Five tips to take control of your diary!

Hints and Tips

Are you rushing from meeting to meeting with barely a moment to catch breath? Here’s our five top tips to help you take control of your time.

1)  Schedule 30 to 45 minute in your diary at the beginning or end of day to review your task list (whether it’s on paper, electronic or in your head!).  Treat this time like a client meeting – protect it and commit to turning up for it! If you have it clear in your head what you have to do, you’ll worry less about forgetting things.

2) Add travel time to either side of a meeting which is away from your normal workplace. Use an online travel planner to work out what your journey will be and add the details to the calendar appointment, including departure and arrival times, relevant stops and any changes. That way if you’re running late, you don’t have to worry about trying to work out your route.

3) If you often get engrossed in your work and subsequently find yourself running late for a meeting, use the alert function in the calendar appointment.  It can be set for different times, depending what suits you. For example, you can get an alert 15 minutes prior to your meeting.

4) Block working time in your diary as well as meeting time. If you are constantly in meetings, you will never find time to do the things you have agreed.  So, schedule time in your diary to work on your key actions, especially if you have a big piece of work with a deadline.  As with your daily planning time, protect this time and treat it like a client appointment.

5) Hire an Assistant! Well, we would say that wouldn’t we! If you are a busy person who regularly attends meetings, hiring an assistant can be a time saver.  Scheduling meetings takes time, an assistant can take on this task, freeing you to do the doing!

Do you have any tricks for managing your diary? We’d love to hear them!

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