5 Ways To Take Control of Your Calendar

Your Calendar is More Important Than Ever

Picture this, it’s Monday Morning and you just finished and you are about halfway through your morning Starbucks when you get an email to alert you that someone joined your Zoom meeting that started at 8:30 AM. Immediately your blood pressure spikes, and you race over to your computer, all the while trying to remember what the purpose of the meeting is. Your blood begins to boil as you get frustrated trying to wake up your computer, and think through why you ever agreed to an 8:30 AM meeting on a Monday in the first place.

Does some version of this story sound familiar to you? 

Since the “great shift” to virtual and hybrid work environments, it seems that oftentimes we are being controlled by our calendar, instead of the other way around. For some, gone are the days of water-cooler conversation or a quick update in passing. We now live in a world of notifications pinging us at all hours of the day, a calendar that is back to back with quick conversations, and a constant feeling like we are missing something. 

Well, there’s some good news! By taking control of your schedule, you can create space throughout the week to stay ahead, instead of working behind. With some simple parameters, you can align your calendar to match your workflow and optimal performance times. Implementing these tips will create space, increase productivity, and could even impact your overall wellbeing.

5 Ways To Get A Handle On Your Schedule

1. Define Days Or Blocks With No Meetings

For most virtual and hybrid teams, standing meetings fall on a consistent day of the week. We encourage you to create some dialogue with your team to set the standard for an “internal operations” day where you can cascade multiple internal meetings, leaving other days free to actually do the work that was discussed in those meetings. This only works if you block off the time on those meeting-free days to do the work. Think about adding some standing holds on your calendar. Maybe there is time to work on internal projects, client-facing projects, or even catching up on notifications and emails. Adding some structure to your non-meeting time will prevent people from popping into your calendar (or at least ask before they assume you are free) and create some organization in your mind. 

2. Take Advantage of Focus Time 

Both Google and Microsoft have put extra attention on creating some wellness metrics in your calendar. Microsoft’s Viva and Google’s Time Insights both have great analytics to tell you how much time you are spending in meetings. A feature that we absolutely love is the ability to add some “focus time” on days that are starting to fill up with meetings. By selecting a specific day of the week, this feature will create a period of time that can be automatically blocked out as “focus time” allowing you to catch up between calls. 

3. Integrate Your Calendars Into One Space

We are hearing more and more that virtual teams are allowing their members flexibility on what their work day looks like as long as the work is getting done and deadlines are being met. If you have control over your working hours, it may be good to integrate your personal calendar and work calendar into one view. Since Microsoft’s move to Office 365 it is easier than ever to import your Microsoft calendar into a personal Gmail calendar. Being able to see your personal and professional obligations can make it easier to identify overlaps prioritize accordingly.

4. Adjust Meetings To Organize “Like” Work

Ping-ponging between projects creates inefficiency, and we are firm believers there is no-such-thing as multi-tasking. Of course there will be days that deadlines dictate that you have to work on one project that may be completely unrelated to another, but one habit we encourage you to form is before the weekend, take a look at the following week and see if you can group some project work time so that you are working on similar work in an uninterrupted block. Finding flow and riding that wave can lead to faster work, and a higher quality of output.  

Meetings Aren’t Going Anywhere

With the adoption of Zoom, Teams, and Google Hangouts, meetings and huddles are easier than ever to pop-in and over-take your calendar. We hope that by implementing some of these tips you will be able to be in control of your schedule from week-to-week and be able to work a bit smarter, instead of harder.

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