I know, I know. We just got done with taxes, but hear me out. When you have to document receipts from events for tax purposes or do expense reports, having specific events on a calendar can help trigger your memory or serve as proof of your expense.
7. Manage To-Do’s. I have developed a habit of scheduling some to-do’s or reminders that come to mind. Since it is on my calendar as an “event” to do, I get that email and pop-up reminder closer to the deadline. This is a great way to manage recurring projects or tasks.
Today’s technology can make your life a little easier depending on your personality and how you use it! Take a few minutes this week to look through your calendar system and see if you can make it work more for you!
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