Never give room for anybody to take over your plans from you. It’s straightforward and self-evident, yet the most genius thing to do.
In the past few years, at whatever point I didn’t follow this counsel, I was immensely stressed and ineffective. Gradually, I discovered that making adequate planning and following the plan has a tremendous effect on what do, feel and achieve. Here are some of the many things that assist me with dealing with my schedules that you may discover thoughtful:
Create A Routine:
Regardless of what you are really going after, make a daily schedule. Ensure you make blockings for all your activities of the day and religiously follow through. Make several blocks out of your calendar and insert the right tasks in the right blocks of the calendar. The aim is that whatever you have not created time for in your calendar blocks will not be done, if you want to take some time to rest, put it in your plans and stick to it strictly
It doesn’t mean you should not be flexible with your plans but at every moment of your activities, there has to be a thought and plan behind it. Take, for instance, you are a chef and you want to get your ingredients, arrange your dishes, brief your staff, contact suppliers, speak with your social media manager, and all, then, you will essentially have to have plans for all of these activities, this way, you will ensure that every activity has its allotted time, hence, you will be relieved of unnecessary stress. a calendar app like Google calendar will help a whole lot.
Group Meetings And Calls Into Blocks:
Take for instance, if there be a need for you to hold meetings with clients outside of your office space, make a block of two days per week for all of those meetings and ensure you stick to that plan as strictly as possible. Repeat the same method for your in-house meetings. Similar blocks will be created for your own personal admin and management role. Making calls, replying to emails, meeting guests, attending to customers, and some other activity that you might have on your to-do list must also be properly blocked in your calendar.
Optimize Time For Different Meeting Types:
This is somewhat similar to the previous point but a bit deeper. You want to allot time to every meeting that you must have most especially for executives that hold meetings a lot. You can also decide the days of the week you want to make the bulk of your phone calls, for me, Friday is always a good time to make most business calls, this helps us to prepare for the coming week ahead.
These are some of the types of meetings you might want to keep in your calendar blocks:
- 15-minute phone conversation with someone or catch up
- 60-minute meeting outside of your business space. Allow 20 minutes for inter-city transport.
- A 10-minute call to someone who wants your advice etc.
Use Appointment Slots:
Google calendar has one amazing feature called “Appointment Slots”. This feature allows you to book a time and then you can split the time into many pieces. Take, for instance, let us assume you book 4 hours of meeting outside of your office space, you can then probably split that into meetings with your potentials. You can also book 2 hours of the call and split this time between 8 different people.
One useful tool that can help you flawlessly carry out this task is bit.ly. you can create different links for different blocks of time and share them among everyone you have an appointment with, they receive the links and accept the time allotment. This drastically reduces the amount of time you spend back and forth sending emails. You will also be saving yourself a whole lot of time and you will be able to have enough time to rest as you might have scheduled.
Well, not everyone will get the reason why you are trying to create links for meetings, some people might actually find this act rude, so, it might not just work for everybody. Should this be the case, use your regular traditional ways of making time appointments but ensure that you do this in accordance with your schedules.
Also, you might want to create alternative times if you are asking someone to meet with you. You can two different options such as Thursday at 1:30 p.m. or Friday at 4:30p.m
Plan Your Exercise And Family Time:
If you don’t put it in your calendar, it won’t be done, I’m talking about scheduling having a nice time with your family or walking out. Regardless of whether you walk out in the morning, afternoon, or evening, the point is, you must have it scheduled in your calendar either every day or three to two times a week.
We can also say the same thing for making out plans to spend time with your family members. Hey, I know you are a workaholic like me but don’t end up stealing the significant time you are supposed to have with your family from them. This can however be difficult for you to do if you don’t have that planned out in your schedule ahead. You should always pay close attention to your time, how and where you spend it.
Personally, I have taken control over my plans and schedules and I fully own them. Planning your days or weeks ahead can make you a happier and more productive person.
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