Excuse me, managing my calendar is driving me nuts! - Part 2

Have you ever had to apologize to your senior executive for missing an important client meeting, where you have been tasked with delivering the presentation, because of a scheduling error? How about accidentally double-booking your schedule for a work-related fund-raiser dinner on the same day (and time) as the planned anniversary dinner date with your spouse? Such scheduling mishaps are embarrassing, costly, and may be detrimental to your professional and/or life success. Proper calendar management can help prevent such costly errors and help keep you on track with your goals. Before we get into the details of calendar hacks that may improve your time management and improve your productivity, let me quickly touch on four foundational principles for calendar management to optimize your productivity.

1.???Strategic Scheduling. A well-managed calendar should reflect your key professional and life priorities. This requires being strategic in scheduling activities, tasks, and meetings by devoting more time to activities that align with your priorities. For example, you could consider intentionally blocking out time on your calendar for your professional, wellness, and life priorities.

2.?????Efficiency.?The ultimate goal of a well-managed calendar is to optimize your productivity while properly managing your time.?Effective calendar management involves finding efficient ways to improve your scheduling practices and the type and number of activities scheduled.Here are some insightful questions that may be helpful

? Are there recurring activities/meetings/events that should be dropped or delegated to others??

? Are there activities or obligations that could be scheduled for a shorter-time?. Scheduling a half

?????Are there meetings/tasks that needs to rescheduled for a later time in light of pressing priorities?

? Are there meetings/tasks that should be cancelled altogether?

Such little tweaks to your schedule could free up more time for you to pursue more meaningful activities that are aligned with your priorities.

3.?????Flexibility. Unexpected changes, such as last-minute cancellations or reschedules, are bound to occur from time to time. A well-managed calendar is flexible and adaptable in accommodating such unexpected changes. On the other hand, in an increasingly busy marketplace, scheduling back-to-back meetings all day, with little or no rooms for breaks is simply exhausting and not sustainable. Intentionally scheduling buffers and breaks in-between scheduled meetings/activities could be a way to building flexibility into your calendar. Don't let your calendar run you, be proactive in running a flexible schedule.

4.?????Responsibility. The calendar is a tool to help achieve effective time management. The tips and hacks for calendar management are not quick fixes for poor time management, goal setting, and/or priority setting skills. The onus still lies on you to be intentional in developing priority setting, goal setting, and time management skills.

Having established these important principles, what are those calendar hacks that may be helpful for effective scheduling of activities?

……To be continued ……

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