Diary management is one of the most important tools to impact your success if you get it right but, is probably neglected the most.
Even those who do keep a diary of the itinerary and plans for the year do not do it methodically enough. I am certainly guilty of that. There are certain key points that are so important here because if you can crack this you will have a fantastic advantage in being successful. This really does work, but it is never seen as high on people’s agenda’s. The impact this can have on your work and life planning cannot be underestimated.
Key areas to implement
1. Re-organise your current diary
You firstly need to scrap what you currently have and consider sitting down with your most significant other (business or personal often both). Ensure that this is in line and in balance with your family and social life.
These should be synchronised with your goals and vision as they are often linked to each other. Always check where you need to prioritise more time with loved ones. Many successful business owners that I know merge their vacation with their vocation. In other words, if they have a meeting or seminar to attend abroad, then they plan around it where a two-day trip may be five days if they take the family. This has to be a win-win here.
2. Synchronize your diary
This may seem like a bind to do but if you synchronize your diary with home, work, laptop, phone then you are accessible to everyone.
Make sure that the relevant people such as your PA, life partner, business partner have access to this. Even get someone to this for you if the thought of it puts you off.
Once your diary is synchronized and visible to the right people, then there is little chance that you could end up double booked for anything. This is the beauty of synchronizing across all your devices.
3. Block out your most important time
This is your most important part of your diary management. All your important weekly, monthly or annual functions need to be booked in first, then plan your other functions around this. This includes your family and social life as well as your business life.
Remember, as we said previously, sit down with your life and business partners and book in the recurring compartments for your diary. Important tip: add ‘DO NOT REMOVE’ next to each one.
These should include regular events such as, holidays, date nights, school parents evenings, meetings with key team members and so on.
If these events are all booked in say one year in advance, then you’re the remaining time and space left will fit in around this.
Think bout your most product time that serves you best. For me this is between 06.30am – 10.30am, so I make sure that my phones, laptop etc are off. You don’t want pings and alerts going off during your most productive time. If someone needs to get hold of me urgently, I know they will find a way. The important thins is that you make sure you focus on your most productive period because this is what serves you, gives you the motivation and success that is needed.
Think, when do you like to be alone, when do you like to socialise, when do you prefer to work? Factor all of these when preparing your diary management and you will find that you will have more time to schedule in your itinerary or do the things you want.
The rule of thumb here, is that what works for your habits and what has been successful for you up to this point usually works. Preparing your diary around your work and life in general will allow you to be more self-aware for you to link your energy and productivity periods. If you struggle to do this, then simply keep a work and energy log for the next two- week period. All you need to do is note down hour by hour what relevant times you carried out what task. Make notes of how you felt about it, when you were in the zone or most productive. Remember to include the fun social activities and when you struggled too.
4. Put plenty of detail in notes
Always make sure that you put plenty of detail in the agenda and notes section of the diary. Just putting the word meeting or seminar is not enough clarity. If this is for a meeting one, two, three months or longer in the future, how will you have any idea what exactly you will need to prepare.
Make sure that you have enough clarity regarding what the meeting is designed for, what the outcome is and what the specific agenda is for.
5. Always update every year
Try to review your diary every six months or even quarterly but at least every year this must be done to ensure that you get maximum benefit from this.
6. Focus
Now that you have organised your diary so specifically you must ensure that you focus on one thing at a time and remember especially to stick to those most productive periods without any distractions.
Keep to this and you will automatically see the benefits in your life to both business and personal.
Worrying or dwelling on issues that have or have not yet occurred will do you no good, this will only distract you from the important task at hand. There is nothing that you can do in the moment so try your best to put it out of your mind and focus on the present task in front of you.
You can only control and do what you can control and do now in the current moment.
The key here is to remain focused no matter what is going on in your work or personal life.
Understanding how and when you are most productive will also play a significant role here.
Keep the distractions away and you will reap the benefits.
