Crafting Your Calendar

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“Time is a sort of a river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.” ~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The Empty Calendar

I work with lots of contractors. Usually they are so busy that they have a hard time fitting in lunch or making it home before 7 pm. When I ask to see a busy Small Shop owner’s Calendar, I often receive a blank look.

“Calendar?”

“Sure…where you jot down all the things you intend to do during the day,” I reply.

Most of the time, the “Calendar” is a mess of Post It reminders or inked notes in the palm of his hand.

The busiest folks I know have empty Calendars. I’m a fan of regularly scheduled meetings to keep in touch with the rest of the team. Even if the rest of the team is your wife, it helps to have a standing appointment to discuss the business. Otherwise business seeps into the cracks between 10:15 and 10:30 pm…not a good time to discuss Accounts Receivables.

You also need time to work on projects, turn wrenches, attend your kid’s T-ball games, think about your place in this amazing universe…and fit in a round of golf. Without a Calendar, you are going to neglect some aspect of your life.

Start committing your activities to a Calendar and you will find…

You have more time than you thought you did. It is just that your time gets taken by others, bit by bit, throughout the day who command your attention. You don’t have to be available to everyone 24/7. You have the right to create some boundaries. However, unless you have something PLANNED it is easy to be at the effect of someone else’s plan.

You will be less stressed. Let’s say you know that your Flat Rate book needs updated. And you keep thinking about it all day long. If you schedule a two-hour block of time to work on that project - put it on the Calendar - you can forget about it until that time arrives. Fewer thoughts running wild in your head means less worry and stress.

You’ll be on time…at least more of the time. If needed, build in some travel time.

You can say, “No,” more often. Admit it. You waste a lot of time doing things you don’t want to do. If your Calendar is wide open, it isn’t an option to day, “Sorry, I have something else planned.” If you DO have your time scheduled, you can fend off time-wasting activities and energy-sucking people more easily.

If you love doing something, you will make time for it. If you hate doing it…it’s time to stop doing it.

A few tips for planning your time…

Hold sacred a once-a-week Planning Meeting with YOU. Look over your Master To Do List. (I use a simple, one subject, spiral bound notebook for my Master To Do List. It’s an easy way to write everything I need to write down in one place.) Consider the family activities. Look over your Business Plan and current Financials. Then, update your Calendar for the week before the week starts. I suggest holding this meeting Sunday night or Monday morning…early!

Schedule formal meetings. Even in a Small Shop, schedule time to meet with the other members of the team. That way, when someone starts to interrupt what you are currently doing, you can say, “Let’s discuss that at our meeting.”

Don’t schedule more than 2 hours at a time for projects. You will waste time if you block out a whole day. Really, in an eight hour day, how many hours of real production will you create? Two? So block out 2 hour time periods and start and stop on time.

Your Calendar won’t be much help unless you consult it. Do so, several times a day.

If you are in the office much of your time, consider using Microsoft Outlook. Are you a Mac user? Check into iCalendar. Use the recurring appointment feature and set up regular meetings once…and see them on your Calendar every week.

The sample Calendar in this article is from Outlook. You can sync your Calendar to your Treo or Smart Phone or PDA when you hit the road. Nice!

If you are a low-tech person, use a “Week At A Glance” spiral bound Calendar. Take your Calendar and your Master To Do List with you wherever you go. It takes some practice to get into the habit. Commit!

As you develop good time management habits, share this life-enhancing tactic with one of your team members. Mock up a typical week together and help him or her be more productive.

You can always move appointments around as the week develops. However, if you move your project appointments around a few times, it may start to bother you. Commit to the time and work on that project. It feels so good to get things DONE. When the appointment time is over, set the appointment on your Calendar and pick up with that project where you left off. You can leave clues for yourself in the appointment notes…so that you know where to start next time.

Of course, if an upset customer calls, the customer takes priority. Of if your wife calls with a family emergency. Just go back to the Calendar and rearrange as needed. If you fall off the wagon and neglect your Calendar for a few days, don’t panic. Gently remind yourself that you are so much more productive (and relaxed!) when you operate with a tightly crafted Calendar. Jump back on the wagon.

“Regret for time wasted can become a power for good in the time that remains, if we will only stop the waste and the idle, useless regretting.” ~Arthur Brisbane

Ellen Rohr is the President and Founder of Bare Bones Biz, a business training and consulting company that teaches clients how to turn big ideas into successful businesses. Rohr is the successful author of numerous business basics books, including: Where Did the Money Go? - Accounting Basics for the Business Owner Who Hates Numbers and How Much Should I Charge? - Pricing Basics for Making Money Doing What You Love.

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