If your business has you constantly moving, it can be difficult to find the time to maintain your calendar, confirm appointments and set reminders. And that can lead to unintentional blunders or embarrassing mistakes. But with just a little advance planning, you can make the time for everything you need to do – including precious personal time!
I’ve compiled a quick list of helpful tips so you will never miss an appointment or feel bad about a change of plans again.
1. Block off enough time for all tasks. Have you ever been in the situation where a particular task takes way longer than you planned and it throws off your whole day, week, or delays the entire project? A good rule of thumb is to deliberately budget some contingency time into each task. Ten percent is a safe bet, and round up to the closest ten minutes. So if you think a project will take an hour, budget 70 minutes total. For a four-hour project, budget an extra 25 or 30 minutes. If you don’t use all the time, you have that much more free space for other activities!
2. Prioritize your tasks according to your goals. Don’t waste time doing tasks that are unimportant and/or not urgent. Look at each task with careful scrutiny and schedule the most important and urgent tasks or meetings first.
3. Use all the functionality in your electronic calendar or email system. Many of these programs have features that will let you send yourself reminders of important meetings, deadlines, or opportunities. Take advantage of these and you won’t miss anything.
4. Remember that you own your calendar, not the other way around. Sometimes things come up and you need to cancel meetings or reschedule projects. It’s not the end of the world – you are the master of your own time. If you need to delete something, don’t waste your own time feeling badly about it. Just do it!
Do scheduling, time management, and calendar organization make you miserable or annoyed? Your Virtual Assistant can manage your schedule/calendar, confirm appointments, and send reminders to you via email.
Contact me now to talk about how I can take this chore off your plate!
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