It’s no secret that we love calendars, organization and polls at Doodle. We believe that professionals, individuals, students and anyone in-between should use a calendar and take advantage of management tools to achieve success. Let’s take a look at what calendar management is and how management tools can help you achieve optimal organization.
The Definition
Calendar management is the process of prioritizing your time and managing your life through the use of a calendar. While this is an essential cognitive skill that is a necessity amongst business people and most individuals, only few have mastered it. Whether you’re interested in old-fashioned paper calendars, digital calendar helpers or anything in between, you accomplish your goals when you find a system that works for you. time management is optimized when your calendar is properly managed. True calendar management is based on planning your calendar accordingly as well as understanding your time and how best to spend it.
The Benefits of Calendar Management Tools
Using efficient calendar organization techniques will ensure you’re well-managed, strategic and effective throughout both business and casual days. If you get the technique right, the benefits of newfound insight, collaboration and organization will be endless. Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of effectively managing a calendar with efficient tools:
Organization - Optimal management gives you complete control, allowing you to keep the engines running at top speeds. Whether you’re an administrative professional, executive assistant, CEO or stay-at-home parent who is the president of your kids cookie baking club, you need a calendar. Missing appointments and forgetting deadlines is a frustrating and all too commonunnecessary part of life.
Collaboration - Effortlessly planning meetings and events with a seamless calendar helper makes collaboration a walk in the park! Allocate time with a few or dozens of people with just a few clicks while you maintain strong professional andor casual relationships with your participants. Double booking, missing meetings or overlooking opportunities is a thing of the past when you practice proper calendar management.
Achievement - Using calendar helper tools will ensure all of your key goals are properly prioritized allowing you to pursue higher levels of achievement without neglecting your other responsibilities. Properly prioritize long-term and short-term goals while using a functional calendar that is specifically tailored to you and all of the things you want to achieve.
Efficiency - When you establish a systematic process you unlock doors for time-saving possibilities. Every minute you waste wishing you were organized is a minute that could have gone towards your success. We’re not saying you have to tediously plan every single second of your day to be successful. However, we are definitely encouraging you to have allocated blocks of time for working, fitness, appointments and other important aspects of life.
Business Insight - Calendar management is not just about today, tomorrow and early next week. Calendars provide you with a true record of your time during the past, present and future. Understanding where your time was spent and the purpose of the expense helps you to become better organized and efficient for future purposes and goals.
Best Practices for Calendar Management
Now that you know the definition and benefits, let’s take a look at the best practices for calendar management using calendar helper tools:
Use calendars for everything - While calendars are commonly used for meetings and events, they can be used for much more. Use your calendar to keep track of all of your scheduling needs such as deadlines, time off and reminders. Using calendars to allocate time for brainstorming, exercise, self-care days and other personal plans is just as much of a necessity as using your calendar for your weekly meetings.
Design a coding system - We personally believe that colors, highlighters, stickers and other calendar helper tools are made just for calendars. Of course we are biased, but facts are facts! Create a coding system that will work best for you and your needs. Make color selections to organize reminders, travel plans, recurring meetings, internal business operations obligations, client appointments and more. Best of all, in today’s world, digital calendars also come equipped with numerous organizational tools that are easily accessible.
Set up multiple time zones - If you have international business relationships, you probably work with people in different time zones. Make planning easy by coordinating everyone's schedules within their relevant time zones. You never want your meeting or event participants to be excluded because they live elsewhere. Ensure everyone is available at the best times with just a few clicks.
Allocate time - While often overlooked, allocating time specifically for calendar management is one of the most important steps to operating a successful calendar. Allocate time to organize your daily, weekly and monthly planners.
Integrate - It simply doesn’t make sense for one person to have multiple calendars - it’s not efficient in any way. Integrate your favorite calendars with your calendar helpers to ensure seamless time scheduling and planning across all platforms. We also think it’s important to note that there isn’t a need to be afraid of merging personal and business calendars in one place.
Save time - With user-friendly software, coordinating time between dozens of colleagues can be done within just a few minutes. All you have to do is create your poll with multiple time options and allow your participants to choose a time that will best for them and their schedule. Just like that, you’ll be able to plan any meeting or event at a time that you know everyone will be available.
Get started with Doodle today!
Coordinate schedules with dozens of people, plan events, collect opinions and more with Doodle! We are proud of the fact that our calendar management software is popular amongst both the professional and personal worlds. If you’re looking to organize your schedule and boost productivity within your daily life, create a Doodle today!