Time Management Strategies: Improve Your Calendar

By Sam Harbi

Posted November 22, 2018

In Medial Practice

Time Management Strategies: Improve Your Calendar

A quick look at someone’s calendar is – in large part – telling of how they manage their life, career or business.

The vast majority of the professional, business and corporate leaders who I work with have calendars that are:

– Fragmented

– Superficial

– Improvisational

Most calendars lack the precise planning that advances and aligns with the strategy of your business, department, organization or even life as a whole.

As one manager said:

“Each day I go into the office with some pre-planned actions and at the end of the day I have to regret that the various things I did are very different”

This what I call:

Mindless Busyness!

You see, creating and sticking to a proactive schedule will add more freedom to your life not less and will be one of the time management strategies you deploy.

Yeah- you read that right.

Every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it gets. Therefore, we must follow a process that incentivises us to behave in the way we want and makes it difficult for us to deviate from that path.

And believe me, I am not immune to this but I now put much more effect into ensuring that everything that is in my calendar has direct alignment to my monthly, quarterly and annual goals.

Our default state as humans is to be wildly distractible and impulsive. Therefore, when you’re creating your calendar, it is crucially important to focus on two things at any moment:

Intentionally maximizing work
Intentionally maximizing fun, relaxation and rejuvenation

And of course: without a clearly defined target, even the most effective person achieves nothing.

Big picture planning is insanely powerful and most professionals don’t do it at all.

You need to use what I call: [The Execution Calendar] where every daily task/ effort is linked to a yearly/ quarterly goal. Once you set your goals, you need to reverse-engineer what is required to achieve that specific goal. Reflect on your calendar every 2 to 3 months only.

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself every 2-3 months when you are reserve-engineering your calendar:

What are the 3 (yes I said 3 only not 70) priorities for the year?
What are your 5 most important initiatives/priorities for the next 3 months? Things like, implement eMR system, cut costs by 30%, hire new team, open new office, lose 20 pounds, improve on my delegation skills- personal and/or professional priorities.
At which time of the day are you most productive? (e.g., Do you get a lot done in the mornings, then have a lull after lunch?)
What should your weekly schedule look like in light of your quarterly and annual priorities?

Then plot, assign, review, rinse and repeat after 3 month, not before 3 months as it then becomes too tedious.

Now, things come up, and you might not be able to stick to this schedule every week. But you can and should guard it like a (kind) fire-breathing dragon—particularly your time for getting focused work done.

Here are some guiding principles for you to follow along.

Rule #1: Your life is a checkbook and you write a check every day.
Rule #2: You must see the macro before the micro.
Rule #3: To see the macro you need faith and an imagination.
Rule #4: If you are going to dream, dream big.
Rule #5: You must have a plan and it must be written down.
Rule #6: You must count the cost.
Rule #7: Positive negativity is key (you need a safe place to contemplate the downside).
Rule #8: Premeditated fun must be in your plan.
Rule #9: A unified team is the only way to succeed.

Remember: most successful billionaires and thought leaders not only reverse-engineer their calendar, they reverse-engineer their LIFE.

And for the love of God, please don’t check your emails first thing in the morning or sporadically throughout the day. This is, by far, the biggest distraction to your productivity. Turn that dreaded notification alert/sound off.