Tag: Business Tips

Meetings make the business world go round. However, it often feels like meetings are actually slowing everything down. There are some stark differences between an effective meeting and a waste of time. When you’re in charge of a meeting, you always want to trend toward the former.

As common as meetings are, there’s not always as easy to put together as you might think. The success and efficacy is a direct reflection of both your experience and the amount of effort you put in. However, this doesn’t mean that meetings should have a super high frequency or involve a lot of heavy lifting.

To help you become a meeting management master, this nifty guide can act as your roadmap. The following tips will help you plan meetings that are more effective, enjoyable, and efficient than ever:

1. Be Prompt

Meeting management is all about time. Each point in this article will reflect that to a point. The first aspect of time management to consider is punctuality. When you’re able to start a meeting on time, it tends to run more smoothly.

Start by setting clear expectations for attendees. Set a start time and stick to it, even if some people are running late. This will incentivize timely attendance and help you keep the meeting in your designated time window.

If tardiness is a recurring problem, consider adding a little incentive. For example, donuts or raffle tickets can be handed out to everyone who arrives early or on time. If you walk in the door late, then better luck next time! Little incentives such as these also lighten the mood for those who arrive early. Light conversation over coffee and donuts can help strengthen workplace relationships in the minutes leading up to the meeting’s start.

2. Follow an Agenda

The last thing anybody wants is for a meeting to run longer than planned. To help keep meetings concise and effective, follow an agenda. This will outline the most important points of the meeting and keep the group on track.

Create an agenda that is specific to your next event. You can follow a template, but you should make sure you’re hitting all of the points that are specific to this meeting in particular. Next to each point or topic, assign a time constraint you’ll try your best to stick to. You can’t spend half an hour going over the details of the last meeting when you have half a dozen other topics to cover in the same gathering.

You can take this a step forward and share your completed agenda with invited guests. You can print these out, or save the paper and ink and send copies via email. Team members will then be able to arrive prepared to ask questions, make comments, or provide other contributions to the meeting. This transparency can make a meeting run a lot more quickly and smoothly. Your team can even make suggestions to add to the next meeting’s agenda, making it a lot easier to plan for subsequent meetings.

3. Hold a Test Run

If you’ve got a large or complex meeting in the works, you have a lot of moving parts to manage. Instead of hoping everything goes well the day of the meeting, you could benefit greatly from a test run. Here, you can go through all of the meeting logistics to get some last-minute fine-tuning in.

One of the most beneficial things you can do is a tech check. Make sure all of the devices you bring can connect to the internet properly. Next, you can test HDMI or casting connections for any presentation materials you have. Microphones, lighting, and even outlet compatibility can also get a once-over.

If the meeting revolves around a presentation, you should also practice it beforehand. Time how long it takes for you to go through all of the information. If your practice runs are a bit long, you can work on trimming it down to stay within an appropriate time. Remember to take questions and comments into account when calculating the total meeting time.

4. Vet Your Meetings

There is such a thing as having too many meetings. The quantity of your meetings can be just as important as their quality. In fact, the two can often be related. Holding fewer meetings means you can put in more focus and effort into them rather than always feeling stretched thin.

Whenever you think about having a meeting, ask yourself a few vetting questions. Does this topic warrant a full meeting, or can it be summarized in an email or short video? When can a meeting feasibly be scheduled? When was the last meeting held? Based on these criteria and any others you set, you might decide to forego planning a meeting so soon.

There are numerous benefits that come from managing the frequency of your meetings. First and foremost, your team will be grateful that they don’t have to spend so much time in a conference hall. Additionally, a reduced frequency is also an easier workload to take on when you have other responsibilities to stay on top of.

5. Extend a Call to Action

What is the goal of your meeting? Is it to inspire your team to work harder? Is it to outline a new work process to follow? Having a meeting goal is the first step to success. The next is to make sure employees leave the meeting with a new resolve to change.

No matter how good your meeting turns out, you might not see the most success until you incorporate a call to action. This consists of an invitation that requires tangible and recordable action. A call to action is commonly used in the sales world to help guide prospective customers through a sales funnel by taking action.

Let’s say your most recent meeting was focused on improving the company’s online reviews. Your call to action could be to have team members ask every customer to leave a review after their visit. During your next meeting you can see how many new reviews have been added and ask for personal experiences from following the call to action.

6. Delegate Tasks

Who said you have to do all of the meeting prep and execution by yourself? In reality, you can delegate tasks to lighten the workload. This can eliminate some personal stress and get more people involved in future meetings.

If you’re responsible for the overall meeting, you should still be involved. At the very least, you should conduct each meeting and create the outline. Small presentations and reports, however, can be delegated to other team members. Meetings will have greater variation and participation, which generally leads to a more positive experience for all.

There are two long-term solutions you can consider moving forward. Some meeting responsibilities can be permanently delegated, such as designating a team member to act as secretary and take notes. If that doesn’t sound fair, you can rotate roles instead. This way one person isn’t stuck with the same job every meeting.

Don’t feel discouraged if your next meeting doesn’t turn out perfect. Even with the adjustments you make, there are a lot of variables to work with. You’ll get the hang of meeting management over time, and soon your gatherings will be the envy of the professional world.

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“A dream is a wish your heart makes,” says the Cinderella song. While your dreams during sleep might not be your true wishes, your goals in life are. You might have accomplishments on your bucket list, like owning a house or having a good job. These dreams could also be personal projects, like writing a book or renovating your kitchen.

Part of living a motivated life involves setting goals for yourself. But sometimes, you might not know where to start in making those goals a reality. Maybe the time commitment sounds overwhelming, and you don’t know how to adjust your schedule.

Luckily, making changes to allow yourself to accomplish your aspirations isn’t so hard. There are some key adjustments to make and strategies to follow. Keep reading for some tips and tricks on how to get started with this.

1. Utilize Your Calendar

You might not realize it, but calendars are incredibly useful for different situations. When it comes to taking those first steps in achieving your goals, looking at your schedule can actually help significantly. First, make sure you have a good calendar system figured out, whether on paper or online. Next, you can start using your calendar to break down those goals into less daunting tasks.

Track Progress

You’ll need to set a timeline for your project. Using a calendar to do this will make your process a lot easier, and you’ll have a visual aid. Set a realistic timeline of how long this task will take. Now, you can accurately measure your progress as time goes by.

With every week that goes past, you can look at your calendar and see if you’re on-track with your project. You can even create a checklist after breaking down your task into smaller parts. Being able to “check” a task off can feel motivating and encouraging while you work.

Schedule Milestones

Scheduling milestones is another good way to keep yourself focused and follow your timeline. When you break down your project into smaller pieces and create a timeline, you can divide these parts into segments or categories. When you complete one of these segments, you’ve accomplished a milestone.

This might occur on a periodic basis. Say you’ve separated your project into categories that should each be finished at the end of a month. Therefore, at the end of every month, you’ll have passed another milestone — as long as you’re on-track. This will keep you motivated and allow yourself to celebrate the process of fulfilling your goals.

Check-in on Yourself

Think about how your boss might check in on you to see how you’re doing. What’s your progress, how’s the project looking, and whatnot? When it comes to achieving your goals, you must essentially become your own boss. You’re in charge in this situation, so you must keep yourself on-task and committed to accomplishing your dreams.

One of the ways you can do this is by doing a “check-in” with yourself. Periodically schedule these once a week, once a month, or whenever you want. Let these be moments to sit down and honestly survey the work you’ve completed. Are you on track with how quickly you want to tackle this project? Do you need to adjust your time constraints? Are you feeling overwhelmed?

Ask yourself these types of questions and look over your work. If you’re not on track with your original schedule, make adjustments to be more realistic. Or, institute some self-discipline to follow your desired timeline. Remember, you have to be your own boss, which means making the tough decisions and keeping yourself in line. Don’t be afraid to be firm with yourself if you need to, but also don’t be so tough that you’re being unrealistic. It’s all about balance and knowing your limits.

2. Block Time for Better Efficiency

Speaking of balance, alternating between focus and free time is important. To avoid burnout, you need to have what’s called a “work/life balance.” This means giving yourself separate spaces to focus on work and your personal life, while prioritizing the importance of both. You can be a devoted employee without sacrificing your mental well-being or personal life. This also applies to working on your own goals in life, as sometimes they can turn into feeling like a chore.

Set Your Work/Life Balance

Getting your work/life balance in check is important — you’ll need to assess your current daily schedule or routine. How many hours a day do you need to work at your day job? Do you have outside commitments, like family, pets, or volunteer duties? Coming up with a general idea of your usual schedule is the first step to creating this balance.

Now that you have a sense of your days, you can figure out how to space out your different priorities. Block out your work hours, then another hour or so sometime after you get home to work on your personal project. However, make sure you’re giving yourself a break between your day job and your other work. Otherwise, you could feel overwhelmed. Letting yourself have a moment to relax, eat dinner, or watch an episode of your favorite show can do wonders.

Understanding the importance of a healthy work/life balance is vital for success and mental well-being. If you don’t have this, make sure you get it in a healthier state before taking on more work. Once that’s set, you can utilize the time-blocking technique.

Try Time Blocking

Blocking out spaces of your day for pure focus on a task can sometimes be the secret to success. If you’re easily distracted or want to get better at being motivated, this technique can be helpful. Plus, following this can help you get more work done within smaller time constraints, meaning you’ll use your time more efficiently. That also means you’re less likely to have to use your free time to work, so you can keep your work/life balance.

Time blocking involves planning in advance how long you’ll devote to working on something. For example, you could plan to spend an hour solely on putting together a presentation. Devoting this specified time to a task can help you stay motivated and work more efficiently.

This motivation will also be helpful when working on your personal projects. As mentioned above, you could block out an hour for it in the evenings after work. This is a healthy amount of time to devote to your personal goals without overloading yourself. Remember to focus on the task at hand during these time blocks.

3. Make Some Adjustments

Your goals in life are essential. Therefore, you should prioritize them accordingly. If you want to make your dreams a reality, you’ll need to devote the time and effort to do so. That doesn’t mean you must completely uproot your regular schedule. Adjusting your time management system can help free up the space you need to work on your projects.

Don’t Be Afraid to Change Priorities

Just like starting a new chapter in life can seem scary, changing your priorities can be daunting, too. However, if you know this project deserves the time and effort, it’s okay to make that a priority. If this is the start of a new career move, then you should especially give it the room it needs to grow.

Increasing the priority of your personal project might require you to cut back in other areas. Can you afford to work a few less hours a week? Or do you need to spend less time going out on weekends? Figure out what you’re comfortable with cutting back for the time being. And remember, this doesn’t have to last forever — projects aren’t meant to take up your whole life.

Invest in a Routine

One of the best ways to maximize your efficiency is to establish a daily routine. This could involve how you spend your mornings, evenings/nights, or even your workdays. Following a routine can use less brain power, so you’ll have more time to work on your project later. This can also take less time than you usually do when getting ready for the day or after you come home for the night.

Freeing up space to tackle your project is necessary to complete it within a reasonable timeline. Moreover, this doesn’t require you to change your schedule. This is an excellent baby-step to valuing your time so you can work on your priorities.

Anything is Possible

Remember that your dreams in life can be more than just that — a dream. You can make your goals into reality simply by making some small changes. Switching priorities, establishing time-saving routines, and keeping a schedule can make a difference. You’ll find that it’s easier than you think, too. Your goals are important, so treat them accordingly. Now, get going on making your dreams come true.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Bankole Ade-Oni; Pexels; Thank you!

The post 3 Tips for Turning Aspirations into Actionable Plans appeared first on Calendar.

Collaborative events come in all shapes and sizes. Some are as small as school projects with a pair of classmates. Others are as large as company workshops, with dozens of guests planning to be in attendance. Each gathering is important — no matter the size. They can also be equally challenging to organize and execute due to their unique challenges. In all of your scheduling, you can keep calendar etiquette in mind.

As with most things, there is a right and a wrong way to schedule a collaborative event. You can follow an ineffectual pace, have a poor attitude, or even select an ineffective venue. Even one mistake such as this can tarnish an otherwise flawless event. Especially with collaborative events, you will want to follow some type of calendar etiquette.

To help present and future event planners in their endeavors, this article will outline some of the best practices one can follow when scheduling a collaborative event. This will help you lay the proper groundwork for an event so that it has a greater chance of succeeding and exceeding expectations. Let’s begin:

Calendar Etiquette: Respect the Time of Others

When people RSVP to an event you are running, they sacrifice their time to be there. You must respect their time when planning and carrying out a collaborative event. For starters, the duration of your event should be reasonable. You shouldn’t expect guests to block out half of their day for a collaborative event that could feasibly be finished in a couple of hours.

You should do your best to check and verify the availability of others before sending them an invite. This way, you can coordinate a day and time that works for the greatest number of people. Certain days also work better for groups you are a part of, making it easier to carry out an event. Rather than forcing people to shift their busy schedules for you, you work with their timetable as a courtesy.

In the days leading up to your event, double-check your invitation list to ensure you didn’t miss anybody. You should also verify event details to ensure everything is correct and precise for guests. An incorrect address or virtual meeting link can waste time and effort.

Resolve Collaborative Scheduling Conflicts

So what do you do when there is a scheduling conflict with one of your guests? Surely, you won’t just shrug them off as an unfortunate loss. You should at least try to create a solution for scheduling conflicts before settling on a fixed schedule.

Many collaborative events are work-related. Team huddles, company retreats, and professional seminars are some of the many examples that can be mentioned. Employees can’t always make time for extra events outside of regular work hours. Instead of making attendance mandatory or telling them “too bad,” you can keep collaboration in mind by proposing a solution.

In this case, a couple of things you can try include video technology. Team members who live out of state or are away on a trip can be offered the option to join via video conference call. Additionally, you can use video tools to record events and meetings so they can be revisited later by those not in attendance.

Coordinate Across All Platforms

Not all of your attendees will use the same platforms to communicate or make plans. Platforms like IOS and Android users attending an event will want their needs met.

There are apps and platforms that can work for everyone, regardless of device type or degree of tech knowledge. For example, Calendar has multiple integrations that make it work with other online calendars. When you create an event, you can be assured that it will be sent to Google, Yahoo, and Outlook users.

A good rule of thumb is not to introduce unfamiliar elements unless necessary. If your team needs to download a new app they will be using daily, that’s acceptable. If you’re trying to plan a single event through an unfamiliar app, you’re asking for complications to arise.

Communicate Clearly

Attendees to your event will inevitably have questions that need to be answered. Addressing questions and concerns about your event is just as important as running the event itself. This inspires confidence in your event and gets people excited to attend and contribute rather than showing up with reservations.

When a question is posed, provide as prompt a response as possible. If you don’t know the answer immediately, at least let the individual know that you have received their message and are actively working on answering it. When you answer a question, share the solution with all other attendees just in case they were also wondering but didn’t think to ask.

Failure to communicate can doom your event from the start. Fewer people will RSVP if details are foggy or uncertain. You’ll also have a more challenging time getting guest speakers and punctual arrivals, among other things. The more reliable you are with your scheduling communication, the more reliability you can expect in return.

Include Everyone

A genuinely collaborative event calls on the participation and talents of every individual in attendance. There won’t be much collaboration if the event consists of a single person standing on a stage going through a PowerPoint presentation.

If collaboration is your goal, your planning and scheduling should reflect that. Start by scheduling a venue that allows guests to mingle and interact easily. You may have to do this weeks in advance to get the best possible location.

To further inspire collaboration, set some clear expectations in advance. As part of the invite, let people know you expect them to participate and get involved. Everyone planning to attend will arrive more prepared to rub elbows with each other. An itinerary detailing collaborative activities can further help attendees know what to prepare for and what to expect.

Delegate Responsibilities

When planning any event, collaboration is key from the very foundation. This is an extension of including others that goes behind the scenes. The secret to good event prep is to delegate responsibilities to a broad and qualified group.

Putting all the responsibilities on a single person to plan an entire event is too much. The stress that a person has to endure can lead to mistakes made due to fatigue or overexertion. Whether that person is you or someone else, they deserve to have some help. The success of the event and one’s mental health will benefit greatly from an extra set of hands.

Let’s focus on the scenario of you being the lead event planner. You can certainly take the brunt of the load, but encourage yourself to delegate as many smaller tasks as possible. Even getting another person to focus on sending invites, coordinating with catering, or doing tech checks can take a hugh load off your shoulders. The more help you receive, the smoother the event can go.

The first event you schedule will almost always be the hardest to pull off. The more experience you gain, the better you will get at event scheduling and execution. Hopefully, some of these tips will help make your next event easier to tackle, whether your first or your hundredth collaborative event.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by RDNE Stock project: Pexels; Thank you!

The post Calendar Etiquette: Best Practices for Collaborative Event Scheduling appeared first on Calendar.

Staying organized is one of the best approaches to keeping a schedule. Finding what you need and staying on track of upcoming meetings, events, or appointments is easier. However, if you’re new to keeping a schedule or have difficulty developing organizational techniques, you might consider color-coding.

Color-coding is a pretty straightforward technique for maintaining an organized calendar. It involves categorizing your events and assigning a specific color to each category. This makes glancing at your schedule more pleasing, for one, while also keeping a structure.

You might not be sold on the concept of color-coding yet. After all, how can you decide you want to switch when you don’t have all the facts? Keep reading for the pros and cons of color-coding your calendars.

Pros

To kick this list off in an optimistic light, here are the many pros of keeping a color-coordinated calendar system.

It’s an Easy System

Organizing might make you think of the perfectionist in your life who goes to lengths to schedule, structure, and categorize everything. However, you don’t need to commit to the same extremes just to become more organized. That’s one of the reasons color-coding is so popular and a go-to categorization method for many — it’s super easy!

This technique doesn’t take much effort or time to do, yet it can effectively put your schedule in order. All you have to do is create categories for the types of events you’ll be putting on your calendar then choose corresponding colors. For example, yellow could be doctor appointments, and green could be work meetings.

It’s not very difficult to accomplish this on an online calendar, either. On Google Calendar, press the three dots to the right of your calendar, and the color options will appear. On Outlook, click “categorize,” “all categories,” then “color categories,” and you’ve got it. For the Calendar app, hit the little “i” button on the right of your calendar to access color choices. Have a different operating system? Finding out how to color-coordinate is a simple internet search away!

It Makes Finding Events Easier

Sometimes, you’re in a hurry and must quickly check your calendar for what event is coming up soon. Or maybe you can’t remember a project deadline and have no idea where to look on your schedule. Both of these problems can be easily solved through color-coding.

Glancing at your calendar and understanding what your week or month involves is simple with color-coordination. Even without checking the details of all your tasks, you can see what kind of events you have coming up just based on the colors.

You can quickly scan through the category colors when looking for a specific event on your calendar. For example, if you have a deadline and can’t remember precisely when — look through events with the corresponding color. Looking something up in your calendar has never been easier.

It Can Help You Prioritize Tasks

Do you struggle with effectively prioritizing tasks in your life? Perhaps you’ve been trying to improve at priorities, but the concept has been challenging to follow or remember. Well, you guessed it — color-coding can help.

When choosing colors for your schedule’s categories, try to base these selections on color association. This means you’ll pick a category’s color based on what feelings or associations those colors bring to you. For example, red might make you think of urgency, so you could color-coordinate your projects due soon.

Now when you check your calendar, you can easily find what needs to be done first. And, now, you’re less likely to forget what tasks you wanted to prioritize.

Color Improves Memory

Paper calendars can be pretty colorful on their own, depending on what patterns or designs you choose. An eye-catching picture can grasp your attention for sure. However, most of the time, the actual calendar part itself is a neutral color, like black or gray. Even if you use an online calendar system, the colors are usually standard black and white.

Adding tasks in bright colors can help your events stand out. Not only does this catch the eye better, but it can also help with remembering what you need to do. A 2013 study found that colors, aside from neutrals, can actually improve your memory. This means your brain holds onto information more easily when it comes in a bright color instead of black.

Therefore, color-coding your calendar can help you remember your schedule. You’re less likely to have to repeatedly pull up your calendar when adding new appointments or remembering a due date. Although, double-checking yourself is always a good idea!

It Makes Shared Calendars Simpler

If you share calendars with coworkers for your job, you’ll know looking at all of them can feel like one big mess sometimes. Luckily, you can assign a different color for each person’s calendar to better differentiate between them all.

For example, Google Calendar allows every user in a workgroup to customize their own calendar color. This way, every user can more easily identify each others’ schedules based on these specific calendar colors.

Your workspace won’t look like a total mess anymore, and you’ll be able to view someone else’s calendar more easily. And just like that — you’ve simplified one aspect of your job.

Cons

Of course, no system is perfect. There are always cons, which might differ from person to person based on personal preferences. Here are a couple of examples to consider before switching to color-coordination.

It Might Take Extra Time

When starting any new routine or technique in your life, you might have to devote some extra time to perfecting the process. This is also true when it comes to beginning to color-code your calendars.

The start-up process will take a moment to set everything up. You’ll need to decide each category’s color, which might take a few minutes if you’re picky. This will take significantly longer if you have multiple categories.

Then, you’ll need to devote the time to putting everything into this new order. If you use a paper or dry-erase calendar, you’ll have to rewrite everything down according to its color. With an online calendar, you’ll have to go into your settings and change every task’s color. Ease and time length will be determined by how simple or difficult the process is with your specific calendar software.

It Could Take Some Getting Used to

Additionally, be aware that starting a new organizational system will take some getting used to. You might, by default, forget to write tasks down according to your decided color scheme. Then, you’ll have to go back and redo this entry.

Moreover, it might take a little while to get used to what each color means. To help yourself remember your code, write down a legend of what each color corresponds to.

And while this isn’t the end of the world by any means, re-doing something might elicit a groan or facepalm. Correcting yourself will take longer than if you were already used to the process.

It’s Up to You

Whether or not you change your whole scheduling system to a color-based organization is up to you. This list of pros and cons is not exhaustive — some other aspects, whether negative or positive, might come to mind. How you organize your life is your choice at the end of the day, so go with your gut.

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The post The Pros and Cons of Color-Coding Your Calendars appeared first on Calendar.

Work is such an integral part of our lives. If you’re working a 40-hour week, that’s nearly a quarter of your life spent just working. That is a significant portion of your life, for better or worse. As important as work is, it’s not typically our first choice of activity each day. The activities we really want to pursue, such as hobbies, entertainment, and time with family, tend to take a backseat when work is concerned.

The challenge is figuring out how to disconnect from work long enough to make time for these things. This article focuses on the use of an online calendar to disconnect from work. With this simple tool, you can maximize your time at work and maximize your time away from it. Better life balance awaits you as you learn to harness your time in the following ways:

Take Breaks Throughout the Day

One of the leading causes of burnout, if not the highest, is being overworked. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. More hours equals more effort and exertion, both physically and mentally. You’ll beg for a vacation after a long week of work, let alone several of them strung together.

You deserve to be taking breaks throughout your busy days. A short break can extend your focus and energy throughout the day, reducing the symptoms of burnout. If you do physical labor, proper breaks can also help you to avoid injury which would prevent you from continuing to work effectively.

There are more optimal ways to take breaks than just leaning back whenever you feel tired. For example, try a time management technique like the Pomodoro Method. With this approach, you set a timer for getting to work broken up by intervals of short breaks. Your work time becomes more productive, and your break time becomes more meaningful.

Front Load Your Week

It’s no secret that the end of the workweek is more challenging to push through than the beginning. The allure of the weekend plus the toll of dozens of hours on the clock will have you thinking of home much more than thinking of the office. To work around this end-of-week slump, you can try front-loading tasks at the beginning of your week.

To front-load your work week, schedule your most significant and most difficult tasks for the first couple of days. While your motivation is at its highest, you can tackle these challenges head-on and more effectively. As the week winds down, you can relax by finishing up with the more menial tasks on your plate.

Front loading your workload may also enable you to shorten your work week. If you get all the most important things done early, you can opt to work from home on Friday or leave the office a little earlier than usual. You’ll still be completing all your required tasks while getting extra time to disconnect from work.

Block Out Your Calendar

Saying no can be a very difficult thing to do, especially when relationships are involved. When it comes to work-life balance, you have two different sides to worry about. Obviously, you want strong relationships with your friends and family, but you also want your professional relationships to be in good standing.

If the ultimate goal here is to disconnect from work, you can block out periods specifically for spending time with family. Once a section of time has been effectively blocked, don’t budge from it unless a true emergency presents itself.

When you create time blocks in your calendar for personal and family time, do so in a shared calendar. This way, managers, clients, and coworkers can see when you have plans made. This can also enforce a personal rule to not take work home with you. If your calendar is booked out once you’re off the clock, you won’t be so easily sucked back in.

Share Events With Family

One of the many wonderful features of an online calendar is how easily everything can be shared. You can share your entire calendar with your significant other or share single events with affiliated parties. This can help you manage your work-life balance by making more people aware of your current obligations.

For example, you can share the calendar event for your work gathering with your spouse or partner. This way, they will know that you commit to that day in advance. With this knowledge, they can better plan their next date night or family outing.

From the other perspective, your family can also share their events with you. Remembering the dates of every dance recital, sporting event, and dentist appointment is understandably tricky. With the help of your kids and your significant other, your calendar can be updated to make time for these events. This way, you won’t inadvertently overbook yourself, causing you to miss valuable memories with your family.

Fall into a Routine

People are creatures of habit, whether they know it or not. There’s a lot of comfort to be found in a routine. It helps you feel more comfortable and in control, even when the world around you feels extra chaotic.

Following a routine can help you disconnect from work and stay disconnected when possible. In particular, routines you follow after work can help you to disassociate immediately. For instance, an afternoon run after you clock out can instantly shift your mindset from being in the office to being out in nature. If this is a daily habit, you can even start to look forward to it at the end of your shifts.

Nighttime routines are great for unwinding after a long day on the job. Your go-to solution might be anything from a cup of tea with your favorite Netflix show to a warm bubble bath right before bed. These evening routines can help you sleep better and help you enjoy your time away from work rather than stressing about the upcoming day.

Use Your Time Off

The number of people you will hear talk about their stockpiled vacation hours is astounding. These hours are meant to be used. Even if you don’t take a luxurious beach vacation, some time off can really help you feel refreshed.

If you’re having a rough work week, consider using some of your accrued time off to take a mental health day. Don’t check in on work and focus entirely on yourself. This will allow you to catch your breath and regain your bearings.

If you plan on taking time off, get it approved first. Disappearing without making proper arrangements is unfair to your employer or team. If your company is not treating you fairly, you don’t want to burn any bridges preemptively. Start applying for new positions with organizations that are more accommodating to your needs.

Looking for ways to stay engaged and motivated at work is still essential. However, it’s equally important to enjoy your time off the clock. You will better manage your mental and physical health by disconnecting from work at the appropriate times. Additionally, doing this may help you be even more connected to work during the hours you are there. The best of both worlds await you.

Featured Image Credit: Eli Sommer; Pexels; Thank you!

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You keep meaning to block off time for daycare pickup on Thursdays when your nanny has to leave early. However, your boss has just scheduled a vital client call for the same time. You’re scrambling to figure out if your partner can grab the kids or if a neighbor or relative can pick them up instead. This mishap has caused you more stress than you’d like to deal with on any given day.

This situation — or a similar one — has happened to nearly everyone. A recurring event you noted in your brain doesn’t make its way to your digital calendar. You can reschedule a call in some instances, but not always.

This is where adding recurring time blocks to your digital calendars comes in handy. With a few simple clicks, you can block out portions of your day for any appointment. It’s also a way to block off time for you to have heads-down time where there are minimal chances for others to disturb your flow state.

Let’s Talk Time Blocking

Time blocking is gaining popularity thanks to social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. Time blocking is a time management method that divides your day into productivity chunks. You set the boundaries for how long you work on one task. Once the time is up, you move on to the next task, no matter where you ended up with the prior one.

If you find yourself jumping from task to task but not really getting anything accomplished, time blocking may be for you. It’s also a way to set your workday up for productivity. While someone on your team could schedule a meeting first thing at 9:00 a.m., you may find that’s when you’re most creative. Instead of meeting internally with others, you should use that time to tackle an independent project, like working on a client-facing presentation. A recurring time block from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. signals to others that’s when you’re working independently.

Also, recurring time blocks can help establish a better work-life balance. If you’re constantly in meetings, you may skip lunch and run yourself ragged. Rather than taking 30 minutes to eat a proper meal, you’re snacking on processed foods and upping your coffee intake. This isn’t helping your health nor setting yourself up to be productive; you likely crash in the afternoon and find yourself completely drained. Setting a recurring time block for lunch may be the push you need to actually get up from your desk and eat a nourishing mid-day meal.

Adding recurring time blocks isn’t complicated, no matter what email platform you use. Below are the how-tos for Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar, and Apple iCloud Calendar. Note these directions are all for laptop users, but the same general principles can be applied if you are on your phone’s app.

Adding Recurring Time Blocks in Microsoft Outlook Calendar

To add a recurring time block in Microsoft Outlook Calendar, switch over to your Calendar tab. On the top ribbon, click ‘New Appointment’ and ‘Recurrence’ from the Options menu. A new window for Appointment Recurrence will open. From here, you can select the start and end times for the appointment. You can also adjust how often the appointment occurs, such as weekly or monthly. Lastly, choose how long you want this appointment to occur such as the next month, six months, or year.

You can also make a recurring time block from an existing appointment. To do so, follow the steps above, but instead of ‘New Appointment,’ click on the existing appointment you want to recur. Also, it’s important to know there is a distinction between an appointment and a meeting in Outlook. Appointments are for you to schedule for yourself, think physical exams, car maintenance checkups, and even personal training sessions. You invite others to meetings, including everything from one-on-one sessions to company-wide all-hands.

Adding Recurring Time Blocks in Google Calendar

It’s a similar process for Google Calendar users, without the distinction between appointments and meetings. On the top left of your Calendar window, click ‘Create’ (also known as the + button). Select ‘Event,’ or ‘Focus Time,’ ‘Out of Office,’ or ‘Task.’

Then, add the details for the block of time, such as ‘lunch break’ or ‘respond to emails.’ To set it up to recur, click the down arrow next to ‘does not repeat.’ Select how often you want the event to repeat and when it ends. Hit save, and you’re done.

You can also create time blocks by clicking on the day and time you’d like the event to occur. But from there, it’s the same as creating a time block from the Create button.

You can always edit the event’s details or change their occurrence. Simply go to the event and hit ‘Edit’ to make the necessary changes. Always remember to hit ‘Save’ before you exit out of the Calendar.

Adding Recurring Time Blocks in Apple iCloud Calendar

Creating a recurring time block from an existing event is easiest if you’re using Apple iCloud Calendar. To start, click on an event you want to recur by double-clicking or force-clicking. Select the Repeat pop-up menu and choose the appropriate length of time, such as weekly.

If you don’t see the length of time you would like, such as every other week, hit Custom. From there, you can customize when you want the event to repeat. You can also choose to make the event on a specific day, such as the second Wednesday of every month.

Apple also has the feature of deleting some occurrences in a series. Let’s say that you need to cancel a handful of team meetings due to summer vacation schedules. Instead of deleting the original calendar invite series altogether, you can modify it. To do this, select the specific invites you want to remove and hit ‘Delete.’

Top Takeaways for Scheduling Your Day

Recurring time blocks can be created for regularly scheduled appointments or heads-down work time. They can also be designed to establish moments of pause or breaks throughout your day. Hopping from one Zoom meeting to another may make you feel like you’re really productive. But at the end of the day, what did you get done? A growing to-do list or working past regular hours may indicate that you need space in your day for actual work time.

Before the start of the week or month, look at your calendar. Are there weeks when you’re going to need to add more recurring time blocks for heads-down time? Do your kids have a new extracurricular activity for which you need to set aside time? Also, what did you notice about your time blocking that either worked or didn’t work for you in the last week or month? Asking yourself these questions may spark a new way to approach your day.

One of the best parts about recurring time blocks is that they are automatic. You don’t need to take time to think about adding it each and every day. The more you automate, the more you can plan ahead confidently. You can spend more time working on what really matters and less time handling more admin-like tasks.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Nothing Ahead; Pexels; Thank you!

The post How to Add Recurring Time Blocks to All of Your Digital Calendars appeared first on Calendar.

Investing in the stock market can be an intimidating experience. Market conditions are constantly changing, and for some individuals new to the stock market, keeping track of everything, while ensuring actionable results can become a daunting task while building a stable and well-performing investment portfolio.

Every few months, thousands of publicly traded companies release financial reports. This is an event that allows current shareholders and potential investors to get a glimpse into the financial well-being of a company.

Now, the stock market adds even more complications to an already complex scenario; not every company that trades publicly uses the same type of financial calendar. Some may have unique calendars, while others use a more traditional approach that follows three months, often called quarters.

During each quarter, companies will make announcements on their stock performance and any new developments they have implemented during the last trailing three-month period.

Seems relatively easy to understand. This isn’t always the case, and some companies will have different financial calendars than banks or government institutions. What’s more, these events or financial reports can impact individual portfolios and a company’s stock performance.

Understanding the complexities of financial calendars can leave any first-time investor feeling overwhelmed. Luckily, there are some things you can do to get a better grip that will allow you to understand how to use a calendar for investing, plan accordingly, and make necessary adjustments to your investment strategy.

Here’s how to make the most of your calendar to make more intelligent investment decisions.

Keeping track of investments

Let’s say, for instance, you’ve purchased shares in a technology company for $100 and have set it up to deduct this amount from your account each month on a specific date; a digital calendar will help to inform you about upcoming payments.

This not only ensures that you are aware of the money being deducted from your account, but it will also notify you that you will need to have that specific amount available in your account to avoid overdraft penalties or fees.

At the very least, an investor needs to keep track of the companies they are investing in or will potentially invest in. Doing so allows investors to ensure their portfolio remains balanced and doesn’t slant toward a specific industry or sector.

This is what investors and professionals call “diversification,” which ensures they spread their money or cash among several different investment vehicles, which ultimately helps to lower their risk exposure.

Now, with this in mind, investors need to keep track of the investments they are making. A suggestion would be to use a digital calendar that helps to keep track of when a specific security was purchased and in which industry or sector this may belong.

Things can quickly become complicated and even more confusing if investors lose track of where their money is going or if they are blindly investing in stocks or companies they know little about.

Staying informed about important dates and events for investing

As already mentioned, many companies that trade publicly will follow different financial calendars for which they mark important dates and events. Companies may use these dates to release important information, such as financial data, stock performance, growth and performance, and any forward-looking plans.

These dates are crucial to any investors, and it should be your responsibility to keep track of them to know precisely when a company will release its financial data. Remember that these events can often be referred to as an “earnings call” or “quarterly reporting.”

Typically companies will publish these dates well in advance on their website or even inform shareholders several days before. Generally, some companies will already have a financial calendar published, allowing investors to keep track of when an important event will occur throughout the quarter or year.

Marking these important dates on your calendar will allow you to be more informed about any possible changes that may take place before or after the event. This could be a smart way to track the performance of certain stocks, allowing you to make the necessary adjustments that might positively impact your portfolio.

Marking these dates every quarter and setting reminders will help you be aware of any new developments that will unfold in the days leading up to the event or what might occur right after.

Investors leverage this opportunity to make strategic changes to their portfolio, as some companies may witness a decrease in profits and revenues, which could lead to a more significant sell-off of the company’s stocks and drive down prices. It’s wise to remain informed about these dates, when they will occur, and how to schedule them into your calendar.

Creating notifications for more significant events in the market

Not every company will follow the same public financial calendar. However, in some instances, you might come across a range of different companies from the same industry, all making their financial reports public within a single week.

This is often referred to as reporting season and can occur at different intervals depending on which type of stock market you are trading on and the variety of industries you invest in.

These earnings seasons are a big deal for investors because, usually, during this time, a lot of them will either increase their stake in a company or perhaps decrease their holdings based on both the company’s financial performance and the broader industry.

For example, earlier in the year, several big-tech companies, such as Amazon, Google parent company, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, among many others, announced their earnings within one week.

This follows several months of these big-tech giants making significant job cuts to stabilize their bottom-line performance. This was a big week for many investors, as this would give them a clear indication of whether or not the technology industry has improved on the back of slowing economic conditions and whether or not these companies have improved their financial conditions.

With this information, you can easily set up an automated financial calendar, in which you can give yourself enough time to attend each earnings call event and read through the financial reports of companies. This is especially important at a time when multiple companies release financial data.

Creating a watchlist for potential investing activity

Let’s say you have been following specific security for quite some time, which allows you to keep track of daily or weekly fluctuations. Doing so lets you measure whether the investment will be worth your time and money.

Using a digital calendar that’s synced with your mobile phone or computer and connected to the investment platform you are using to access the market, you will get immediate notifications if a specific security is trending upwards or moving downwards.

This isn’t anything new, and some investors set up their trading platforms to send them immediate price updates throughout the day.

With a digital calendar, it’s possible to keep track of more than just one security without having your phone being blown up by dozens if not hundreds, of watchlist notifications every day.

Investors can sync specific securities on their calendars. This allows them to follow and track the bitcoin price today, while being informed about a specific stock that is trading below value and is poised for growth.

Investors need to think of their investment calendars as their day-to-day schedules, whereby they remain informed on the go about any new events that are taking place or might be happening in the near future.

Setting financial goals both now and into the future

A digital calendar can help improve your investment decisions and the money you are investing by establishing financial goals.

These goals will look different for every person. However, it’s essential to know what you are working towards and how your decisions influence when you may achieve these financial goals.

Using an online calendar allows you to keep better track of your progress. Some days, weeks, and months, you might find yourself gaining less on the stock market; other times, the opposite might happen again.

Setting forward-looking goals makes it easier to know what you are working towards, but it can also help you keep better track of your finances and how you invest your money.

Some months, you may find yourself investing more in stocks, while other times, you may buy more exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or different types of commodities where prices continuously fluctuate.

All-in-all, using a calendar to track your financial goals is one of the best ways to ensure you stay on the right route to reaching these milestones and that you can make the necessary changes whenever you might have been derailed.

Final thoughts

There are many different benefits to why a calendar can be important when you are an active investor. Market conditions are constantly changing, and keeping track of everything while ensuring a balanced portfolio can be daunting.

No matter the situation, ensuring you have a calendar that works with your investment strategy will keep you informed and up-to-date about any critical events that unfold over the financial year. The more you know, the better of an investor you can become.

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Effective calendar maintenance is key to achieving your goals and avoiding stress along the way. Successful people know how to be proactive and schedule their plans in advance. Doing so can help you visualize your schedule and prepare for what’s to come. Consistently maintaining your calendar, even during the busiest seasons, ensures that things will go off without a hitch.

If you feel like there’s something currently hindering your success, try improving your calendar maintenance skills. Here are five tips for effective calendar maintenance.

1. Clean Up Your Current Calendar

Clean up your current schedule before you find a calendar to use or work on improving your calendar skills. If it’s already a mess, even the best calendar tool in the world won’t fix that. Clean up the clutter on your schedule, for example, unused recurring events. If you notice that an event can occur bi-weekly, monthly, or not occur at all, make this adjustment.

When you free up space on your calendar, you’ll have a clear view of what’s important. A calendar that isn’t overly cluttered is much easier on the eyes and much easier to maintain. It’s also a good idea to create naming conventions and common themes so your calendar looks and feels cohesive. If you’re having difficulty deleting events but want to clean up your calendar more, reach out about meetings in advance. See if you can move things around or cancel unnecessary events to make your schedule more manageable.

2. Find a Calendar That You Like to Use

In today’s fast-paced digital world, there are countless ways to maintain your busy schedule. Digital calendars make it easy to carry your plans wherever you go. Gone are the days of carrying around planners to keep your schedule (unless that’s what you prefer). The point is that you have to find a calendar you like before you can start using it effectively.

If you’re currently using multiple calendars, consider merging them. Merging calendars can take a lot of time and effort, depending on how many you have. But it will be worth it in the end to condense them because everything will be in one centralized location. Multiple calendars can cause quite a headache, especially if you’re extremely busy and could benefit from some organization. If you want to know what’s going on during any given day, week, or month, one master calendar is the way to go.

3. Customize Your Calendar to Meet Your Needs

Any calendar, especially the latest and greatest digital ones, can be customized to fit your lifestyle and needs better. There are several ways you can customize your calendar to serve you better. Your schedule can look completely different; plus, you might have another way you like to plan. This is where customization comes in — make your calendar yours.

Use Color Coding

One great way to customize your calendar is to color-code different things. Calendars are usually filled with meetings, personal events, and reminders (to name a few). Color coding your calendar organizes it and makes it easier to maintain. When viewing your calendar, adding to it, or updating it, you shouldn’t feel stressed. In fact, it should make you feel the opposite. You should feel organized and on top of things. This is precisely what color coding has the power to do.

Set Reminders

Any digital calendar will have a feature allowing you to set reminders for yourself. So, utilize those reminders (and don’t forget to customize them to your liking). You can choose which types of events have reminders, how far in advance you get the reminder and more. Maybe you want to set a reminder for work meetings to receive a notification 15 minutes before the start time. Or, perhaps you’d like to know about personal events with friends a week in advance. Whatever the case may be, you choose how the reminder works.

Utilize Notes

Every event in your calendar is different. Even recurring events can change from week-to-week. The problem is that one day on a calendar only has so much space. Too much information and it can become a cluttered mess quickly. Luckily, digital calendars will usually provide you with a notes section for each event in your calendar. For work meetings, enter notes saying what the meeting is about, your action items, etc. For a friend’s birthday, use it to jot down gift ideas. Your notes will help you so much on a week-by-week basis.

4. Explore Calendar Features and Settings

When using a digital calendar or scheduling app, explore all the features. Yes, customization is nice, but most digital calendars have even more capabilities to take advantage of. For example, some platforms allow you to create multiple calendars and then overlay them. If it makes more sense for you, create separate calendars for everything. Maybe you have one for work meetings, one for personal events, and one for holidays. You can merge all of them into one and save yourself the headache.

When using a digital calendar, make sure you also explore the power of automation. You can automate things like sending reminder emails to meeting attendees. This saves you time and makes your life a lot easier. It’s a way of being proactive and ensuring that you’ll be productive in the future.

It’s also important to familiarize yourself with the basic settings in your calendar. If you travel often, for example, you’ll want to make sure you know how to change your timezone. Do you want a sound to go off when notified of an event? Do you want others to be able to see your calendar? These settings are important to configure before you use your calendar effectively.

5. Set Aside Time to Update and Plan

Last but certainly not least, ensure you set aside time at least once a month for yourself. During this time, update your calendar accordingly to better work for you and plan for the upcoming month. Make sure to add things even if they’re far away. You won’t regret being proactive and planning ahead.

When you set aside time to look at your calendar in a monthly view, you’ll also learn which view you prefer. Monthly, weekly, and daily all have their advantages. Which one makes the most sense for your busy schedule? Looking at the monthly view gives you an idea of what you can expect in the coming month. The week view prepares you for the upcoming week so that there are no surprises. And a daily view is excellent for those hectic days when you need to focus on what’s happening right now. Dedicated planning time is a great way to ensure you’re prepared for things well in advance.

Proactive planning is essential to be organized and minimize stress in your life. This is where effective calendar maintenance comes into play. Learn how to use your calendar so that it helps you instead of hinders you. Only then will you be able to take control of your busy schedule and plan for the future with ease. Remember — the calendar is your friend, not something that should add additional stress.

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Many hands make light work. At least, that’s what they say. The truth is that many hands only lighten the load if they’re all working together. Work might be even more difficult if some hands are pulling in a different direction or not pulling their weight at all.

Whether you’re a team manager or a team player, unity and productivity should be among your highest priorities. After all, who wouldn’t want to get more done in less time? This earns your business more money, lands your team more achievements, and opens up new professional opportunities for both.

Teams have tried to become more productive with varying degrees of success in many ways. One method that is easily vouched for is the implementation of shared calendars. This article will outline some of the many ways this simple tool can unlock an entire new tier of potential in your team:

1. Easier Communication

Communication is one of life’s most valuable skills. Through proper communication, your personal relationships can thrive. Good communication also makes working as a team a whole lot easier. There is a lot of evidence out there regarding families, friends, and teams that have fallen into disarray due to poor communication.

While you might look at a calendar and see a bunch of dates in boxes, this tool offers numerous other benefits. For example, any event you create in your calendar can be shared. This can let your entire team know about the time, date, location, and nature of an upcoming meeting or event. They can add this to their own calendar and quickly access all pertinent information.

When you’re planning upcoming meetings and events, you can also get a clear picture of everyone’s availability. This makes date selection a whole lot easier, especially for remote teams. The fewer messages it takes to get information across and to make plans, the better.

2. Better Coordination

Being a part of a team requires a lot of coordination. Efforts need to be unified despite staggered deadlines, rotating schedules, and last-minute adjustments. Some teams even operate across different time zones, which is a separate challenge entirely.

One way a shared calendar can help with coordination is through increased schedule transparency. Let’s say as a manager, you want your team to know what your availability is like for any questions and updates they might want to bring to you. Instead of corresponding through a long stream of emails, you can share your calendar with its open slots. This way they can quickly check when would be a good time to contact you.

3. Improved Time Management

How your team uses its time is crucial to its overall productivity. Time is perhaps the most valuable resource, but it is so easily wasted. An online calendar can help your team maximize their use of time to complete projects faster without sacrificing quality.

There are several different time management methods that can be implemented through the use of an online calendar. One such method is called time blocking. Simply put, you block out sections of time to dedicate to a singular task through this method. This can help teams focus by hyper-fixating on the most important task at that particular time. Blocks of time can also be used to ensure adequate break time is being taken so team members aren’t overworked or stressed out.

These time management techniques can be implemented as a team or individually. Sometimes, helping a single team member become more productive and efficient helps the group. For example, they can’t move forward if the team waits for one member to finish their specified task. Help that member manage their time more effectively; everything will move along more quickly.

Better time management helps with your team’s work-life balance. When team members can pursue hobbies and spend time with family, morale tends to go up. Happier employees often work harder, stay motivated longer, and unite more easily. A content team is more likely to be retained and only get better with time.

4. Even Workload

Each member of your team is vastly different from the others. They have their unique strengths and weaknesses that hopefully complement each other well. They will also have varying levels of motivation, commitment, and energy. As a team leader, your goal is to spread the workload as evenly as possible, considering all of these variables.

You can look at team calendars and individual work calendars to gauge the workloads of each team member. With this information, you can better delegate new assignments so as not to overwork anyone. This provides improved tracking of responsibilities so that you’re better aware of where everything has been assigned.

To help you view this easily, try using a couple of your online calendar’s special features. For instance, color coding tasks based on who they are assigned to provide a quick overview of team balance. Time analytics can give numerical values to the division of labor in your organization.

5. Automatic Updates

Even if you diligently use your calendar to plan every aspect of your day, unexpected circumstances will lead to changes. Some of these changes you’ll need to relay to your team as quickly as possible. An online calendar will automatically update itself when changes are made, even to those you’ve shared it with.

Of course, you can’t expect your team to be eyeing their calendar at all hours of the day. Luckily, they don’t have to receive updates. Notification settings will notify all member participants of any changes you make. If the time or meeting location is being changed, they will be made aware of it.

You can also receive notifications when you’re added to a new event. Employees can do this to notify you of their progress on an extended series of projects. A calendar event can signify a new deadline they have set for themselves, along with any notes they’ve made regarding it.

6. Better Scheduling

Ask any team manager you know, and many of them will tell you that scheduling is one of their least favorite parts of the job. Between sick days, vacation times, and overtime, there are many scheduling hurdles to jump through. This can bog down your personal workflow and your team as they try to get situated.

Everything about your online calendar can make this easier. Time off requests can be processed much more quickly. Better layouts make rearranging schedules a much simpler task. The improved visibility and sharing capabilities means that employees can work with each other to cover shifts better. The less time spent worrying about these details, the more time can be spent making business happen.

Through an online platform, you can create multiple calendars. One of these calendars can be specifically for scheduling needs. This can show the team which shifts need to be picked up, when available vacation days are, and any hour changes to be aware of.

You can’t go wrong with an online calendar for yourself or your entire team. Many online calendars are free to use, accessible across multiple devices, and easy to learn. Start implementing one into your work routine and watch how the improvements start stacking together.

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Life can get pretty hectic sometimes, and you might feel overwhelmed or prone to distraction. But never fear, because the power of the calendar is here! You might not realize it, but maintaining a schedule can actually help improve your focus. The key is making the most of your calendar and using certain capabilities to keep you on track. Keep reading for tips and tricks on accomplishing these hacks, and stay focused.

1. Invest in a Good Scheduling System

Before you start developing your calendar into a tool for success, make sure it’s the right system for you. As they say, “if it’s not working for you, then it’s working against you.” Don’t get caught up in the appeal of new, flashy technologies; go for one that caters to your needs.

However, there are so many calendar apps and software to choose from; you might not know which to pick. Comparing and contrasting programs ” capabilities is a good idea when looking for a scheduling system. Do simple setups work best for you? Do you need something easily shareable with your friends or coworkers? These are just a couple of things to note when choosing a calendar app.

Once you’ve determined which system to use, you can move on to setting up that schedule to maximize your focus. Now the real fun begins!

2. Set Reminders

This might seem the most obvious tip, but how many people forget to set reminders on their calendars might surprise you. It’s one thing to jot down an appointment or meeting on your schedule, but ending there isn’t enough. You never know when you’ll be caught up in a moment and lose track of time. And being late for an important meeting is never a good look.

Take advantage of all your calendar’s capabilities by giving every entry a timed notification. This way, you’ll get a little ping that reminds you of upcoming meetings, deadlines, or appointments. You can even set multiple reminders, like an hour and a half hour before an event, to ensure you’ll remember the task.

This is a feature you don’t want to “snooze” on. Besides being on time for events, you’re more likely to stay on task when you have reminders.

3. Try Color-Coding

You might not think color-coding your calendar would help you with focusing. However, the method can be beneficial for keeping you on task.

Picture this: you’re working tirelessly on a project, but suddenly you can’t remember the deadline. You want to take a quick glance at your calendar to find out the answer. You pull up your schedule but are alarmed by the sea of events each day. How will you ever find this project and its due date?

Not to worry, because color coding can help solve this issue and similar problems as well. You can use a color scheme to organize your tasks. This could be based on how urgent their deadline is, which client a task is for, or what kind of task it is. For example, weekly reports for your boss could be green, while staff meetings could be blue. A quick glance at the colors can help you differentiate between the kinds of tasks taking up your schedule.

And how does this keep you focused, you might ask? Because you won’t be spending much time scanning for a specific type of event on your calendar anymore. That means you’ll have more time to stay focused and on task.

4. Block out Time for Focus

Most people use their calendars to write down tasks they have to do or appointments they need to go to. While that’s what a calendar is for, there’s also no limit to how much you can customize your own schedule. Creating an event on your calendar doesn’t mean it has to revolve around a specific task.

In other words, you can schedule time on your calendar for uninterrupted work. You don’t have to specify what tasks you’ll do; block out work time. If you’re a student and need to focus on studying or an assignment, schedule a chunk of your day for that purpose. Inside those time barriers, stay on task until that span is over.

This is a great way to motivate yourself to focus on your work. You can even block out small amounts of time with short breaks scheduled in between. You could even try scheduling work time with the Pomodoro Technique to take this concept to the next step.

5. Use the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is commonly used by college students who need help staying on task while studying. This method, created by Francesco Cirillo sometime between the 1980s and 90s, revolves around blocking out focus time and breaks.

So how exactly does this technique work? It’s pretty simple — do 25 minutes of work, and take a five-minute break. You’ll repeat this four times, then let yourself take a 15-minute break before repeating the whole process. People who use this method claim it helps with procrastination and overcoming a short attention span.

If you have trouble staying focused on work, this technique of short intervals can be the answer. While most people use a timer, you can actually set up your calendar in a Pomodoro format. Have notifications go off when the working interval starts and ends, keeping those five-minute breaks in between. If you think about it, it’s a kind of reward system that can also motivate you to stay on task.

Creating a structured work environment like this will encourage you to focus. Your mind is more likely to wander when you don’t have these time intervals, so structure your workday. You might surprise yourself with how much better you stay on task.

6. Share Your Calendar With Others

One of the keys to focusing better is to eliminate potential distractions. Believe it or not, your calendar might work against you if you must keep scouring through it to schedule a meeting or event. To avoid this from happening, it’s in your best interest to use a calendar system that can be shared with others.

Many workplaces use or encourage scheduling software where co-workers can see each other’s calendars. This eliminates the time needed to figure out a mutual time for meetings or assignment deadlines. No more emailing back and forth to schedule an appointment — instead, they can look at your calendar.

You might not realize how time-consuming scheduling an event can really be. Sharing your calendar with others will help you get around this and focus on your work. Not to mention, you can be more productive without these avoidable occurrences.

The Effort is Worth It

While redesigning your schedule or downloading a whole new system might sound daunting, it might be necessary. When something doesn’t work well, it’s in your best interest to change how you do it. In this case, if your calendar isn’t helping you stay focused and productive at work, you should try to change that. It might take some extra time to set up your calendar more efficiently, but it’ll be well worth it.

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On the afternoon of the first Tuesday in March 2018 — you were alive. You had a day full of thoughts, emotions, and experiences, and yet, do you remember any of them? Unless that Tuesday was unusually significant for you, you likely remember as much about it as what you ate for breakfast two weeks ago.

The vast majority of the days of your life slip by without much notice, but some are different. Some are special. Some days change the fundamental direction of your life, their memory etched into your psyche. Because on days like those, you finally ask the burning questions that have haunted your thoughts and dreams for years. On a rare, monumental day like today, you ultimately decide what digital calendar to use.

The Players

As you might imagine, there are many excellent digital calendar options to choose from. Each offers unique strengths offset by its weaknesses. Which one you choose depends on which addresses your needs as an individual. With this in mind, here’s a brief overview of some of the best players in the game.

Outlook, developed by Microsoft, is a widely used digital calendar with a strong presence in professional settings. Google Calendar is a cloud-based platform offered by Google built to incentivize collaboration. Calendar.com aims to simplify scheduling and appointments and help its users improve their productivity. Finally, at least discussed in this article, Trello is a project management calendar that enables users to take a Kanban-style visual approach to planning.

Outlook

Pros:

• Seamless Integration: Outlook integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft Office Suite products. This allows for more efficient management of emails, tasks, and contacts alongside your calendar. It’s easy to source information from one Suite program and transfer it to another.
• Robust Features: Outlook offers numerous support features like conditional formatting, customizable views, and advanced categorization. It also supports complex scheduling, resource management, and meeting invitations. These robust support features are ideal for large businesses.
• Offline Accessibility: Unlike most other options on this list, Office is still useful when you’re offline. You can still access your calendar and make changes to it without an internet connection. Your updates will sync the next time you have a signal. This makes Office an appealing option for frequent travelers.

Cons:

• Limited Cross-Platform Support: While Outlook is technically available on multiple platforms, its integration and functionality work best on Windows. The Outlook experience on Mac or other operating systems may not be as seamless or efficient.
• Steep Learning Curve: Outlook’s extensive customizable features and options can make learning overwhelming. New or less tech-savvy users may experience difficulty with its learning curve. Increased tech support may be necessary during the initial phases of integration.

Outlook’s emphasis on professional usefulness informs much of its design. It’s a great option to consider for business-minded, tech-savvy individuals and teams. It’s effortless to recommend if you’re already using other programs in the Microsoft Suite.

Google Calendar

Pros:

• Collaboration and Sharing: Google Calendar excels at collaboration. You can easily share dates, events, and entire calendars with others. You can invite attendees to events and customize permissions. This makes recommending for individuals, friends, families, and teams easy.
• Easy Synchronization: Gcal syncs seamlessly across multiple devices, platforms, and operating systems. You can switch between desktop and mobile, web browsers and apps, and your information is preserved. This accessibility ensures you can access and manage your calendar anywhere with an internet connection.
• Third-Party Integrations: Like Outlook, Google Calendar seamlessly integrates with other Google services, such as Gmail, Meet, and Tasks. This creates a cohesive productivity ecosystem that can scale.

Cons:

• Limited Customization Options: Google Calendar’s basic customization options will be sufficient for the average user. But those seeking extensive customization options may want to look elsewhere. Advanced features are few and far between.
• Dependency on Google: By design, you’re encouraged to adopt other Google services to maximize the benefits of its Calendar. Those invested in other productivity and workflow ecosystems may find Gcal’s options lacking.

Likely the most ubiquitous option in this article, Google Calendar’s main strength is its scalability. It’s great for people from many walks of life and can adapt as you and your business change. Just keep in mind that Gcal is best used in tandem with other Google products.

Calendar.com

Pros:

• Intuitive Interface: Calendar.com provides one of the cleanest user-friendly interfaces on the market. It’s easy to navigate and manage different events with its intuitive display. This focus on simplicity and ease makes it appealing to those seeking a more straightforward solution.
• Smart Scheduling Features: This digital calendar leverages AI to suggest optimal meeting times, reduce double booking, and even automate scheduling. These features can save time and increase productivity opportunities by streamlining appointment management.
• App Integration: Calendar.com offers excellent integration with various third-party applications. Users can connect their calendars with popular work apps such as Zoom, Slack, and Salesforce.

Cons:

• Relatively New: As a newer player in the digital calendar space, Calendar.com doesn’t have the same level of ubiquitous brand recognition as other players. This leads to a smaller user base with less extensive documentation and troubleshooting in the community.
• Limited Traditional Advanced Features: Compared to more established platforms, this option offers relatively few traditional advanced features. More prominent players, such as Outlook with Microsoft Suite or Gcal with other Google products, may provide more self-integration.

Calendar.com offerings emphasize a host of features that some of the more established players do not. Calendar’s emphasis is on AI integration and increased productivity. Calendar.com is an especially excellent option if you or your team heavily use popular third-party software.

Trello

Pros:

• Visual Organization: Trello’s Kanban-style boards provide a unique way to organize tasks and events. Originating from Japan, this workflow pipeline uses visual boards, lists, and cards to represent various aspects of project completion. You can easily see your calendar at a glance and drag and drop tasks into different dates or categories.
• Flexibility: This project management calendar is highly flexible and customizable so that you can adapt it to your specific needs. You can create different boards for various projects or areas of your life, customizing them with labels, due dates, and descriptions.
• Third-Party Integration: Like Calendar.com, Trello excels at integrating with third-party apps and services. This allows you to connect your calendar with regularly used tools and streamline your workflow.

Cons:

• Limited Month / Week View: Trello’s Kanban-style boards are primarily designed for task management. This means the month or week view may not be as comprehensive or detailed as in more dedicated calendar apps. This can be a drawback if you rely heavily on a more traditional calendar layout.
• Learning Curve: Trello is an amazing planning and management tool. But new users may encounter initial confusion when learning its unique Kanban-style system. It may take some time to grasp and use Trello’s full capabilities.

Overall, Trello can be a flexible, highly visual way to organize your tasks and events. It’s a unique alternative to traditional calendars, prioritizing project management over date-keeping. It’s an excellent option for productivity-minded individuals and teams interested in adopting a new workflow.

Actualize Your Calendar and Your Self

Today is different. Today you read about some of the best digital calendar options in 2023. Now, which option you choose depends on your individual needs and preferences. Each has pros and cons, and it’s essential to consider which is most useful for you. Ultimately, the best digital calendar is the one that lets you get the most leverage out of your work and your life.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Karolina Grabowska; Pexels; Thank you!

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Part of the Microsoft 365 family, Outlook is a widely popular email provider platform amongst professionals. But besides being an email provider, this system is well known for its Calendar. Unlike Google Calendar and Gmail, which are connected but located on separate apps, Outlook’s Calendar is embedded within Outlook.

When you open the Outlook app, you can toggle to the Calendar button to view it entirely. Outlook and, therefore, Outlook Calendar can be accessed across all devices and platforms, including iOS and Android.

Of course — just like anything — it may take some time to set up Outlook Calendar for your particular use. If you’re an administrative or personal assistant, you’ll want to ensure you can view and edit your manager’s calendar. Sharing Outlook Calendar will therefore be of the utmost importance. But if you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or just a pro multitasker, then notifications and To-Do lists will be essential for you too. Someone working remotely from the rest of their team will want to adjust their Calendar settings to account for various time zones.

No matter how or where you access or use Outlook Calendar, there are ways to make the platform work better for you. After all, the purpose of a digital calendar is to make your life easier, not harder. Calendars should take some of the burden off of your shoulders so you can focus on your priorities. Fortunately, there are various features and integrations to do just that. With this in mind, below are three ways to be more productive with Outlook Calendar.

1. Categorize Your Calendar

Meetings are part of the norm in today’s professional world. With the average worker having 25.6 meetings per week, or just over five per day, they can disrupt your productivity. While Outlook Calendar won’t lessen the time you spend in meetings per se, there are functionalities to approach your calendar better. One of which is using Outlook Categories. This is Outlook’s labeling system, allowing you to classify items within your Calendar, and sort, and filter them more easily.

In addition to leveraging Categories for events and meetings, it can also be used for emails, tasks, and your To-Do list (more on that feature later). To create a new Category, select from the Categorize drop-down menu on the Home tab.

Outlook has pre-identified Categories based on a color system, like the “blue category’ and “green category.’ You can edit these Categories and rename them as you please. There are 25 colors available, so you have a Crayola crayon box at your disposal to select the best one for each Category.

Assigning different colors to each Category allows you to quickly look at your calendar and see where your priorities are for that day.

Of course, to avoid your calendar looking like a complete rainbow, use Categories mindfully! Outlook will prioritize your top Categories, but try to delete ones once a project is complete. Doing so is fairly simple under the “Edit Categories’ dropdown. This will allow you to focus on your most urgent tasks and decategorize ones no longer needed.

2. Make To-Do Lists

If you’re reading this article, chances are you are a fan of to-do lists. While you may not be a fan of having to get so much on your list, these lists can help you stay on track. Outlook’s To-Do list is a way to remind yourself of certain tasks at a specific time. This feature, located within Outlook’s Task folder, allows you to name the task, add a priority, and set a date. So if you want to reserve a table at a sought-after restaurant, you can remind yourself on a particular day to book it.

In the latest version of Outlook, you can display your list at all times while your Calendar is open. This gives you a better sense of all that you need to accomplish on a particular day. Tasks can be created manually, such as probing yourself to book a dinner reservation or created right from your inbox. If you receive an important email but don’t have time to look at it immediately, you can turn it into a task for later. To do so, click on the flag and select the appropriate dropdown, such as “Follow up Today.’

If you’re really enjoying the To-Do list functionality, you may consider leveraging Microsoft’s To Do app as well. This is a more advanced task management app with greater capabilities than the standalone Outlook. It’s cross-functional, meaning it will work with your current Outlook Calendar and can be accessed across your devices. “My Day,’ a feature within the app, predicts and personalizes your task list daily or weekly. So if you typically prepare for your team’s weekly meeting on Tuesday evenings, the app will suggest adding it to your weekly list.

3. Adjust Your Meeting Settings

This tip is for you if you are always a few minutes late to your meetings. Adjusting your meeting settings under Calendar Options can help ensure you show up on time. The default reminder is 15 minutes before a meeting, but that may not be enough time for you. You may miss the notification if you’re at the office and away from your desk. Or, you may find that 15 minutes is a tad too long, and you’d like to be nudged five minutes before a meeting begins.

Adding different time zones to your calendar is another trick to save you time while setting up meetings. This is especially great for hybrid or remote teams with employees across the country or the world.

Figuring out what time of day it is for them may have you going to Google to look at the time difference. Instead, you can add multiple time zones to your calendar under the Time Zones section in Outlook Calendar. From there, you can appropriately name the new time zone, such as “Los Angeles’ or “Tokyo,’ and schedule meetings without referencing Google.

Also, if you are remote or work with remote employees, consider automatically turning all your meeting invites into online meetings. This functionality is built into your calendar invites if you utilize Microsoft Teams for video conferencing.

However, it also works with other platforms, including Zoom, Cisco WebEx Scheduler, Google Meet, BlueJeans Meetings, JioMeet, and GoTo. Remember that you may need to download a different app, such as Zoom for Outlook, for full integration across the platforms. Once it’s up and running, however, you’ll never have to frantically send out a Zoom link immediately before the meeting begins!

Final Thoughts

Scheduling your day for productivity is easier said than done. You may have a set of priorities at the beginning of the day, but an obstacle may have you switching gears by lunchtime. With Outlook Calendars’ various features, you can stay on task and on top of your priority list.

Whether you are sharing an office space with your teammate or working remotely, Outlook Calendar is there for your needs. Utilize the shared Outlook Calendar tips and tricks to manage your time better and maximize your daily accomplishments.

Featured Image Credit: Fauxels; Thank you!

The post 3 Ways to Be More Productive With Outlook Calendar appeared first on Calendar.

A lot of pressure is put on employees to be productive in today’s fast-paced workplaces. It’s not uncommon for us to hear messages about how hard, long, and intelligent we should work. Furthermore, workers are gaining recognition from employers by engaging in activities that make them appear productive, despite growing fears about layoffs and job security.

The result can be a phenomenon called “productivity theater.” And, although it may seem harmless, it can actually be quite detrimental.

What Exactly is Productivity Theater?

The phrase “productivity theater” refers to tasks that employees perform to appear busy without actually doing any meaningful work, according to Visier, a workforce analytics company. Specifically, it involves hacking our digital communications to make ourselves appear more productive than we are.

It is possible to engage in productivity theater in a number of ways, but the most common ones are:

• Even if it isn’t urgent, respond to emails immediately.
• Attending unnecessary meetings.
• Even when you aren’t working, stay online late.
• Keeping your laptop screen awake to make it seem like you are working.
• Maintaining the illusion of working by using a mouse jiggler.

According to Visor’s survey of 1,000 full-time US employees, 43% spend more than 10 hours weekly on “productivity theater” tasks. The survey also found that nearly half of hybrid workers – at home and in the office – spend over 10 hours on performative activities per week. The same is true for 35% of remote workers.

According to the survey results, nearly half of an organization spends 1.25 days on performative rather than meaningful work.

Among the most common performative activities are responding to emails or messages immediately, scheduling future emails or messages, or attending useless meetings. In the past 12 months, more than 80% of respondents reported doing one or more of these activities.

The Reasons People Engage in Productivity Theater

People engage in productivity theater for a variety of reasons. It’s a way for some of them to keep up with the Joneses. Others do it to impress their bosses or colleagues. Some perform these activities out of fear of being labeled lazy or unproductive.

Here are a few of the most common reasons:

Fear of appearing unproductive.

Many workplaces reward employees for being busy, even when unproductive, through a presenteeism culture. As a result, people may engage in productivity theater to avoid appearing unproductive.

A lack of trust between employees and managers.

In the absence of trust between employees and managers, employees may engage in productivity theater in order to show their worth. When managers constantly monitor employees’ activities, this can be particularly true.

There are no clear expectations or goals.

To cover their bases, employees may engage in productivity theater when they are unclear about what is expected of them. Workplaces with a lot of ambiguity about what constitutes “good” work are especially susceptible to this problem.

Having a desire to impress their peers.

Occasionally, there is a culture of competition among employees in some workplaces. As a result, people may engage in productivity theater to appear good to their peers.

In fact, according to the Visier survey, performing work is motivated primarily by the desire to look valuable to leaders and managers — regardless of whether the work is actually useful.

The need for recognition and approval.

In an effort to gain recognition and approval from their managers or colleagues, some people engage in productivity theater. The problem is particularly acute for those who lack sufficient positive feedback or feel insecure about their work.

Conflict avoidance.

People sometimes engage in productivity theater to avoid conflict with their managers or colleagues. Conflict-avoidants and people who fear speaking out are especially vulnerable to this.

They lack control over their work.

To feel in control, employees may engage in productivity theater when they feel powerless over their work. Micromanagement is especially prevalent in workplaces where employees are constantly monitored.

Fear of job security.

Gallup reports that at the start of the pandemic, a record-high 25% of workers said it was “very likely” or “fairly likely” that they would become unemployed. Currently, most people believe that losing their job is “not too likely” (30%) or “not at all likely” (55%).

Still, there are plenty of people who aren’t as optimistic. Therefore, workers also want to appear busy and boost their visibility at work out of fear of job security.

Consequences of Productivity Theater

Regardless of the reason, there is a lot of pressure these days to be constantly visible and productive, which can lead to productivity theater. Although it may seem productive, it’s not. It can actually be counterproductive, as it consumes time that could be spent on more meaningful activities.

In short, productivity theater can have many adverse effects on both individuals and organizations.

For individuals:

• Stress and anxiety can result from productivity theater.
• You may be unable to concentrate on the critical tasks at hand.
• Employees may be unable to take breaks or vacation time, resulting in burnout.
• Engagement and morale can be negatively affected.

For organizations:

• In addition to missing deadlines, productivity theater can also result in poor decision-making.
• There is a possibility that it will reduce innovation and creativity.
• Spending time on tasks that do not contribute to the bottom line can increase costs.
• Having employees who are perceived as lazy or unproductive can damage the organization’s reputation.

How Can You Avoid Productivity Theater?

You can avoid productivity theater by following these tips:

Define your own productivity.

In your opinion, what does productivity mean? Do you have any goals in mind?

Identifying your goals will help you focus on the tasks that will help you achieve them.

Focus on outputs, not inputs.

The best way to measure people’s performance is to measure their results, not how long they spend working. As a result, people will be more likely to focus on getting things done in lieu of just looking busy.

Set clear expectations.

Everyone should know what to expect in terms of their work output. By doing this, people will not feel like they have to prove themselves by pretending to be busy to prove their worth.

Be honest with yourself and your boss about your workload.

Please do not hesitate to speak up if you are feeling overwhelmed. You might be able to reduce your workload with your boss’s assistance because they will appreciate your honesty.

Be mindful of your time.

As you are working on a task, take a moment to consider how your time is being spent. Do you actually accomplish anything or are you simply going through the motions?

Focus on quality over quantity.

Producing a few high-quality items of work is better than producing many low-quality items.

Create a culture of trust.

Employees who are able to trust their managers will be less inclined to pretend to be busy. Providing autonomy and open communication to employees can help managers build a culture of trust.

Encourage breaks.

Regular breaks can make people more productive in the long run. After all, when people are stressed or overwhelmed, they engage in productivity theater. Managers can keep employees focused and refreshed by allowing employees to take breaks.

Avoid distractions.

Whenever you are trying to be productive, avoid distractions. Finding a quiet place to work requires turning off your phone, closing your email, and closing your browser.

Use time-tracking tools.

Tracking your progress and identifying potential improvement areas can be done through these tools.

Celebrate successes.

People are less likely to pretend to be busy when they feel valued for their work. Managers can celebrate their successes by recognizing employees’ contributions and giving them positive feedback.

Set boundaries between work and personal time.

Establishing boundaries between your work and personal lives is crucial. During work hours, you should not check your work emails, or work on your personal projects while at work.

Delegate tasks.

If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask. Don’t overload yourself with tasks; delegate them to others if you have too much on your plate.

The use of AI productivity tools can also help you do more, save time, and improve your workflow.

Take time for self-reflection and identify your productivity strengths and weaknesses.

By doing this, you will be able to develop more productive strategies.

Take care of yourself.

Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and enough sleep should be the key to a healthy lifestyle. The ability to concentrate and be productive is increased when you take care of yourself.

It is not a sign of weakness to seek help if you are experiencing productivity theater. Whether it’s your boss, a mentor, or a therapist, don’t be afraid to talk to them. By breaking the habit and becoming more productive, they can assist you.

Don’t let productivity theater destroy your life. When it comes to your health, your relationships, and your productivity, pretending to be busy isn’t worth it. Consider taking a step back, reassessing your priorities, and focusing on the most important things.

FAQs

What is productivity theater?

In productivity theater, you pretend to be busy to look productive. There are many ways to do this, including checking email constantly, attending unnecessary meetings, and working on low-priority projects.

Often, productivity theater is motivated by a desire to impress others or a fear of appearing unproductive.

What are the signs of productivity theater?

Someone who engages in productivity theater may exhibit the following signs. Among them are:

• Checking social media or email constantly
• Taking part in unnecessary meetings
• Prioritizing low-priority tasks
• The avoidance of deep work
• Responding to messages too quickly
• Making excuses for not completing a task

What are the effects of productivity theater?

Productivity theater can have negative effects on both individuals and organizations.

Individuals may feel stressed, anxious, and burnt out as a result. Consequently, organizations may experience decreased productivity, missed deadlines, and poor decision-making.

How can I avoid productivity theater?

Keeping productivity theater at bay is as simple as following these tips:

• Focus on results, not busyness. Rather than focusing on your busy schedule, you should measure your performance based on the results you achieve.
• Set clear goals and priorities. Doing this makes you more likely to focus on the most critical tasks.
• Delegate or automate tasks. You shouldn’t be afraid to delegate or automate dull and low-priority tasks if you have too much to do.
• Take breaks. To avoid burnout, take breaks during the day.
• Be honest with yourself about your work habits. How busy are you really? Are you just wasting your time on busy work?

What can managers do to prevent productivity theater?

Managers can take the following actions to prevent productivity theater:

• Clearly defining expectations. Employees should know what is expected of them in terms of their work output.
• Trust your employees. Employees should be trusted to work hard even if they aren’t always visible to their managers.
• Encourage open communication. It is vital for employees to feel comfortable discussing their workload and challenges with their managers.

Image Credit: Pixabay; Pexels; Thank you!

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