Beat People To Your Calendar
The secret to controlling your schedule is to fill it before others try to fill it for you. More regretful yes’ has been said to others because of poor planning than any other reason. If you don’t have a plan for your schedule, then others should steal it from you. Your lack of intentionality warrants consequence. Alright, that was a little harsh…let me back up a bit. The worst thing you can say to someone’s request of your time is, “I don’t think I have anything going on.”
We have all heard the statement if you fail to plan you might as well plan to fail. The same truth applies to our schedule. You can’t get control of your life if you don’t get intentional about it. Your schedule should always be planned out in advance. Even if you plan in nothing time and downtime, it should be accounted for. When someone asks you to do something your response should always be I have something scheduled then. The great thing about beating people to the punch with your calendar is that you get to choose if you’ll call an audible and change it for them or not. It puts you in the driver seat steering your life rather than in the passenger seat being taken somewhere you may have not wanted to go to.
Years ago a mentor of mine taught me this great tip of beating people to the calendar. Demand for his time had been increasing as his organization and influence grew. His meetings were eating away time at home with his family. He realized that whenever someone wanted a counseling session with him he regretfully would give up his evenings for their emergencies even though he had already worked a full day. He felt obligated to meet with these people because he didn’t have anything written in his calendar to keep him from saying yes. So, he started scheduling in his family time and called it a “meeting.” Now when people called him last minute to schedule an impromptu counseling session, he let them know he was previously booked and pointed them to the next opening in his calendar. Not only did he save his sanity, but also his family by simply being intentional with his calendar. And guess what? Many people that wanted to meet because they had an “emergency” canceled their upcoming session with him because they “felt better” the next day.
Pull back to be strategically intentional about planning your calendar and you’ll find your productivity propel forward.
