Business is probably the most versatile and sought-after profession at the moment. The riches and fame that various kinds of businesses have bought along with them are unparalleled to any kind of salaried job.
With the competition in this profession increasing day by day it is only obvious that the pressure of work will be climbing at an unstoppable pace too. People have devised many types of apps and various other software for businessmen to organize and drive their potential but the digital calendar sits at the top of the food chain. Due to its flexible nature, straightforward features and the right amount of orthodox tinge to it, the digital calendar is surely a businessman’s best friend.
“How,” you ask?
Well, let us give you some of the basic examples and tips that will make you understand how to use a digital calendar to stay on top of all types of tasks.
Never fill up all the empty space
When you’re starting with a digital calendar and you see all those empty boxes just waiting to be filled with tasks and reminders it can be rather difficult to stop yourself from allotting a specific task to each time slot. However, This is a huge rookie mistake.
Do not go all out on the calendar or on yourself. You can’t expect yourself to follow up on all tasks with the precision of every hour. There will always be delays in every form.
Besides, you will realize that it is simply foolish to think that you know your week’s schedule at the very start. You might even be wrong about the very next day because you will realize that new developments always bring about new tasks to be done. There might be some which need to be done on an urgent basis. If you had not left out some empty spaces between tasks you would not have been able to fit in the urgent task without having to find a new place for the others.
Quick decisions and smart grouping
Not all tasks can be of the same nature. Your business might not be revolving around just one thing and that will create multiple areas that you will have to tackle in different ways. Try to combine these into 3-4 groups on your digital calendar and assign a color to each group. Having more than 4-5 colors will simply create more confusion.
Allocating colors and diving into a group means that your decision-making based on the schedule will become almost thrice as fast. How? –
- Allotting colors means you won’t have to read into the texts and you will understand the nature of the task instantly.
- A quick glance at a calendar with proper color coding will enhance your decision-making abilities since the colors can be grouped together much easier than actual long sentences that mostly look the same.
- Quantizing tasks for various purposes like focusing too much or finding a lapse in attention in a particular type of task becomes easier. For example, a quick glance can make you realize that you have assigned too many slots for the blue tasks and too little for yellow tasks.
Prioritization
Not all tasks in your business can be given the same priority level. There will always be one or two very important tasks in your day that will easily outweigh the importance of others. It would be downright stupid to give the other tasks a prime slot or equal time to a high-priority task.
Make sure that you can single out the high-priority task and then place it in the most convenient slot of the day. Once you do that then schedule other tasks around that main task. Make sure you give the important task more time than it actually requires.
Reserving potential dates
Things are never straightforward in business. You will soon notice that fixing a date for a meeting, especially when it is dependent on many factors, is a very hard job. You sometimes can not come to a conclusion in terms of the date because of these factors and as a result, you have multiple potential dates on which the meeting or the task would be done. This means that you need to reserve multiple slots on your calendar.
For such occasions, there is a very useful tool in digital calendars called ‘placeholders’. This tool helps you to easily book the potential dates in a temporary manner. Later, when the date is finalized, you can easily clear the other placeholders and free up those dates for other tasks.
Preparation and follow-ups
A task or business meeting is a hectic one that calls for a lot of preparation and follow-up. For this reason, we suggest that while fixing a time slot in a digital calendar, always leave a slot before and after the task or meeting.
The slot before is for you to get enough time to prepare for the meeting. You can use this time to make notes or research on anything that you find necessary to make the meeting go successful. There can also be some last-minute developments that you can easily look at in this slot.
The slot after is for the follow-ups and to wind down. Follow-ups are an essential part of any meeting. After concluding a meeting there are always some tasks that need to be initiated immediately. You also need some time to take a breather and this free slot in the calendar will help you get it.
Understand your limits
The calendar is there to help you catch up to all your tasks and aims but it will be of no use if you do not understand your own limits or stamina.
There is a very fine line between working hard and overdoing something that you actually end up ruining it.
Play smart and organize your calendar according to your own limits. Make sure you take out enough time for all activities
Friends, family and personal time
Coming to the last part and also probably the most important part, make sure to take out time for yourself, for your friends and for your family.
These 3 things are vital for your peace of mind. Without time for yourself or to your loved ones life will become monotonous. Make sure that you leave out enough space on your calendar for this.
The digital calendar is something that you will find on the desk or wall of every successful businessman. It is a tool for success that you should know how to use. Using this tool properly with dedication is probably the most dependable way to achieve success.
