How Do I Get Control of My Calendar?
This week's question from “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.
Iβve let my calendar get the best of me. My to-do tasks get filled in around whatever open space I have. I get drawn into answering emails that seem important in the moment, but theyβre not. How can I anchor my day?
How do you and David manage your calendars? Do you have a to-do list? Do you segment your day, based on what youβre doing that day?
First of all, youβre not a victim to your calendar. You create your calendar. Youβre in control of it.
You can create your days however you want to create them.
David and I manage our calendars differently, in a way that suits our personalities. We time-block some things, and donβt time-block other things.
For David, Mondays are usually podcast recordings and research days. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are TEM90 and coaching calls. Thursdays and Fridays, we schedule our VIP days, our custom VIP days, or any travel.
For me, itβs a bit more complicated, because I have more small things that I do on a daily basis.
What Iβm hearing in your question is that youβve got a real problem keeping boundaries around your calendar, and with what you say youβre going to do.
With email, you have to decide when youβre going to answer email. Thatβs all that matters. I donβt care if something seems urgentβitβs not.
Thereβs nothing that canβt wait 90 minutes, 2 hours, or even 3 hours. You donβt need to respond.
Itβs a trick of your subconscious mind designed to completely distract you and keep you from doing the things you say youβre going to do.
That just takes discipline. Tell yourself, βIβm going to answer my email at this time of day and this time of dayβand thatβs enough.β
It always is enough. Thereβs nothing that canβt wait.
If you have a team and something urgent pops up, or somethingβs bleeding or on fire, then give your team access to you through text, so they can message you in case of emergencies, rather than email you. That will take care of the need to constantly check email.
You can also set up clear boundaries with your clients. If you email me or David on Friday, you wonβt get an answer until after the weekend, because thereβs so much going on on Friday.
Part of that is communicating boundaries with your clients about when they can expect a response from you.
Everything that goes into your calendar should be purposeful, and reverse-engineered from where you want to go.
The βbig rocksβ go on my calendar firstβtravel, big family events, holidays, vacations.
Next, any midsized things (like trainings) go on the calendar.
Finally, I break each of those down into what needs to happen to get to those end results. I put those tasks on my calendar.
Everything I do is reverse-engineered from where I want us to be, by when.
I do have a to do list. (It helps keep my brain straight.) I usually only have three things on it that I absolutely must get done that day.
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