What does calendaring have to do with productivity? Imagine the typical small business owner pains. Overwhelm. Working all night. Not knowing what your next priority is. Feeling pulled in multiple directions as you try to tackle fulfilling all the roles. Marketing. Finance. Human Resources. Operations. Sales. Oh, and doing the actual client work!
All of these challenges can take a small business owner down the path to burnout. In some cases, it can even result in failed relationships. So, how can you manage the needs of your business vs. your need to have a life?
Calendaring
I have found that calendaring – blocking your calendar with what you are going to do when – is a great way to solve some of those challenges. You will find you are more productive, more focused, and more balanced.
Start by setting up a good digital calendar that can sync to your smartphone. I do most of my calendaring on my desktop computer, but having access to it on my smartphone enables me to make decisions on the fly and when I am not at my desk. I am a huge fan of Google Calendar because of the power and ubiquity of it. You can create multiple calendars within your Google Calendar for better organization. Plus, you can subscribe to other calendars, like family members’, teammates’ and “calendars of interest” (e.g., federal holidays, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey or Texas A&M football schedules).
I have 3 calendars that I regularly use – my personal one, my business one and another that is for my time blocking. Seeing them all in one view gives me an idea of what my day looks like. But, assigning different colors to them lets me know my flexibility.
Personal Obligations
The first thing you want to do on your calendar is block out your personal obligations. God, your family, and your health should be your priorities. If you are not taking care of yourself first, you will not have anything to give to your clients and your team. Take Sundays off. Make sure that gym visit is booked and that you are taking breaks for lunch. Go to your daughter’s soccer game. Block out time to work on your charity events. And don’t forget to walk the dog.
For me, managing a virtual business “starts” at 5:15 am. I calendar my morning routine. It is usually the same – morning readings, a few light chores, walking the dog (that’s exercise too!), breakfast, yoga, and shower. I set those up as separate tasks so that if something does have to shift to later in the day because of an early meeting, I can move it easily. Usually, I move into work mode around 8:30 am and have a 1/2-hour blocked for lunch. I “sign off” at 6 pm, because that’s when I cook dinner, spend time with my husband and our creatures, and do personal tasks like meal planning, etc. Of course, if an emergency arises or I get behind, I can tap into that time. But, if I have to do that, I do it intentionally and don’t make it a habit.
Repeating Business Tasks
The next thing to block is your regular business obligations. If you always go to a networking meeting on Thursday mornings, then that needs to be set up as a repeating event. Make sure you are blocking time for travel to and from the event.
What else do you do on a regular basis that you should block time for? Here are some examples:
- Payroll
- Blog writing
- Social media posting
- Responding to emails
- Invoicing (please do this at least monthly!)
- Managing your finances (bill paying, end of month books, etc.)
- Calendaring your work
Now, that last one raises an interesting question. Yes, you do have to plan to plan! I leave the last 15 minutes of each day for confirming the next day’s schedule. I do a 1/2 hour at the end of each week to plan the following week and the same at the end of each month for the next month. You can set that up quarterly and annually as well. Calendaring will give you freedom if you work in the structure. And you do have to actually work the structure.
Appointments
If you have meetings set up, they should be on your calendar and you should plan around them. Be sure to allow for drive time if they are onsite meetings. Additionally, if you are a work-from-home person, you might need to block time before all of that to make yourself a little more presentable than your typical virtual environment “look” – and that might go for video calls as well.
Additionally, the result of a call or an appointment usually needs to be noted. Give yourself some time after each call to transpose your notes, set up the tasks you agreed to complete, communicate back with the client and your team, and adjust your schedule to accommodate any promises you made.
Client Work
Continuing with the calendaring concept, block times into your calendar for when you are going to work on your client projects. Be sure to save your best focus times for the biggest challenges. Guestimate about how many hours each project will take and space out that time on your calendar. For example, if you think the consulting gig you just landed will be 40 hours of work throughout the month, block 2 hours per day (2 X 5 X 4 = 40). If you have promised a certain number of hours per week to a specific client, block those as well. Blocking out the number of hours you committed to each client allows you to see how much availability you have and prevents over promising. It will also give you a visual cue of when you have availability for the next project.
New Overwhelm
Sometimes, your initial calendaring setup results in a new level of overwhelm as you realize that you might not have enough hours in the day. There is every chance you have over-committed. You might need to reset some expectations with some of your clients. Some of your proactive tasks (marketing, blogging) might have to be put on a brief hold while you catch back up. But, as you get the hang of calendaring things out, you will start to be able to manage that overwhelm by setting better expectations, both personally and professionally. It also might be an eye-opener that you need to delegate more work.
Breaks
As you are calendaring, be sure to build some breaks into your day. You can’t sit for 8-hours straight. (Well, you might be able to, but it isn’t a good idea!) You need breaks to refresh your body and your mind to do better work. Minimally, make sure you have a short break for lunch. But don’t put your time blocks back-to-back.
Results of Structure
If you create structure and generally stick to a schedule, you will be more productive. I notice on days when I decide to skip pieces of my morning routine, I’m off for the whole day. But don’t structure yourself into stress. The beauty of having a plan is that you know what to do if you need to change it. Having all those blocks of time on my calendar allows you to move them and shift them – like a puzzle – into a schedule that works for you.
Sometimes I move them just because I don’t feel like doing what is scheduled at the time. For some calendar blocks, I’ll stick to the schedule like glue because I know I need the extra focus that structure allows. Procrastination can get the best of us too, but with the blocks set, you know the consequences if you procrastinate. You give yourself the opportunity to push those things off, but you are doing it intentionally.
Playing “Calendar Tetris” as I call it, allows an easy way to know what you’re choosing not to do and to move it to a time you can or prefer to do it. Be intentional. Be aware if you’ve pushed yourself too hard. And, don’t be afraid to say no, even to yourself.
This guest post is provided by Susan Fennema who is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos. It is a consultancy helping small business owners gain control of their lives through better processes, organization, and structure of their business operations and projects. She has over 30 years of experience in the software development, creative, marketing, and advertising industries. Susan has always had a passion – as a productivity geek and a natural ‘fixer’ – for making people feel better by increasing their overall efficiency and effectiveness. Eradicating chaos, and helping you see beyond the chaos, gives her the greatest reward.
