As the year gets into full swing, it’s time to take a hard look at the way you manage your calendar.  I learned very early on in my corporate career that there are two paths one can take to calendar management:  a) you let your calendar be managed by others requesting meetings, or b) you take the lead on owning your calendar by thinking a quarter in advance, the sequence of meetings required to manage the business. 

I have since carried that “owning your calendar” philosophy to my own business at Gray Cat where I am juggling multiple clients at once all with competing deadlines and time requests.  The only way I can keep my calendar intact and avoid multi-client schedule conflicts, is to take the lead and be “first to calendar”.  If I can guide enough of my client meetings to my clients in advance, I can manage across multiple time zones, clients and industries. 

The other advantage of managing your calendar at least a quarter in advance is to have a high-level view of the overall cadence and subject-matter meetings to eliminate redundances and/or meetings that simply no longer add value.  It is okay – in fact, it is encouraged! – to eliminate “stupid” meetings from your calendar!  The days of “meeting for the sake of meeting” are gone and a fresh look at what value each meeting is bringing should be front-and-center. 

With that as a precursor, here are some effective time management tips for organizing your calendar: 

Set Realistic Goals – Taking control of your calendar doesn’t mean it’s your way or the highway.  Setting realistic goals by blocking in “must have” priorities first, helps alleviate having your calendar in total flux.  I have always taken the approach that if I can lock in 50, 60 or 70% of my calendar in advance as my foundation, I can work around the unknown calendar events on a one-off basis.  But, leaving your entire calendar to chance or focusing on the lesser prioritized items first, will create total chaos.   

Use Time Blocking – I utilize this technique a lot to block out times to tackle certain tasks.  In my world, I have weekly and monthly client meetings that require prep in advance of those meetings.  I will proactively block times in advance of meetings to not only tackle the prep task at hand but as importantly, to remove the “when will I get to that prep” thought in my head.  If I carve out the block of time, I know that I have it accounted for and thus, relieves any angst associated with the task. 

Use Color Coding – This is a big one for me.  Not only do I use color-coding for delineating between meetings, personal and travel, but I also use color-coding to deal with time zones.  A few years back, one of my clients had me running six (6) of their divisions for them at the same time, on an interim basis, in four different time zones.  All my meetings/prep related to those markets were color-coded to their time zone so that I could ensure that I wouldn’t miss a local meeting time.  In some cases, the color changed whether I was taking a call from my time zone or if I was physically present in their time zone.  It was quite the balancing act but found that the colors enabled me to never miss a meeting. 

Set Gap Boundaries – I pack a lot of “like” meetings into one day – as opposed to spreading them out over the course of the week.  If I am conducted inventory meetings for instance, I would rather do them all in one day to become focused on the task at hand. While I may have seven meetings on that topic for the day, I avoid booking meetings back-to-back. I always try to leave a 15–30-minute gap in between to allow for any quick follow-up emails or updating of notes.  This way, I can react to what was discussed while it’s fresh in my mind and eliminate the backlog of follow-up at the end of the day. 

Sync Digital Calendars - This may seem obvious, but not having your digital calendars – i.e. iPhone, iPad, laptop, etc. – all synched together makes managing your calendar virtually impossible.  I am always surprised that when I am in a meeting, and we want to schedule a follow-up meeting, some of the participants don’t have access to their calendar.  This makes getting consensus on the spot for next steps delayed and vague.   

In summary, if you continuously optimize your calendar based on changing priorities and utilize some of the tips above, this will make you more productive and I would argue, in less time.  Calendar management is an art and needs to be proactively approached to optimize your productivity while simultaneously freeing up more personal time.

Want more ideas?  For more information on improving your time management skills, visit:  https://www.graycatenterprises.com/time-management-and-life-balance