Declutter your calendar

Is it time to declutter your calendar? You calendar likely controls your work days – take that control back by decluttering. Many of us will find our days filled with endless meetings. How many times have people been grateful for meetings being cancelled so they actually have time to do their work? I’m sure we’ve all been there.

But, your calendar is within your control. You might not believe me, but try these approaches to managing your calendar and see if you are able to change your work.

Block out time

Blocking out your diary makes it much less likely that people will book over it. Most calendar programmes, like outlook, use your booked and free time to help people find good times for meetings. If you have other work planned it’s completely reasonable to book the time out. That way at least people are more likely to ask if it’s OK to book over it. And, actually, meetings aren’t always the most important thing. Sometimes the work needs to take precedence.

The other thing to block out is your lunch or break times. These are essential for you. They aren’t luxuries. You need breaks, you need to eat, drink and ideally see the outside world each day. You’ll be more productive and do better work if you look after yourself.

It can be useful to make this blocked out time private – in my experience people respect those times more.

Start meetings at 5 past

If you’re often in back to back meetings, this can be a great way to still be on time but have a few minutes between meetings to grab a drink or go for a wee without having to announce it to the next meeting as the reason you’re late.

Again, Outlook has a setting which can automatically do this for you each time you’re setting a meeting. Try agreeing it as an approach to try across your organisation or at least your team. You don’t lose productive time, only those few minutes when people are turning up late.

Ask for an agenda

If you’re invited to a meeting make sure you’ve asked for the agenda. If there isn’t one ask why you are being invited. This is the best way to make sure you are only going to meetings where you are the right person to be attending. It can also help you to know if there is value in more that one of your team attending or if one person can represent for all of you.

I have found that often when I ask what the purpose of the meeting is or for the agenda, those meetings are often cancelled because actually it was easy to resolve with a couple of emails or I actually wasn’t the right person to be attending.

Schedule time to check messages

You can also schedule in time to check messages at a couple of points through the day. This means you’ll be less likely to be distracted by your emails and instant messages during the meetings because you know you have dedicated time to look at them in your day. You can read more about how to declutter your inbox in my earlier article.

Be present in your meetings

If you’ve done all the above, you know that the meetings you are going to be going to are important. So, make sure you give them your full attention. If they are in person, close your laptop, put your phone away and use an old-fashioned note book for taking notes. Meeting online? Try switching off notifications. If you have two screens, consider switching off the second one so you only have the video call in front of you. For meetings on the phone, why not get up and stretch your legs while you talk?