12 Ways to be Productive with Stress Free Calendar Management

Do you ever find yourself running from place to place or from call to call? Here are 12 ways to keep yourself sane in the midst of your calendar:

1. View your calendar by the week instead of the month. This allows you to view and focus on the upcoming week. Viewing by the month doesn’t allow you to see where you can make immediate adjustments in your daily or weekly schedule.
2. Be prepared and focus on what’s important. Easier said than done, right? Really, be prepared. Know what you’ll be talking about in your meeting or on your call. Knowing what needs to be discussed will help move things along and possibly free up some time at the end.
3. Break up phone calls. Give yourself 15 minutes between them to give yourself a health break, whether it’s to run to the bathroom, put the dog out, or grab a drink – allowing yourself this extra time can help you stay “sane.”
4. If you can, cut your meetings or calls short. If you schedule an hour but finish in 45 minutes, use that time to prep for the next call or handle a small task. Often times, the person on the other end of the phone has a busy schedule also and won’t mind. So don’t just chit chat – end the call and eliminate stress.
5. Use your calendar to set reminders but remember to keep your list of tasks separate from your calendar. For those of you that use Outlook or Google Mail, they have a task manager integrated that you can access.
6. Eliminate having multiple calendars (personal, work, school, etc.). Instead have one calendar and color code the appointments. This way you have everything in ONE place.
7. Reserve weekly slots for those last-minute meetings/calls or if something comes up. This will alleviate the hassle of putting something off that needs to be resolved immediately.
8. Learn to say NO. Don’t take on more than you can handle!
9. Learn to delegate. Let another team member handle a call or meeting to allow yourself to focus on other important tasks, calls or meetings.
10. Set up recurring meetings in advance. If you are working on a project that will need to have recurring meetings, set them up ahead of time and get them on the calendar. To avoid confusion, try and set them up on the same day and time every month.
11. Use a calendar integrator and eliminate the back and forth. The benefit of a calendar integrator allows others to compare their calendar to yours and choose the best appointment and minimize rescheduling. Some examples of calendar integrations are Calendly, TimeTrade, Koalander, etc..
12. Schedule buffer days. Having these allow you to work on your business not in your business. You can use this time to focus on improvements or changes that may not work well or if you’ve been dreading it, but need to up your social media presence, this is a great opportunity to work on that! If you aren’t sure what needs to be worked on, ask your team for feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask, it benefits all to streamline and better the business!

Using your time wisely can keep you focused, healthy and happy while still being successful and productive. One of many tasks PMSpecialist can do is help manage your calendar so you can elevate YOU!