Scheduling Productivity Tips for Solo Entrepreneurs (and maybe others too)
By M Dorsett
When someone asks you what you’re doing later, do you immediately whip out your phone to check your calendar? #alsome. I truly live by my calendar, if it’s not on that thing, it likely is not happening or being remembered.
Que joke: “My dependency is so heavy, there are times when I have to check my own calendar just to see what I did earlier the same day.” 😂 Some say that I have a memory problem, some say I’m truly living in the moment.
Regardless of your opinion of my calendars dominion over my day to day activities, if you’re interested in improving your own schedule organization, I’m sharing some rules of thumb that I apply. I hope you find them helpful. I’ve listed them below in no particular order of importance, and gone into detail for each.
- Schedule only 30 minute meetings
- Leave 30 minute gaps between meetings
- Always leave time for food
- Take all meetings one day of the week
- Batch repeat tasks per day
- Stop asking people to put time on your calendar
- Always confirm meetings for the day in the morning
- Do things remotely whenever possible
- Leave your mornings open and maximize your nights
Rule numero uno:
Schedule only 30 minute meetings. During my tenure at LivePerson Inc. I had the pleasure of working with several excellent managers. One of them was Craig Condon Siegal. I was in a new position and was having trouble getting my colleagues to accept my meeting requests. This was delaying my projects because I couldn't get feedback or loop in other parties.
Craig took a look and advised me that I should try scheduling 30 minute meetings instead of an hour. This helped a lot! Think about it. Do you really need to meet with people for an hour?
In 30 minutes I’m able to catch up and connect with the person or people I’m meeting…
