From the course: Freelancing Tips

Scheduling and managing your calendar

From the course: Freelancing Tips

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Scheduling and managing your calendar

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- As you know, your time is your most scarce and valuable resource. And so not only do you need to manage how you prioritize your time, but you must also keep track of when you're spending time on those priorities. One of the best things I've done for my business was put in place a rock-solid system for managing my time, and it starts with my calendar. I'd recommend a digital one. Some freelancers are hesitant to move away from a written or paper system, but a digital calendar can save you a ton of time in your day-to-day. They're easy to maintain and make changes to, they sync between your devices, and they often integrate with other software tools. There are plenty of free software tools for managing a calendar, so choose what works best for what you're already using. I use Gmail and Google Docs so I prefer Google calendar. If you use Outlook for email, then I would recommend Outlook for your calendar too. If you've ever been invited to an event through email, or booked an appointment online, you've probably seen an Add to calendar button. You can add just about anything to your digital calendar automatically, so it's easy to integrate into your workflow. Once you're operating with a digital calendar, set up a tool to help you save time scheduling calls and meetings. There are several options that integrate directly into your calendar. I use Calendly, but other tools like Acuity or Drift will work too. These tools let you create windows for others to schedule time with you. If you only want to take calls on Tuesdays, you can do that. Or if you want to allow meetings any day between 2 and 4 p.m., you can do that too. Any parameters you want to set, even specific date ranges or lengths of time someone can book, you can set with these tools. And once you've created a scheduling system with your calendar, you can simply send some the link and let them find a time that works for them. That means no more writing specific times via email, back-and-forth communication, or double bookings. Once a time is blocked on your calendar, your scheduling tool will know it can't book anything else at that time. By spending a little bit of time setting up your calendar systems, you will save a ton of time and energy in scheduling. And every day, you'll know exactly where you'll be spending your time.

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