Entering Grade 7 has been a big transition for my son this fall. From learning how to navigate a rotary schedule to keeping track of homework assignments and tests or not – yikes! – it’s been a learning curve and an exciting new chapter. The best part is that there are so many life lessons being learned – how to schedule, pay attention when you’re bored, preserve if you don’t get a great grade, etc.
What’s interesting though, is the organizational lessons are similar to those we as adults are also working on. What is the best way is to keep track of things, how we decide what goes on our calendar, etc. Having an empowered calendar system is especially important for entrepreneurs who are in-charge of their own schedules, in order to stay on track and create the results they are wanting 🙂 Scheduling is the only way to ensure things will actually happen AND it’s close cousin is to create systems within the schedule, like batching together like tasks. Read on to learn some of my favourite tips and tricks that will hopefully help you too, or inspire you to create your own spin 🙂
Here are a few calendaring & system tips to make your life and business run more smoothly 🙂
- Batch together all like tasks – i.e. if you’re getting dressed-up for a meeting, look at what other tasks you need to be dressed-up for and do them the same day, i.e. filming a video, hosting a webinar, etc.
- Block out time chunks to work on your business and then focus on two to three strategies within that time frame until they’re seen to fruition i.e. a talk, workshop, instagram lives, referrals, speaking, reach outs etc. You can keep an ongoing list of other ideas so that you don’t lose sight of them. This will take care of bright-red-shiny-object syndrome 🙂
- You can create other blocks of time for your business as well – look at the top 5 tasks you do, i.e. sales conversations, email, social media, follow-up, team meetings, etc.
- Look at your top values, i.e. freedom, fun, financial security, family, etc. and make sure there is time for all of it on your calendar. This will help you to prioritize what is important to you, and say no to what isn’t guilt-free.
- Schedule in time for self-care, success practices and anything that is important to you. It’s the only way it will happen. You can still stay flexible within that time frame and tune into what you’re heart is drawn too, but at least create the time and space in your calendar for it 🙂
- Create systems wherever you can in your business and life. For example, doing laundry on certain nights only unless there’s an emergency of course, having an email system in place to make checking email more efficient, and creating a follow-up system that ensures you stay on top of leads.
- Make all of these time blocks recur monthly, i.e. every Tuesday from 9-11 am is business-building time, and mornings from 6-7 am are self-care time. Then schedule in time weekly to review and adjust your calendar. It’s important to stay flexible and shift things around depending on the week and what you have scheduled, i.e. you may have a new meeting or talk and need to shuffle some other things around to ensure they still get done.
- You may also want to put in specific reminders right on your calendar for the date you need to f/u with someone to ensure you don’t miss it. This is where an empowered follow-up system is also important 🙂
- Above all else, choose a calendaring system that works for you. Some people love to keep it old school and use a handwritten calendar. I love using multiple Google calendars with fun colours for all areas of life – work (shared with my assistant), personal, kids, marketing, etc. We also just got a huge paper calendar for our family so that we can all actually SEE where everyone is or what we have going on at any given time. Colour coded to make it fun of course 😉
Have fun getting organized and systematized!!