Should i use a calendar

This system does depend on your colleague using their calendar properly but your chances of successfully getting that appointment are much higher. This is an example of a scheduling tool and it works brilliantly. If you try to arrange an appointment time which suits both of you, it can take several emails which is irritating. If you are in different time zones, it is even worse.

Fortunately, using a scheduling tool, you can give them access to your calendar. You provide them with a link which allows them to see an up to date version of your calendar and book an appointment time that suits them and which is automatically entered into your calendar.

This saves you a lot of time and hassle and it increases the chances that both of you will turn up and have a productive meeting. However, there would not be enough information for me to figure out the specific purpose of the meeting. I would then have to search through all my notes to find more information. This wasted a great deal of time and it could be quite stressful. I know that I would have been embarrassed to have turned up to a meeting, to which I had agreed, without having any idea what it was about.

If you are in sales this is even more important. You would be shocked at how many people have made sales pitches to me without having any idea what my business is.

They could have increased their chances by researching what I do and making a simple note of it. Some information you should consider saving under the appointment in your calendar:. Better preaparaion leads to better meetings.

You need to remember that appointment in advance so that you can do the necessary preparatory work. Whatever the nature of your appointment; even it is just an appointment with yourself, the appointment will be more effective if you are properly prepared for it.

Every day, look at your calendar to see what it is coming up over the next few days. At least once per week, look at least two weeks ahead as there may be something coming up which requires a lot of preparation. Remember that you may have made some of these appointments weeks or even months ago. It is easy to forget what is coming up. If you have, the sooner you know about it, the sooner you can do your best to make amends.

You know where you must be, when you must be there and why you need to be there. When something is date or time specific, you must make sure that it gets done when it is meant to be done. It is foolish to trust your memory.

You may well remember your appointment but you may not remember it when you are able to take action. It is essential that you remember at the right time and using your calendar properly will ensure that you do so.

When you start using them as part of your overall productivity system; you will start to make real progress. When you want to manage your time, productivity and effectiveness; a calendar is one of the most important tools you can use. They end up with competing appointments.

They have forgotten to enter an appointment. They have a lot of meetings but they are not sure what the purpose of each meeting is.

They have no time to prepare for their meetings. Their calendar is full of unimportant stuff which leaves them with no time for the stuff which is important. By simply asking for permission from your team members to add them as friends to your calendar, you can take a peek at their schedule and decide how you want to run things.

More often than not, we forget the holidays we have in a given month and plan ahead without considering it. Google understands that a lot of our daily operations happen in our emails. To do this, the software scans your emails for dates and times from the messages in your email. What will you do? The beauty of Google Calendar is that it runs on the cloud, which means that you can access it anywhere anytime by simply logging in to the server.

So, as in the illustration above, all you have to do to remember the time of the event is to access your Google Calendar account.

For instance, I remember a previous gig where we had weekly meetings. There was hardly a purpose behind them. While it was intended to be a weekly check-in, it was more of a social event.

Sometimes it was productive, but for me it was time that could have been spent on something more productive. This is fairly common within most organizations. However, scheduling back-to-back appointments or meetings can end-up doing more harm than good.

When scheduling an appointment or meeting, allow yourself at least a minute buffer. This way you have enough time to arrive or prepare for your next appointment in your calendar. Your calendar, however, may not be one of them.

Checklists are meant to be checked-off, not cluttering your calendar with mundane tasks. Some people need the everything checklist when first starting on seriously use a calendar. If that is you -- do it.

There are plenty of people who add notes to their calendar. For example, including the names of the attendees of a meeting comes in handy so that you can be prepared in having a more effective meeting. Instead of filling your calendar with excessive notes, keep them on a note taking program. This not only makes them easier to access, it also keeps your calendar clean and organized. This is an extension of my previous two points.

Your calendar should be used solely for time and day specific things, such as meetings and deadlines for tasks. Including every miniscule task in your calendar can make it cluttered and unorganized.

Instead, use a task management or note taking program for these mundane tasks. As a result, your calendar has become hijacked and your priorities get lost in the shuffle.