Quick Start to Power Using Your Calendar

Now that we’ve established the basic calendar to be every top performers’ secret weapon, we thought it’d be nice to create a quick start guide to power using your calendar. If we want to become top performers in any industry and top performers’ secret weapon is the calendar, wouldn’t it be wise to become a power user of the calendar? Next time you sit down to set your goals, consider these 3 quick and simple ways to power use the calendar to achieve your own self-defined success.


1.) Budgeting Time to Get it Done - Setting Reminders

It’s interesting how calendaring deadlines for our goals is common knowledge, but calendaring time to accomplish the tasks to achieve our goals is not. Just how not setting a financial budget for something necessary might cause there to be insufficient funds, not setting a time budget to get necessary tasks done also might cause a deficit in our resource of time. Whether it be a paper, digital, or wall calendar, setting reminders is a must.

Out of all the ways to set a reminder, setting a digital reminder to a calendar event is the most simple. Most platforms offer at least two additional alerts, aside from the actual calendar event. This type of reminder is the most simple because the user can set the reminders at the same moment the event is created.

The most practical way to use reminders to complete tasks on time in order to accomplish a greater goal is to estimate how long a give task will take, add a day or two if possible, and add it to your calendaring system. This act is just as important as the deadline itself.


2.) Calendar Pop-Ups are Your Friend - Syncing Paper with Digital

There seems to be this unsaid notion that the act of remembering to get things done on time  is done by only using one’s memory. Remembering is associated with memory, but remembering to get things done on time is not the same thing. When someone sets a large goal with many sub-goals leading to a desired result, that person will need to get things done on time. That need is met by syncing plans to a digital calendar.


3.) Measure Twice, Cut Once - Implementing Goals into Your Calendar

When I think about setting goals, the old carpentry proverb, “Measure twice, cut once,” comes to mind. The phrase literally meant that one must measure a material twice to avoid wasting time and resources. We can use that type of thinking for successfully setting goals. If we use our planner calendars for their exact purpose, planning, we make it possible for ourselves to measure once. By calendaring appropriate deadlines for our goals into our planner calendar, wall calendar, and digital calendars, we make it possible for ourselves to measure a second time. The idea is simple. Pick a multi-step goal, choose a doable deadline for the goal, and spread out the tasks throughout your calendaring system for the set time. This practice sets in place a strong foundation for success in achieving goals by preparing decisions regarding your goals in advance. By measuring twice and cutting once, we are preventatively protecting ourselves from decision fatigue, resulting in higher performance.

If the key to getting the big things in life is remembering to do a bunch of the little things in life, what systems have you put in place to remember the little things?