A well-managed calendar helps ensure you’re being strategic, efficient, and effective with your time. This can benefit you in at least five ways:

1. Accomplishment

A well-managed calendar helps you achieve your key goals. Your calendar should reflect your highest priorities and ensure you have time to devote to your KPIs while also leaving time for your other responsibilities. Plus, the less time you spend scheduling and rescheduling meetings unnecessarily, the more time you have to make meaningful progress towards your bigger goals.

2. Efficiency

Spending time manually managing your calendar when certain tasks can be easily automated is akin to using an abacus when Excel exists. Highly effective people find efficiencies to get rid of busywork and focus on what only they can do. Automating calendar management also reduces errors and decision fatigue, which we’ll discuss in more detail later in the post.

3. Conscientiousness

A well-managed calendar ensures nothing falls through the cracks and no one ends up feeling slighted. Research shows that conscientious people tend to be better liked, and tend to be better employees. Improving your calendar management shows that you’re conscientious by ensuring that everyone you’re scheduling with has a pleasant experience and that you respect everyone’s time and schedule.

4. Communication

Studies have shown that good communication can make-or-break an organization’s effectiveness. Strong relationships between colleagues is similarly important. Making time for the meetings that matter ensures you’re doing the collaborating you need to do your job well. A well-managed calendar makes time for important meetings while also leaving room for the tasks you need to complete.

5. Record-keeping

A comprehensive, accurate calendar doubles as we record of who did what and when. This makes it way easier to look back and see what went well and what can be improved in the future. How can you know if you’re using your time wisely without good records of where your time went? A comprehensive, accurate calendar makes it much easier to track your time and improve your time management going forward.

Tips for improving your calendar management

There are tons of ways to find efficiencies in the way you manage your calendar. Here are four tips for improving your calendar management to consider trying today.

1. Prioritize your time slots

Your time is your most valuable resource. Does your calendar accurately reflect your top priorities? One way to evaluate whether you’re devoting the right amount of time to the right activities is to use an Action Priority Matrix. Use the matrix to score tasks, appointments, meetings, and anything else you might schedule based on their potential impact and then on the effort they require. Another way to prioritize your calendar is to regularly perform a lightweight calendar audit. This can help you:

-Understand the percentage of your time you’re spending in meetings

-Rate how essential your meetings are

-Identify opportunities to spend your time more effectively

 2. Protect your Focus Time

One thing everyone needs in their calendar is time to focus on important tasks. Our research showed that Engineering Managers saw more Focus Time positively impact productivity, speed, and revenue. Productivity gurus argue that deep, profitable work requires chunks of uninterrupted time that are at least two hours, preferably longer. Chunks shorter than two hours impose unnecessary switching costs. Make sure your calendar isn’t too packed with meetings to focus. Many companies use a No Meeting Day to help protect focus time.

Need help with your calendar management?