Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to keep one calendar for both your
Speaker 1: work and personal life. If you can't do this, and
Speaker 1: I know there are many reasons people can't, then have
Speaker 1: at least one place where you can see both work
Speaker 1: and personal time specific commitments. Being able to see both
Speaker 1: massively increases the chances that you don't drop any balls
Speaker 1: that you'll feel terrible about dropping. So first I want
Speaker 1: to explain my calendar system. Even though I know there
Speaker 1: are many reasons this won't work for other people, I
Speaker 1: work for myself, so I actually keep a paper calendar.
Speaker 1: It's a weekly at a glance calendar that fits in
Speaker 1: my purse. I put any time specific commitments or need
Speaker 1: to know information on this calendar as soon as I
Speaker 1: know these dates. So I've marked the days my kids
Speaker 1: are off school in the fall, even though that school
Speaker 1: year is nowhere near starting yet. In the upcoming year
Speaker 1: section in the back, I marked our spring break. Our
Speaker 1: school district published this calendar. And even though I can
Speaker 1: assure you I'm not thinking much about the spring break,
Speaker 1: I know that most likely in the next few months.
Speaker 1: Someone will ask me about a date in March or
Speaker 1: April of next year. I'd hate to say sure, I'll
Speaker 1: give a speech then, and then find out it's right
Speaker 1: in the middle of our best opportunity for a family vacation.
Speaker 1: Another example, when I found out one of my children
Speaker 1: had a special school event in early June, I put
Speaker 1: it on the calendar and then chatted about it with
Speaker 1: my husband. I found out that he was going to
Speaker 1: be on a work trip then, so that raised the
Speaker 1: stakes for my being there. I know that he won't
Speaker 1: be able to go, so I made a note not
Speaker 1: to schedule over it unless something really really important came up.
Speaker 1: When people send me electronic calendar invites, I note these
Speaker 1: times in my paper calendar, and maybe just the person
Speaker 1: who sent the invite, so I can retrieve the details online.
Speaker 1: I'm generally not copying phone numbers and access codes in
Speaker 1: that paper calendar. But one of the reasons I like
Speaker 1: paper is that I can see at a glance if
Speaker 1: the day is getting too full. I also like to
Speaker 1: see if a day looks completely open. If it does
Speaker 1: or looks almost open, I might try to keep it
Speaker 1: open or transfer something out of that day. I love
Speaker 1: looking at white space on my calendar. Now I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people have to keep electronic calendars for work.
Speaker 1: It makes sense you're supposed to be able to give
Speaker 1: other people access so they can schedule meetings. Though I
Speaker 1: have to say this requirement is probably one of the
Speaker 1: leading causes of the proliferation of meetings in the corporate world.
Speaker 1: The fact that a time is open does not mean
Speaker 1: that you need or want to meet, or that a
Speaker 1: meeting would be the best use of that time. But
Speaker 1: that's a subject for a different episode. This one is
Speaker 1: about why you should have all your work in personal
Speaker 1: commitments in one place. And maybe some people see no
Speaker 1: reason for this. I mean they work very specific hours
Speaker 1: and basically never have personal commitments that would come up
Speaker 1: during these hours. Work is work, home is home, never
Speaker 1: the two She'll meet. For many of us, the work
Speaker 1: life integration is more the name of the game these days,
Speaker 1: and if you have a relatively flexible job, it's very
Speaker 1: frustrating to schedule a nice but not critical work event
Speaker 1: at a time when it turns out there's something you
Speaker 1: really did want to go do in your personal life.
Speaker 1: It may be complicated to extricate yourself, or you might
Speaker 1: not be able to and then you'll be kicking yourself.
Speaker 1: I call this an own goal situation in the game
Speaker 1: of work life balance. You'd like to avoid that. So,
Speaker 1: if you do need to keep an electronic calendar for work,
Speaker 1: how can you make sure you're seeing all your personal
Speaker 1: commitments to The most straightforward way is to just put
Speaker 1: your personal commitments on your work calendar. This is pretty
Speaker 1: much what my husband does. He notes when I'm gone overnight,
Speaker 1: so he's aware of this, and his assistant is aware
Speaker 1: that when he's awaking work travel arrangements he needs to
Speaker 1: take that in mind. He puts when he's supposed to
Speaker 1: pick up a kid somewhere, so he knows he needs
Speaker 1: to be back in time for that. He puts his
Speaker 1: and the kid's dental appointments that he covers and things
Speaker 1: like that. From what I gather, his perspective is that
Speaker 1: our lives are boring enough that there aren't real privacy
Speaker 1: concerns With this, his colleagues are aware that he has
Speaker 1: a family, and this also helps other people know that
Speaker 1: if they'd like to meet with him, certain times are
Speaker 1: better than others. Even if you do have more privacy concerns.
Speaker 1: You can always just put a code word on your
Speaker 1: calendar or just label things personal if you're pretty sure
Speaker 1: you won't forget what that means. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you're seeing a specialist for something that is really none
Speaker 1: of your colleagues business, that's how you can still make
Speaker 1: sure no one schedules you into something for that time
Speaker 1: unless there's a really good reason. Of course, some people
Speaker 1: can't access their work calendars at home, which creates a
Speaker 1: different issue. If you can't see your work schedule on
Speaker 1: the weekend and you're discussing who can do kid pick
Speaker 1: up during the week with your spouse when you're talking
Speaker 1: on a Sunday, well that's just not gonna work. When
Speaker 1: I ask my followers on Twitter for their suggestions for
Speaker 1: people who can't or don't want to keep everything on
Speaker 1: their work calendars, I got a lot of great ideas.
Speaker 1: Some people can import their work calendars into a Google
Speaker 1: calendar that they keep as their master life calendar. Some
Speaker 1: people use apps that allow them to import commitments from
Speaker 1: multiple places and then see all these commitments in one
Speaker 1: place on their phones. Fantastical two is one app that
Speaker 1: got a shout out for that. If an automatic solution
Speaker 1: isn't going to work. You might need to enter your
Speaker 1: work schedule manually into your personal calendar and then make
Speaker 1: notes on your work calendar of times where you can't
Speaker 1: be scheduled, but as much as possible, make sure you're
Speaker 1: aware of the whole landscape of time when you're making commitments.
Speaker 1: If you know your kid has a choir concert on
Speaker 1: a day when you're supposed to speak at a conference,
Speaker 1: then you can be empowered to request an early time
Speaker 1: slot and make it back in time for the concert.
Speaker 1: That feels like a work life win rather than one
Speaker 1: of those no one can have at all moments. You
Speaker 1: can't score that wind though, Unless you see the full
Speaker 1: picture of time. You are one person. You have one
Speaker 1: set of hours, and that's why I think it's worth
Speaker 1: trying to keep one calendar. If you need to keep
Speaker 1: an electronic calendar for work and have come up with
Speaker 1: a good way to make sure your work and personal
Speaker 1: commitments are reflected in one place, please let me know.
Speaker 1: You can email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media
Speaker 1: dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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