Calendar apps, while helpful, can easily become overwhelming when they are mismanaged and disorganized. What good is putting something in your calendar if you can’t get a feel for your day, week, or month with a quick glance? Luckily, it doesn’t take much to keep your calendar organized after spending a little time upfront giving it some TLC. And even luckier, we’ve got some proven tips for getting your schedule into shape below.
- Use a platform like Calendly or Doodle to schedule meetings for you. Save time going back and forth over email to find out when everyone is available and let technology help you out.
- Don’t overfill your schedule—always leave extra room for project transitions, things that might run over, and breaks to keep yourself mentally refreshed.
- While it may feel like an endless cycle, one of the best ways to stay on top of your week is to schedule yourself time to both schedule and review your calendar at the beginning and end of the week. The more time you spend with your calendar when you aren’t busy, the more cohesive and manageable it will be when you are!
- Choose one calendar platform or merge all of your calendars together. Stop app hopping and stop missing important professional and personal deadlines—try importing one calendar into another or better yet, try an app like OneCalendar that easily integrates multiple calendars and email accounts into one cohesive space.
- Protect your free time and don’t budge! It could be as simple as blocking off your weekends, or setting strict “off-hours” within your calendar that also apply to any outside scheduling sites you may use.
- Don’t put tasks on your calendar. While it may be tempting to leave yourself notes for things you need to do later in the week, all they do is clutter your calendar and get lost within the sea of other scheduled activities. Keep your tasks in a separate location—many email operating systems have specific places or included apps for tasks.
- Add multiple time zones to your calendar to make communicating and scheduling with people in other locations easier.
- And our most tried and true tip: Hire a virtual assistant to manage your calendar! Even with all of these tips, sometimes there truly isn’t enough time in your schedule to manage everything yourself. Offload some or all of your calendar needs to one of our many qualified virtual or business assistants. Learn more about our services and contact us today!
Feeling confident in your calendar can make or break your productivity on any day of work. Without a cohesive schedule, you’re bound to be spending more time on transitional tasks that take away from your best work and ultimately, your free time. Although it does take some time to find your calendar sweet spot, any organizing you do on the front end will save you countless hours of work well managed in the days, weeks, months, and years to come!
