If you're like me, you probably consider your work calendar an indispensable tool for productivity. I've found it incredibly helpful for organising my day, booking meetings, and even understanding my colleagues’ availability. While AI has significantly transformed the way we use calendars, making scheduling smarter and more efficient, there are still some timeless tricks that can help you maximise productivity. Here are my top tips:
1. Block Focus Time
If you're into productivity, you've likely come across the idea of blocking focus time. I first discovered this strategy while browsing a colleague's calendar for a meeting slot.😏 They had reserved specific periods as "focus time."
Later, when I delved into productivity videos, this concept truly resonated with me. A key takeaway was the idea of reserving time for specific tasks to ensure you'll complete them. These videos offer great insights(if you are into productivity, you might already watch his videos):
If you're a project or product manager, or if your role involves a lot of meetings, blocking focus time can prevent others from scheduling over your dedicated work periods. It ensures you have time to tackle essential tasks outside of meetings.
2. Create Reminders with Calendar Invites
This tip builds on the first but serves a slightly different purpose. If you're someone who relies on a daily to-do list, you'll love this approach. For recurring tasks, like project reports or monthly deliverables, I block 15 minutes at 9:30 AM as a placeholder. While I don't necessarily work on the task at that time, it serves as a helpful visual reminder when I check my calendar.
3. Use Calendar Invites for Holidays
In large organisations, it can be challenging for everyone to keep track of each other's time off. To address this, I create calendar invites for my holiday periods and share them with colleagues. This is especially useful when working with external clients or third-party vendors who might not have visibility into your calendar. It's also an effective way to communicate your working hours if you're remote or in a different time zone. i.e. create a specific time block 2pm-6pm and put title 'PM off ')
4. Categorise Events with Colours
As someone working in consultancy and managing multiple projects, I find it helpful to use colour-coding. Assigning different labels or colours to projects, tasks, and meetings helps me understand how my time is distributed at a glance. For example:
Project A: Blue
Project B: Green
Personal tasks: Yellow
Doctor appointments: Red
Coffee chats or catch-ups: Purple
This method can also be extended to emails to keep things organised across platforms.
5. Take Meeting Notes with Calendar Invites
This is a great tip I learned from a former boss. She created a new calendar invite right next to a meeting to jot down notes from the session. While tools like Notion or Teams' AI note-taking features are excellent, this method ensures your notes are tied directly to the meeting. It's particularly useful when you need to reference a specific discussion or decision.
Why Calendars Are Essential for Productivity
At work, my calendar is the first thing I check every morning. It helps me:
Plan my day effectively.
Stay on top of deadlines.
Prepare for upcoming tasks and meetings.
These tips have significantly improved my time management and self-organisation. Do you have your own calendar hacks or productivity tricks? I'd love to hear your ideas. Let's learn and grow together!
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