Why your business and brain needs to move from a paper to an online calendar

As a business owner, your time is money, you know that!

If you spend too much time in your business, as opposed to with clients, or on client work, you are potentially losing money. But, you know that too!

In my next series of articles, I will be sharing with you ways you can transform and automate aspects of your business to enable you to spend more time doing things that reflect your hourly worth.

First off, the paper diary!

About five or six years ago, I ditched my paper calendar – it was a sad and painful time. Over the years I’d gone through all types of paper calendars, handbag size, ones with pencils that fit into the spine, week per view, month per view, cartoon ones, desk calendars and I’d even, early on, tried an online calendar, but it didn’t work then as I wasn’t online 24/7.

After years, I’d found one that worked for me; month per view, with a couple of columns so I could organise my own and my daughter’s social life with ease. And it worked just fine, until I started my own business and needed to not just organise weekends and after school times, I also needed to organise 9-5 Monday to Friday, it was no longer just a case of turning up at work and the day being set for me, I had to set and manage it myself.

It started to get a bit difficult. I’d find myself double booking because I was trying to remember what was on my paper calendar, and then cancelling things non business related when there was a clash, whereas if I’d had my calendar online I wouldn’t need to try and rely on memory.

Moving over to an online calendar

So, I very nervously moved everything over to my Google calendar in one move – no bits at a time, it was like I was an SAS sniper going straight in.

No aeroplanes fell from the sky, and I didn’t turn up for an event a year after it had been on – which had happened when I was a paper calendar user, oh and the time I turned up at the wrong airport for a holiday. Anyway, I digress…

There have been no more duplications. No more sacrificing me time.

But that’s not the best bit…

If you have your calendar online there are two things you can do to free up your time, like I promised. Ready? Here there are:

1. You can delegate appointment booking to someone else, and they can manage it for you.

Yes, like a Virtual Assistant.

That’s just one of the many things some of us do.

We’ll proactively put travel time in your diary so you’re not in London at 9am and Bristol at 9:45am. We’ll make sure you’ve got your partner’s birthday in the diary, we’ll make sure we give the best times to the most important people, we’ll also protect your time so you’re not overdoing it.

2. You can automate your online calendar so clients and potential clients can book their own meetings and you don’t need to do anything!

More about that in my next article.

So how does all this help your brain?

Because you’re carrying around less in your mind. Someone calls while you’re busy, to make an appointment, you scan an email while you’re out from someone wanting to move their appointment, or someone sends a PM via your social media channel wanting to cancel theirs, you read the message and then think ‘I’ll sort that out later‘.

That’s a lot to be carrying around in your mind, how on earth can you give full focus to everything else?

Free up some brain space, I think you’ll find it’ll be grateful.

Any questions, I’ll be here.