Define Your Calendar, or It Will Define You

Have you ever been walking somewhere when your phone starts buzzing and you realize you have missed an important conversation or meeting?

Have you ever felt like you are chasing your calendar instead of your calendar chasing you?

Do you feel exhausted and overwhelmed when problems hit you and you don’t have a chance to think through them because you feel swamped?

If you answered yes to any of these, this blog will add value to your life.

Three years ago I was a walking disaster. Full of passion, drive and vigor yet very unorganized. I didn’t follow up as good as I should have with clients. I wasn’t ahead of my calendar and I often missed putting important events into my weekly planning systems.

My lack of organization led to extra stress, anxiety, less energy and made me only half as intentional as I could have been.

I knew I needed to change.

Then I discovered the power of Google calendar. I took Google calendar from “this is a good tool” to, “this is absolutely essential tool to help organize my life”.

I decided to stop chasing my calendar and this has changed my life, increased my productivity and opened doors for future success.

The other day I was sharing some of this advice with a friend of mine. She was really struggling to organize her calendar and to stay ahead of it. After talking through her concerns, here are the four tips I gave her so that she could stop chasing her calendar.

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Plan Each Week

This is pretty standard advice. However, so many people do not do this. This is where you must start if you are to stop chasing your calendar. Plan ahead by dedicating one day each week to plan the week. For me, this day is Saturday. I take an hour on Saturday to plan out the upcoming week. What needs to be done? What meetings do I have scheduled? What are ‘maybes’ and what are concrete things which are going to happen such as a meeting or event?

Frame The Tempo of Each Week

As a teacher, coach, and writer, some weeks naturally have a higher tempo than others. Framing this tempo before your week starts will allow you to not feel overwhelmed once Monday hits. Just as the most successful baseball players visualize hitting the ball if you take some time to visualize the tempo and ‘feel’ of your week you will be ready for when everything seems to be hitting you at once. Think of framing your week as studying the playbook of your life weekly. Trust this process as it is key to keeping calm during pressure-filled weeks.

Forecast Weekly

Sometimes we get overwhelmed when we think weeks ahead. It is easy to think about what needs to be done two, three and even four weeks out when we jump to feeling overwhelmed. If you don’t want to chase your calendar, don’t do this. Think solely about the week ahead and prepare for what needs to be done. Divide the week into a series of urgent and important items and decide how it will look for you. Be consciously aware of busier days and don’t try to fill your day with ‘busy’ work. Trim the work weeds. Lean out your days and make your time work for you.

Define What Is Urgent and Important

This is a very hard thing to do. I am still trying to master how to identify this in my own life. For example, there are times when tasks are given to me with an ‘urgent’ feel which turns out to be neither urgent or important. Then there are things which seem urgent at first yet end up being important but not urgent. The best way to distinguish between the two is to let the seemingly ‘urgent’ work sit for one day. I call it the 24 hr rule. If after one day it still feels urgent, you must organize it in your calendar and get it done. However, if it no longer feels urgent after 24 hours, it is probably not that urgent.

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Ultimately, calendar management is key to clarity, organization, career stamina and personal balance. If you manage your calendar effectively you will avoid burn out, reduce your task-related anxieties and you will feel a high sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. As Tony Robbins says, “Do not rest until you have finished everything on your daily calendar”. I love this quote and encourage you to apply it to your life and business each day.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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