Calendaring for the Busy Business Owner
As a business owner you have to find ways to maximize your time and effort. You wear many different hats and juggle schedules, tasks and priorities. How do you keep all of those plates spinning? Here are some tips for avoiding overwhelm with calendaring.
Only last week I had a lot of competing schedules and priorities. It was really important that every thing was on my calendar so nothing fell between the cracks. To help me manage everything on my calendar, I color code my calendar for the different hats I wear. I am very visual and this helps helps me know immediately what hat I should be wearing at the time.
Calendaring is essential in my life and the life of every small business owner or entrepreneur. We have to maximize the use of cloning tools to be more efficient and on task. Almost every business owner puts appointments and calls into their calendar but what about the rest of those spinning plates?
For additional cloning tips, see Quickly Clone Yourself with These 8 Must Use Tools.
Calendaring Focus
Where is your focus? If it is not on the calendar then oftentimes is not done. Make sure you focus on the important items. Do not allow important items to become distractions or emergencies that detract from your priorities.
Dinner Menu
Calendaring Tip #1: I find it stressful to always be thinking about “what’s for dinner”. With two teenage boys living at home they are quick to remind me that dinner is a priority. Every Monday morning I take about 15 minutes and look at my freezer, refrigerator and pantry and come up with dinner ideas for the entire week. I then put those in my calendar so when the question comes up, I have an answer ready to go. It also allows me to stagger meals so we do not get into a rut of always having the same thing. We only eat out once a week and this allows us to track and rotate through our favorite take out.
What’s for dinner?
Exercise
Calendaring Tip #2 I find it so easy to go a whole week without getting my exercise. I sit at my desk busily working and then it is Saturday and I think “I haven’t walked all week”. I put it in my calendar to exercise every day. Occasionally it has to be shifted to another time but I make it a priority to get out and move at least once a day.
Pay Bills
Calendaring Tip #3: Nothing is more frustrating than getting a overdue notice for a bill. Calendar it. I have every other Friday on my calendar with two hours blocked out to pay bills. This gives me enough time to enter the incoming monies, record my receipts, reconcile my accounts and pay the bills.
Today so many bills are sent via email. If that is the case for you then schedule them in the calendar. In Outlook you can just drag and drop the item from email onto your calendar. I just drag them to my block of time and it puts all of the information I need to pay the bill in one location.
Grocery Shopping
Calendaring Tip #4: Grocery shopping tends to be at the bottom of my to-do list. I schedule a shopping block of time and as I run out of something I make a note in that calendar block. Since I use a smartphone it is handy to open the calendar item and everything is listed.
So start calendar your recurring tasks. It frees you from having to remember all of the details.
What are some items that you calendar that makes you more efficient?
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[…] did a post a few weeks ago on 4 Things You Should be Calendaring. In this post I suggested some unconventional items that you can […]