Time is money. You use your calendar to control your time.
Controlling your calendar and using it well will lead to greater profits and more time for what matters to you.
A chaotic calendar costs you a lot more than money. It causes stress, anxiety and can lead to burnout – or worse.
The costliest calendar mistakes I see over and over again are:
- Not using an effective system. A system is simply a series of repeatable steps to achieve a certain outcome. You can’t blame automation if the steps (the instructions) are bad. If you are suffering from calendar chaos this is the first place to look. Do you have a system? Is it a good one? Do you follow it?
- Not enough or too much. The most common mistake is not putting your own stuff on your calendar. It is full of obligations for other people but there are no scheduled times for your most important work. Another mistake is over-compensating by scheduling every minute without white space – which just sets you up to fail. Find a balance where you have room to adjust without blowing up your schedule – because no plan survives first contact with the day.
- The wrong stuff at the wrong time. You must be intentional about what makes it on your calendar and when. Your calendar is a bit like your credit card. You have to be careful what gets charged to it or you’ll run out of money. Make sure that you’re adding things that advance what is most important to you – based on your mission and as a result of your planning process. Make sure the most important things get “prime time” on your calendar. If your energy drops at 2:00 p.m., that is NOT the time for your most taxing task.
Fix these three problems, and you’ll be on your way to getting in control of your calendar.
-Doug
P.s… Control of your calendar can add at least one productive hour to each day. What would you do with your extra hour?
Leave a comment below and let me know.