Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to keep one calendar for both your work
Speaker 1: and personal life. If you can't do this, and I
Speaker 1: know there are many reasons people can't, then have at
Speaker 1: least one place where you can see both work and
Speaker 1: personal time specific commitments. Being able to see both massively
Speaker 1: increases the chances that you don't drop any balls that
Speaker 1: you'll feel terrible about dropping. So first I want to
Speaker 1: explain my calendar system. Even though I know there are
Speaker 1: many reasons this won't work for other people, I work
Speaker 1: for myself, so I actually keep a paper calendar. It's
Speaker 1: a weekly at a glance calendar that fits in my purse.
Speaker 1: I put any time specific commitments or need to know
Speaker 1: information on this calendar as soon as I know these dates.
Speaker 1: So I've marked the days my kids are off school
Speaker 1: in the fall, even though that school year is nowhere
Speaker 1: near starting it. In the upcoming year section in the back,
Speaker 1: I marked our twenty twenty spring break. Our school district
Speaker 1: published this calendar.
Speaker 2: And even though I can assure you I'm not thinking
Speaker 2: much about the twenty twenty spring break. I know that
Speaker 2: most likely in the next few months, someone will ask
Speaker 2: me about a date in March or April of next year.
Speaker 2: I'd hate to say sure, I'll give a speech then
Speaker 2: and then find out it's right in the middle of
Speaker 2: our best opportunity for a family vacation. Another example, when
Speaker 2: I found out one of my children had a special
Speaker 2: school event in early June, I put it on the
Speaker 2: calendar and then chatted about it with my husband. I
Speaker 2: found out that he was going to be on a
Speaker 2: work trip then, so that raised the stakes for my
Speaker 2: being there. I know that he won't be able to go,
Speaker 2: so I made a note not to schedule over it
Speaker 2: unless something really really important came up.
Speaker 1: When people send.
Speaker 2: Me electronic calendar invites, I note these times in my
Speaker 2: paper calendar, and maybe just the person who sent the invite,
Speaker 2: so I can retrieve the details online. I'm generally not
Speaker 2: copying phone numbers and access codes in that paper calendar.
Speaker 2: But one of the reasons I like paper is that
Speaker 2: I can see at a glance if the day is
Speaker 2: getting too full. I also like to see if a
Speaker 2: day looks completely open. If it does or looks almost open,
Speaker 2: I might try to keep it open or transfer something
Speaker 2: out of that day. I love looking at white space
Speaker 2: on my calendar. Now I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: have to keep electronic calendars for work. It makes sense
Speaker 2: you're supposed to be able to give other people access
Speaker 2: so they can schedule meetings. Though I have to say
Speaker 2: this requirement is probably one of the leading causes of
Speaker 2: the proliferation of meetings in the corporate world. The fact
Speaker 2: that a time is open does not mean that you
Speaker 2: need or want to meet, or that a meeting would
Speaker 2: be the best use of that time. But that's a
Speaker 2: subject for a different episode. This one is about why
Speaker 2: you should have all your work in personal commitments in
Speaker 2: one place, and maybe some people see no reason for this.
Speaker 2: I mean they work very specific hours and basically never
Speaker 2: have personal commitments that would come up during these hours.
Speaker 2: Work is work, home is home.
Speaker 1: Never the two shall meet.
Speaker 2: For many of us, though, work life integration is more
Speaker 2: the name of the game these days. If you have
Speaker 2: a relatively flexible job, it's very frustrating to schedule a
Speaker 2: nice but not critical work event at a time when
Speaker 2: it turns out there's something you really did want to
Speaker 2: go do in your personal life. It may be complicated
Speaker 2: to extricate yourself, or you might not be able to
Speaker 2: and then you'll be kicking yourself. I call this an
Speaker 2: own goal situation in the game of work life balance.
Speaker 1: You'd like to avoid that. So, if you do need to.
Speaker 2: Keep an electronic calendar for work, how can you make
Speaker 2: sure you're seeing all your personal commitments too. The most
Speaker 2: straightforward way is to just put your personal commitments on
Speaker 2: your work calendar. This is pretty much what my husband does.
Speaker 2: He notes when I'm gone overnight, so he's aware of this,
Speaker 2: and his assistant is aware that when he's awaking work
Speaker 2: travel arrangements he needs to take that in mind.
Speaker 1: He puts when he's supposed to pick up.
Speaker 2: A kid somewhere, so he knows he needs to be
Speaker 2: back in time for that. He puts his and the
Speaker 2: kid's dental appointments that he covers and things like that.
Speaker 2: From what I gather, his perspective is that our lives
Speaker 2: are boring enough that there aren't real privacy concerns. With this,
Speaker 2: his colleagues are aware that he has a family, and
Speaker 2: this also helps other people know that if they'd like
Speaker 2: to meet with him, certain times are better than others.
Speaker 2: Even if you do have more privacy concerns, You can
Speaker 2: always just put a code word on your calendar or
Speaker 2: just label things personal if you're pretty sure you won't
Speaker 2: forget what that means. So, for instance, if you're seeing
Speaker 2: a specialist for something that is really none of your
Speaker 2: colleagues's business, that's how you could still make sure no
Speaker 2: one schedules you into something for that time unless there's
Speaker 2: a really good reason. Of course, some people can't access
Speaker 2: their work calendars at home, which creates a different issue.
Speaker 2: If you can't see your work schedule on the weekend
Speaker 2: and you're discussing who can do kid pick up during
Speaker 2: the week with your spouse when you're talking out a Sunday, well,
Speaker 2: that's just not going to work. When I ask my
Speaker 2: followers on Twitter for their suggestions for people who can't
Speaker 2: or don't want to keep everything on their work calendars,
Speaker 2: I got a lot of great ideas. Some people can
Speaker 2: import their work calendars into a Google calendar that they
Speaker 2: keep as their master life calendar. Some people use apps
Speaker 2: that allow them to import commitments from multiple places and
Speaker 2: then see all these commitments in one place on their phones.
Speaker 2: Fantastical two is one app that got a shout out
Speaker 2: for that. If an automatic solution isn't going to work,
Speaker 2: you might need to enter your work schedule manually into
Speaker 2: your personal calendar and then make notes on your work
Speaker 2: calendar of times where you can't be scheduled, But as
Speaker 2: much as possible, make sure you're aware of the whole
Speaker 2: landscape of time when you're making commitments. If you know
Speaker 2: your kid has a choire concert on a day when
Speaker 2: you're supposed to speak at a conference, then you can
Speaker 2: be empowered to request an early time slot and make
Speaker 2: it back in time for the concert. That feels like
Speaker 2: a work life win rather than one of those no
Speaker 2: one can have at all moments. You can't score that
Speaker 2: win though, Unless you see the full picture of time,
Speaker 2: you are one person. You have one set of hours,
Speaker 2: and that's why I think it's worth trying to keep
Speaker 2: one calendar. If you need to keep an electronic calendar
Speaker 2: for work and have come up with a good way
Speaker 2: to make sure your work and personal commitments are reflected
Speaker 2: in one place, please let me know. You can email
Speaker 2: me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In
Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 2: to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
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