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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to keep one calendar for both your

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Speaker 1: work and personal life. If you can't do this, and

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Speaker 1: I know there are many reasons people can't, then have

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Speaker 1: at least one place where you can see both work

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Speaker 1: and personal time specific commitments. Being able to see both

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Speaker 1: massively increases the chances that you don't drop any balls

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Speaker 1: that you'll feel terrible about dropping. So first I want

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Speaker 1: to explain my calendar system. Even though I know there

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Speaker 1: are many reasons this won't work for other people, I

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Speaker 1: work for myself, so I actually keep a paper calendar.

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Speaker 1: It's a weekly at a glance calendar that fits in

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Speaker 1: my purse. I put any time specific commitments or need

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Speaker 1: to know information on this calendar as soon as I

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Speaker 1: know these dates. So I've marked the days my kids

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Speaker 1: are off school in the fall, even though that school

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Speaker 1: year is nowhere near starting yet. In the upcoming year

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Speaker 1: section in the back, I marked our spring break. Our

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Speaker 1: school district published this calendar. And even though I can

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Speaker 1: assure you I'm not thinking much about the spring break,

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Speaker 1: I know that most likely in the next few months.

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Speaker 1: Someone will ask me about a date in March or

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Speaker 1: April of next year. I'd hate to say sure, I'll

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Speaker 1: give a speech then, and then find out it's right

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Speaker 1: in the middle of our best opportunity for a family vacation.

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Speaker 1: Another example, when I found out one of my children

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Speaker 1: had a special school event in early June, I put

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Speaker 1: it on the calendar and then chatted about it with

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Speaker 1: my husband. I found out that he was going to

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Speaker 1: be on a work trip then, so that raised the

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Speaker 1: stakes for my being there. I know that he won't

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Speaker 1: be able to go, so I made a note not

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Speaker 1: to schedule over it unless something really really important came up.

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Speaker 1: When people send me electronic calendar invites, I note these

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Speaker 1: times in my paper calendar, and maybe just the person

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Speaker 1: who sent the invite, so I can retrieve the details online.

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Speaker 1: I'm generally not copying phone numbers and access codes in

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Speaker 1: that paper calendar. But one of the reasons I like

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Speaker 1: paper is that I can see at a glance if

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Speaker 1: the day is getting too full. I also like to

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Speaker 1: see if a day looks completely open. If it does

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Speaker 1: or looks almost open, I might try to keep it

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Speaker 1: open or transfer something out of that day. I love

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Speaker 1: looking at white space on my calendar. Now I know

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Speaker 1: a lot of people have to keep electronic calendars for work.

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Speaker 1: It makes sense you're supposed to be able to give

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Speaker 1: other people access so they can schedule meetings. Though I

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Speaker 1: have to say this requirement is probably one of the

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Speaker 1: leading causes of the proliferation of meetings in the corporate world.

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Speaker 1: The fact that a time is open does not mean

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Speaker 1: that you need or want to meet, or that a

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Speaker 1: meeting would be the best use of that time. But

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Speaker 1: that's a subject for a different episode. This one is

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Speaker 1: about why you should have all your work in personal

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Speaker 1: commitments in one place. And maybe some people see no

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Speaker 1: reason for this. I mean they work very specific hours

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Speaker 1: and basically never have personal commitments that would come up

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Speaker 1: during these hours. Work is work, home is home, never

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Speaker 1: the two She'll meet. For many of us, the work

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Speaker 1: life integration is more the name of the game these days,

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Speaker 1: and if you have a relatively flexible job, it's very

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Speaker 1: frustrating to schedule a nice but not critical work event

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Speaker 1: at a time when it turns out there's something you

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Speaker 1: really did want to go do in your personal life.

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Speaker 1: It may be complicated to extricate yourself, or you might

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Speaker 1: not be able to and then you'll be kicking yourself.

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Speaker 1: I call this an own goal situation in the game

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Speaker 1: of work life balance. You'd like to avoid that. So,

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Speaker 1: if you do need to keep an electronic calendar for work,

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Speaker 1: how can you make sure you're seeing all your personal

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Speaker 1: commitments to The most straightforward way is to just put

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Speaker 1: your personal commitments on your work calendar. This is pretty

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Speaker 1: much what my husband does. He notes when I'm gone overnight,

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Speaker 1: so he's aware of this, and his assistant is aware

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Speaker 1: that when he's awaking work travel arrangements he needs to

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Speaker 1: take that in mind. He puts when he's supposed to

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Speaker 1: pick up a kid somewhere, so he knows he needs

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Speaker 1: to be back in time for that. He puts his

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Speaker 1: and the kid's dental appointments that he covers and things

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Speaker 1: like that. From what I gather, his perspective is that

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Speaker 1: our lives are boring enough that there aren't real privacy

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Speaker 1: concerns With this, his colleagues are aware that he has

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Speaker 1: a family, and this also helps other people know that

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Speaker 1: if they'd like to meet with him, certain times are

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Speaker 1: better than others. Even if you do have more privacy concerns.

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Speaker 1: You can always just put a code word on your

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Speaker 1: calendar or just label things personal if you're pretty sure

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Speaker 1: you won't forget what that means. So, for instance, if

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Speaker 1: you're seeing a specialist for something that is really none

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Speaker 1: of your colleagues business, that's how you can still make

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Speaker 1: sure no one schedules you into something for that time

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Speaker 1: unless there's a really good reason. Of course, some people

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Speaker 1: can't access their work calendars at home, which creates a

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Speaker 1: different issue. If you can't see your work schedule on

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Speaker 1: the weekend and you're discussing who can do kid pick

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Speaker 1: up during the week with your spouse when you're talking

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Speaker 1: on a Sunday, well that's just not gonna work. When

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Speaker 1: I ask my followers on Twitter for their suggestions for

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Speaker 1: people who can't or don't want to keep everything on

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Speaker 1: their work calendars, I got a lot of great ideas.

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Speaker 1: Some people can import their work calendars into a Google

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Speaker 1: calendar that they keep as their master life calendar. Some

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Speaker 1: people use apps that allow them to import commitments from

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Speaker 1: multiple places and then see all these commitments in one

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Speaker 1: place on their phones. Fantastical two is one app that

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Speaker 1: got a shout out for that. If an automatic solution

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Speaker 1: isn't going to work. You might need to enter your

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Speaker 1: work schedule manually into your personal calendar and then make

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Speaker 1: notes on your work calendar of times where you can't

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Speaker 1: be scheduled, but as much as possible, make sure you're

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Speaker 1: aware of the whole landscape of time when you're making commitments.

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Speaker 1: If you know your kid has a choir concert on

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Speaker 1: a day when you're supposed to speak at a conference,

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Speaker 1: then you can be empowered to request an early time

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Speaker 1: slot and make it back in time for the concert.

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Speaker 1: That feels like a work life win rather than one

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Speaker 1: of those no one can have at all moments. You

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Speaker 1: can't score that wind though, Unless you see the full

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Speaker 1: picture of time. You are one person. You have one

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Speaker 1: set of hours, and that's why I think it's worth

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Speaker 1: trying to keep one calendar. If you need to keep

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Speaker 1: an electronic calendar for work and have come up with

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Speaker 1: a good way to make sure your work and personal

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Speaker 1: commitments are reflected in one place, please let me know.

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Speaker 1: You can email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.

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Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. All a