One of my favorite things to do this time of year is fill out my calendar for the next 10 months, the period that coincides with my kids going back to school.
I’m a devotee of Microsoft Outlook so as soon as I know school holidays, sports practices and game days, dentist appointments, meetings, special events and other dates, into the Outlook Calendar they go.
There’s a method to this madness. The better I am at scheduling outside commitments, the more precisely I can calculate the work hours I have in a given day, week or month. I use that information to figure out how many hours or days I can devote to a writing or editing assignment, and that helps determine what I’ll make on a given project. It works the other way around too: if I have a handle on my work deadlines I know whether I can volunteer to chaperon a field trip, or if I have a deadline that day and chaperoning will have to wait until the next time.
Here are some other handy tips I’ve come up with for using the Outlook Calendar to manage my time:
1. Put everything in the calendar – and I mean everything.
A calendar system won’t keep you organized if you don’t put every single aspect of your life in it. That includes work, family outings, volunteer work, trips, going to the gym, church, date night, Boy Scout troop meetings, spring break, decorating the Christmas tree and anything else you can think of (within reason). As a freelancer, your life isn’t delineated between work and family and your calendar shouldn’t be either.
2. Assign a color to everyone and everything.
I enter work hours into my Outlook calendar in green and non-work appointments and volunteer work in yellow. Everyone else in the family has their own color too, including the dog. Even the house gets one, which I use to show when groceries are scheduled to be delivered, cleaners are coming or the window washer is due. Assigning different colors to different people or things helps me keep track of what else is happening while I’m working.
3. Plan your time backwards from due dates.
When I get an assignment, I enter the due date in Outlook, then estimate how many hours I think the assignment will take so I know when I need to get started. I estimate based on word count, anticipated research, my preferred hourly rate and what other work I have to do between the day I get the assignment and the due date. For example, if I get a 1,000-word feature story with multiple sources that I’m getting paid $1.25 for, that’s $1,250. If I’m shooting for an $125/hour rate, my goal is to complete the article in 10 hours ($1,250 divided by $125 equals 10). Every week, I write one or two posts for clients plus five WordCount posts, so I know I can’t devote one or two entire days to a single assignment. Instead, I divide those 10 hours into chunks of an hour or two per day spread out over a week or two, which is OK since it sometimes takes that long to schedule and do interviews. Counting backwards from the due date, I assign one- and two-hour blocks of time to that assignment over a one- or two-week period. Normally I include one large chunk of time – three or four hours – at the end for writing. On my Outlook calendar, my normal work day looks like a solid block of green chopped up into several multi-hour segments labeled according to what I’m working on during specific hours.
4. Set recurring dates and reminders.
If you do something over and over again, use the Outlook Calendar Recurrence feature to automatically set up all future occurrences of that activity. I use the recurring dates feature to remind myself of everything from when to submit invoices for clients who pay me a monthly retainer to when my son needs to be at football practice. I also use it for holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. Like other calendar programs, Outlook lets you set a reminder to “ring” a few minutes or hours before an event – a feature that’s saved me more than once from being late for the afternoon school carpool because I was lost in what I was writing.
5. Send meeting notices.
Outlook’s Calendar lets you schedule an appointment, then send people an invitation to attend. The first time I got a meeting notice I didn’t know what it was. Now I send them all the time. I use them to schedule interviews, set up phone call with editors or writers, and also to remind my husband of appointments and our kids’ games and school events.
What calendars or other systems do you use to stay organized?
Great post, Michelle. I must confess I have Outlook, but I never use the calendar. I’m stuck using a paper agenda, and can’t seem to make the leap of faith to plan with my PC, even though I’m on it most of the time. Maybe I should resolve to start using it!
Nancy
I was a committed Day Planner until I made the switch some years ago. I’ve gone back and forth on using Task Manager for to-do lists and right now am back to using legal pads – there’s something to be said for crossing things out when they’re done.
Michelle
I, too, am a huge fan of Outlook. I’ve grown up in an organization that relies heavily on this useful tool. Like you, I’ve brought it into all aspects of my work and home life. It’s fabulous to know that most everything is captured in one place.
There are some advantages to working FT for a big company and learning about organization is one of them – it’s something you can take with you into a different job and as you said, all aspects of your life.
Michelle
Very helpful tips! This will keep me more productive. Thank you for posting this.
I LIVE by my outlook calendar. Work, personal and writing all have a place and yes, appointments. It is fabulous!
Great tips, thank you.
Here’s a nifty way to send status, TO DOs, or Out of Office reminders onto others’ Outlook calendars — without actually blocking the time on their calendars:
– Open a new meeting notice
– Fill out the “To” block
– Fill out the Subject line – keep it short, like Away On Vacation; or Out noon-2pm
– Leave Location line blank
– Set Start time/End time as in full days only
– Check the “All day event” box
– Set “Show As” to Free
– Set “Reminder” to None
– No “Recurrence” (because you set Start/End as the date range)
– Hit Send
This places a meeting reminder item at the top of everyone’s calendars without actually blocking their calendars. Great for teams who work remotely. Keeps tabs on everyone’s availability without being nosy or someone keeping yet another calendar. Experiment a little with some tests.
Great advice Steve, thanks for sharing!
Michelle
A quick followup to Steve’s tips.
At my place of business, we send Out of office “appointments” all the time to others. It puts it on their calenders but doesn’t mark the time as busy.
Here are a couple of additions to what Steve has said:
1. Make calendar entries user specific.
In the Subject line, always include who created the appointment. Ex. “Tim W – PTO” or “Tim W Vacation”. On some calendars, especially smartphone calendars, it can get confusing who’s appointment is who’s.
2. Turn off Request Responses.
When creating the appointment/meeting, select the “Response Options” and uncheck “Request Responses”. Just a couple less clicks for the recipients to get it on their calendar.
3. Create a template meeting.
After you’ve set the common settings as Steve and I have listed, may include the Subject line, make a template in Outlook. Then, you just open the template, set the time/date ranges, fill in the recipients and send. Doesn’t matter how many times I send out these types of meetings, I often forget one of the settings and have to resend. The templates help with that.
Hi Michelle,
I use Outlook too but I am trying to tweak the system and would appreciate your advice. I was wondering if you prefer to put everyone’s appointments and reminders etc in the one calendar, or if you have tried setting up a calendar for each family member in Outlook which can be overlayed or viewed side by side? If so why do you prefer one calendar for everyone? Also, when more than one family member is attending the same event how do you set this up in your calendar ie do you put in for each family member with their colour code or do you do it some other way as one entry? This issue is giving me headaches ie how to represent an appointment when its for more than one family member. I look forward to hearing your advice on the above. Thanks, Jasmyn