Operating from one calendar

Welcome once again to my weekly tip for making your dash count. I’m bringing you my latest tip, which is operating from one calendar. This is extremely powerful, especially for mothers in business, but is relevant for everyone.

You have your personal calendar, you have your business or work calendar, and then you also have your kids. Most people who have kids will have a calendar or planner just for their activities. Overall, you have lots of things that you need to work on and be reminded of.

For me, I used to have my little work calendar, and it took me forever to transition from a paper calendar to an online one. I love Google. I’m sure there are lots of equivalents out there, but Google has been such an amazing tool for me. So, I have my personal calendar, where I have events such as meeting my friends and doing personal things. I also have my business calendar where I input my clients’ bookings and I manage all of my business-related events.

There’s also my daughter’s calendar. She goes to school, and every year the school sends out a diary for the following year. This is great as it gives you plenty of time to put everything in. I also do a lot of stuff for my church, so I have the church calendar. Last year, the pastor decided he wanted to get everything on the calendar.

That’s the great thing about Google Calendar, you can share it! If you’re in different groups, for example parents working together, members of the church, friends; you can share a calendar with them. You can create multiple calendars within Google and just share those specific ones with different groups of people. So with the church, I populated all of the events I was working on for the church into the calendar. I then met with the pastor and we planned out the whole year.

What came to my realization is, unless you are very clear on your goals, it’s going to be difficult to plan anything. If you don’t have objectives, you really don’t know what you want for the coming year. So calendaring comes in so handy, in so many different situations. Most vitally, it helps to ensure you don’t miss the most important moments in your life.

When you’re juggling your business, juggling your home life - you could end up missing out on some of these moments. If you forget to put in the important events from your kid’s life, such as piano recitals or ballet or soccer, you may end up missing those moments. There is power in having one calendar for each of these key life purposes. You can colour code your calendars in Google, which I learned from my own coach. I have a colour for my business calendar, for my personal calendar and my daughter’s school calendar.

Bringing everything together gives me a bigger picture. You’ll see the same when you know exactly what your week looks like. What your day, your month, your year looks like. It also helps to schedule your vacation time into your calendar before scheduling everything else in. because of this, I’ve been able to go on a wonderful trip to Kenya and I’m going to go back again. I’m also getting ready to go away with my daughter over the summer. That was only possible because my coach said to me, “operate from one calendar”. Schedule your time off first, because then you can really look forward to it. Sometimes you are so busy hustling and everything is so chaotic. However, if I know I’m getting away in a month or even two months, it makes a huge difference to my outlook.

So I’m encouraging you all now to calendar everything. Share your Google calendars with your different groups, so they know what you’re doing. It’s also important to schedule personal appointments into your business calendar, such as dental appointments and family time. That way you have blocked off the important times and don’t overbook yourself. Other people then won’t schedule over these important times. Many of the mothers in business that I’ve been interviewing completely agree with this.

I’d like you to put this into practice now, and share it with your friends and colleagues. If you’re already calendaring, what tools do you use to stay organized? What helps you to stay on top of things, and make memories?

This is Carolyne Onkoba with making your dash count. I’m helping women in business from chaos, and hustling to create harmony and profitability in their business. If you have a strong peace of mind, a positive mindset, and your home is a happy place, then the profits will start pouring in.

I would love to help you either in your home life or your business – why don’t you book in for a FREE consultation & we can see if we are a good fit? Click here to book your consultation now. I’m also looking for mothers in business to interview for my motherhood plus series. If you’re interested in taking part, feel free to contact me, and we can talk about your motherhood secrets. This way, other people can learn how to make their own lives even better.