Optimize Your Calendar Like a CEO!
IN A HURRY? HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE
We all can benefit from regularly evaluating our work priorities and making sure they align with our long-term goals. The most important blocks in your calendar should be your non-negotiables, like sleep and family time. Work priorities can then be sorted based on urgency, which will help you identify opportunities to outsource some of your busy work. This helps you free up your time and create the ultimate CEO calendar!
GOT A MINUTE? HERE ARE THE DETAILS TO CONSIDER
As a business consultant and owner of a virtual assistant services company, I’ve spent more than a decade studying time management and how the most productive people structure their days. Just a few months ago, I shared about a game-changing calendar audit exercise that has significantly improved my business efficiency and helped me gain better control over my own schedule.
Recently, I took that exercise to the next level and guided a group of dedicated CEOs through a hands-on calendar audit in a virtual workshop. We covered the five strategies to create their dream calendars, and I’ve already received excellent feedback on the results.
If you were not able to attend, I invite you to walk through the five steps in the rest of this blog. Of course, our 75-minute workshop dug much deeper into each of these topics, so if you love content like this and want to be part of my next free workshop, sign up for my email newsletter today. You’ll be the first to know about events and offers!
Step 1: Identify Your Non-Negotiables
Start by identifying your non-negotiables for optimal functionality, productivity, and well-being. That means blocking time for things that fill your cup, keep you energized, fuel creativity, and keep you grounded.
Examples of non-negotiables include sleep, morning routines, evening routines, movement, family time, date nights, and pursuing interests and hobbies.
Step 2: Determine Your Work Priorities
Next, sort all of your to-dos and determine your priorities by leveraging the Priority Planner exercise. The Priority Planner helps you visualize what you should focus on, what your “needle-movers” are, and what can be outsourced and delegated.
Categories on the Priority Planner include: “Generates new business (now),” “generates new business (soon),” “business management,” and “other miscellaneous tasks.”
Step 3: Release What’s Holding You Back
After identifying all of your priorities, what’s holding you back will become clearer. In other words, what’s keeping you “stuck” in a period of no or slow growth, in your business?
These include anything that’s currently draining your time and energy. Make sure you’re re-evaluating these items before mindlessly keeping them on your list. Examples include non-ideal clients who require too much of your time, regularly fixing the work of a non-ideal team member, and unnecessary or unproductive meetings.
Step 4: Delegate Non-CEO Tasks
Now’s the fun part! You are empowered to outsource and delegate non-CEO tasks and projects to gain leverage over your time and results.
Make a list of all the “busy work” you do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, and estimate how much time you’re spending on each. Ask yourself: What you could results you could achieve in your life and business if you were to take those tasks off your plate?
Step 5: Create Your Ultimate CEO Calendar
After you’ve blocked time for your personal non-negotiables, begin adding time blocks for the following groups of tasks, which are based on the Priority Planner exercise:
Highest priority tasks/projects
Designated times to check email (this helps prevent you from falling into “reactive mode”)
Open space for high-quality meetings
Miscellaneous work time
Daily wrap-up time at the end of each day
I hope this gives you some tangible “ah-ha” moments and helps you streamline your workflows daily. If you’re looking for more help in scaling your business without pouring more of your own time into it, I invite you to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation consultation! If you’re a current client of Melissa Swink & Co., please feel free to reach out to me via email if you’d like to review the tasks and projects you’re sending our way and discover additional ways we can support you as you grow your business.