Calendar
The calendar is the most basic and essential organizational tool. If you use your calendar properly, you will always be on time, you will never double book yourself, you will never miss a deadline or obligation, and you will always be prepared.
Simply commit to 3 things:
Put everything into your calendar right away
Use alerts
Check your calendar weekly and daily
Punctuality and meeting deadlines are more significant than often perceived. Dependability forms the bedrock of trust, which is pivotal in business relationships. Consistently meeting commitments bolsters your trust and reputation. However, tardiness erodes trust and is disrespectful, causing resentment. Be fanatical about being on time and hitting deadlines.
Proper calendar use ensures you are always on time and hit your deadlines because you’ll always know what you have coming up, and you’ll always be alerted to what you have to do in time to prepare to do it.
In the Happiful system, the 3 things that drive your day are your Calendar, your Daily Commitments Checklist, and your Happiful Planner. That’s how you live your life proactively, not reactively. Most people let their incoming emails, texts, and phone calls determine their day. Those people are living reactively and will never make forward progress in their lives.
Computerized calendars are vastly superior to paper counterparts, with invaluable benefits like alerts and recurrences. And since it’s on your phone, your computer and your tablet, you probably have it with you at all times.
Next, we’ll provide the specifics on how to properly use your calendar. While Google Calendar serves as the example, these guidelines apply to any digital calendar.
Use a single calendar to prevent scheduling conflicts that will arise if you try to keep separate work and personal calendars.
Recurring events should be inputted once with the appropriate recurrence settings. Google Calendar accommodates almost any recurrence, like the first Tuesday or every 10 days.
For alerts, although the default is 10 minutes ahead of time, Google lets you put in as many different alerts as you want. So be thoughtful about what alert is appropriate for that event. If you have a big meeting that’s a 30 minute drive away and needs preparation time, you might want to set one alert for a day ahead of time so you can prepare; another alert 2 hours ahead of time so you can wrap up whatever you’re working on and get ready; and another one 45 minutes ahead of time so you can make sure you’re on time or early.
Send Calendar Invitations for all calls, meetings, and events, ensuring that the other person has the right date, time, and meeting method in their Calendar. This is particularly valuable for interactions spanning time zones. You want to be 100% consistent in sending calendar invitations; I do it even if I’ve agreed by text to have a call in 30 minutes.
Google Calendar also simplifies scheduling with frequent contacts, enabling instant access to mutual availability and effortless meeting invitations.
For those often arranging meetings, consider Calendly, a tool costing around $10 per month. Calendly allows others to book meetings based on your availability and pre-set rules. Sharing the appropriate link presents compatible time slots, reducing scheduling back and forth.
So to summarize the rules for using your calendar:
Everything with a day or time goes in immediately
With proper recurrences
With proper alerts
With Calendar Invitations if a call or meeting
You review your Calendar every weekend to see what’s coming up during the week, which is part of the Weekly Planning Process
You review your Calendar every day to see what’s coming up the next day; which is part of your Daily Planning Process
If you follow this, then you will never again miss a date or deadline, be late, or be unprepared.