Digital Calendar
One of the best and so underrated productive tools at our disposal
“Don’t tell me your priorities, show me your Calendar.”
- wise person
I bet you hear or say things like “Oh I don’t have time”, “my calendar is packed”, “I don’t want to be in that meeting, but I have to”, “I have too many meetings” or some or the other variation, all the time.
Let us face it, we are never short of time to watch 1 more episode of Money Heist on Netflix or indulge in some Retail Therapy (now digitally) or go out with your friends (pre-COVID)!
For all such activities, we manage our time, motivation, and energy. 😊
Then why is it that at work everyone is busy all the time and no one has time anytime? Something seems off or if I may say, seriously wrong.
Now there are genuine cases where all the above is true, however for most parts we do not lack time.
As someone who tends to keep asking WHY till I get to the root and maniacally focused on efficiency and effectiveness of my self and to an extent those around me, I have concluded that time really is not the issue, what we lack is a system for Time management, Motivation and Energy management.
Do I have your attention? Read on…
Energy Management
Most people have a rhythm, something like the waves — high and low, in their energy levels in a day. The key is to find yours and ride the wave where it matters the most.
For me, I am at my peak best in the early mornings from 6:30–8:00 AM. Problems that drag me down for hours the previous day gets magically solved in half or even one-third the time. Time just flies as I am in my “zone”!
The 2nd most optimum period for me is from 10 AM — 1 PM!
Majority of the times if I can work without interruption in these 2-time slots, for all practical purpose I can take the day off without compromising on my tasks/goals! Looking at it from another perspective, I can utilize the other half of the day for things that are Important but Not Urgent or Urgent but not Important, depending on the kind of work/project you into.
There are enough and more scientific and clinical studies conducted which prove that most people can be productive only for 4–5 hours in a day! Yes, you read that right! Let us count how many hours I have spent, 1.5 hrs + 3 hours which comes to 4.5 hours! BINGO!
Now you may ask what about the time when my energy levels are down and how do I ride it?
To take a metaphor from Cricket, my slog overs in the day are you guessed it, post-lunch! The time from 3–6 PM feels a sheer drag for me. Time runs very slowly. These hours I try to do admin work or work which does not require my brain to be in a peak state. One hack here, I play some background music at this time to create a sense of flow.
And then I get another bout of productive time early in the night, say from 9:30–10:30 PM. But be careful here, I have spent countless times where this has run past way midnight. Why does this happen? That is because I was in my “zone” and lost track of time.
P.S. — Think, did you ever check the watch/clock when you are doing things that give you happiness? And how many times you or others check the watch/clock when in meetings?
We tend to forget that we are not in the Industrial age anymore, where your output is correlated to time spent at work. We are knowledge workers living in an information age.
So, if you have a Goal/Task for the day and if you are able to finish it much earlier than a typical 8–9-hour workday, there is absolutely no reason to drag it. In the long run, you are better off spending that extra time to rejuvenate, focus on your passion/hobbies, focus on the long-ignored important but not an urgent project, spend time with family or do something apart from work. And this has a cascading effect on your work too!
If you observe your energy levels for 7–10 days, you WILL see a pattern or a wave. Ride the right ones.
Motivation
P.S. — One deviation before we take this one. For doing ANY work, we all need either of the 2 things at the bare minimum — Motivation or Skill (basic at least). If you have both, you are likely to excel in that work. For this article, let us assume we all have the skills.
This one is tricky as there are many nuances to it. In an ideal world, motivation should flow backwards from the impact. Higher the impact, the higher the motivation.
Well, if that were the case, we all would have woken up at 5 AM and hit the gym 365 days a year, right? And you will not drop everything you are doing if your Boss or your Spouse calls you and assigns you the most mundane task ever! Motivation, you see! 😊
Tasks which seem urgent but less important tends to have a higher motivation level as the output of doing that task is visible faster — instant gratification! Things that are important say reading a book every day or working on expanding your Product portfolio, etc. has astonishing long-term compounding effects but rarely lead to instant gratification.
Now there is good news and bad news. Let me start with the bad news first…there is no escaping task that is less motivating or does not lead to instant gratification.
The good news is that you can “Schedule” such tasks so that you have a start-end time which leads to psychological safety and possible a reward once you do it. From my experience, things that do not lead to instant gratification have loads of friction/inertia which prevents you from starting it. However, once you do manage to cross the initial hurdle, you are likely to enter the “zone”.
For example, it's Friday, I will hit the gym from 7–8 PM and after that, I get to enjoy a double cheese Margherita pizza along with a nice, chilled glass (or two) of Hoegaarden!
I bet 7–8 PM becomes that much easier to pass by and once I am in the Gym invariably, I will enjoy it.
P.S. — All my appraisals I do in chunks of time and do not let it take over my day. And immediately after the appraisal, I schedule tasks that I am passionate about mostly high-impact.
Now comes the most important part — Time Management!
So, if you combine the energy, the motivation and manage your time, you tend to hit what you call is “Deep-work” zone which for many is peak performance. Sounds easy, right?
Well, it is.
Enter Digital Calendar, in our case Outlook which we all use numerous times in a day and often we dread looking at it because it has things or meetings primarily, which someone else has decided that we must attend, but do not know why to attend or what is the outcome of that meeting.
P.S. — How to host effective productive and short meetings, well that is perhaps for some other day/post.
Remember the earlier quote — “Don’t tell me your priorities, show me your Calendar.”?
Though the quote is as clear as crystal, let me elaborate, nevertheless…
Look at your AMJ Goals…look at your Calendar for today, for the week and for the month? See anything missing?
You have Goals, but you have not blocked time to meet those Goals on your Calendar…then how in the world will you ever achieve them in time or achieve them at all?
For many years, I try to block my Calendar the previous night and this is single habit has been a game-changer for me. My productivity of all tasks be it boring or exciting has never been better.
Will you let anyone steal your money from your physical wallet or a digital one? And yet we let other people steal our time all the time. Money in most parts is replenishable. Time is not. And yet we treat them vast differently.
So, if you keep your Goals/Tasks in mind, keep your energy levels and motivation in mind and schedule your time on your Calendar…you will be AMAZED at how much you able to accomplish and your chances of going to sleep knowing that you conquered the day will be very high.
Times when your energy levels are high, devote it to high-impact activities like Deep Thinking, Writing, solving problems, planning etc.
Times when your energy levels are low, devote it to meetings, admin tasks, etc.
Though it's obvious, here comes the clincher, schedule your high-impact activities on your calendar and it will remind you on its own. Have something to be done on a recurring basis, well Calendar has that option to remind you. Tech is marvellous at automation.
One more thing, if you notice my workday is divided into chunks. Every 2–3 hours I get a break which helps me reset, reflect before moving onto the next task. Incidentally, this also links to the much famed “Pomodoro Technique” for time management.
Prioritize ruthlessly, time is the best asset you have, and it is running out every second. You must guard it like money!
Closing tip — start Mondays late and wrap up Fridays early. 😊 In between make the Calendar your slave and max it out to the level of your aspiration!
