One tool that I feel I must manage very carefully is my office calendar.
I think I am fairly good at this. I feel other people are not so good.
When I say office calendar, I am referring to the Calendar component in Microsoft Office. Not the shared calendar used by the department or a conference room. Even if you don’t use the product, you probably know what it is. Basically, it’s a schedule of things you will be doing.
A calendar entry includes a start time, and end time, a brief title, possibly a more detailed description, maybe a location, maybe a list of people you will be meeting with.
Generally, if I’m away from my desk for over half an hour, I’ll probably have an entry in the calendar. (except for lunch, and breaks)
There’s a number of things that you could put on a calendar
- Meetings – That is an arranged meeting with someone to discuss a specific topic or topics.
- Tasks – Maybe you want to block out a chunk of time to spend on a particular task or work assignment.
- Away – Maybe I am going out to lunch; I’ll be away for an hour. Maybe it’s planned – like a haircut, maybe even a vacation.
Meetings
Meetings are important – Either I am calling them because I need information, or I am either being called into a meeting by management or a customer who needs my advice or wants to assign me work. Surprise.
Tasks
Sometimes you get so busy, that you block out time to work on tasks. I have a customer service minded orientation, so any amount of time blocked on my calendar blocks time for the customer to contact me. Consequently, I rarely block out time for tasks. (Less than once a month)
But sometimes a task is a 1-person meeting. For example maybe this afternoon i am setting up a new server in the computer room. Obviously, i am away from my desk. Probably not near a phone. Probably not in a place that i can assist a customer. So I’ll setup a task entry on the calendar.
Away
If I have a dental appointment, or I am going to the plant to talk to someone, I’ll add an entry onto my calendar.
My best practices
- I keep my calendar current.
- I decline meetings that I cannot make.
- I accept meetings I can make.
- on sick days / vacation days I still fix my calendar. (Decline or cancel meetings) meetings
- I try to instill these practices around me. (There’s nothing worse than canceling an install to attend a meeting, and the meeting caller never shows up)
- I always try to schedule my meetings out, even one day (this gives me and the attendees time to prepare)
- Minimal colors. I do not colorize meetings. I think normally they show up as blue. Away are colored as purple. I do colorize one person tasks - green.
Out of office.
Out of office isn’t really a calendar issue, but it sure feels right to include on this page. I set out of office when i take a day off. Since I’m customer service centric, my out of office message indicates when I’ll return, an indicator of where or not in monitoring email (for example “I’m not monitoring email” or “I’m reviewing email daily”), a reminder of who to contact (no names just departments out general websites - don’t want to give spammers to much info)