I use email and my calendar to manage my life. Here’s my calendar process.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time trying to optimize the organization of my life – both personal and professional. From basic to-do lists like TuexDuex to complex ones like Omnifocus, I’ve tried them all. I’ve even tried to force Evernote into being a task management tool (which its definitely not).

The key with all of this is finding what works best for YOU. What I’ve learned about myself over the years is that if I have too many systems/apps to check to manage myself, eventually only the “must checks” are going to be used. Having separate systems for everything, even though that’s likely the best way to utilize the best tools for each job, just doesn’t work for me.

So, through the help of a friend who also obsesses over this kind of thing, I’ve landed on a way to use email to manage most of my life. I essentially live in the inbox, using email to manage not only my communication but also my tasks and reminders. It’s been working great for several months.

The other thing that I can’t do without is my calendar. I think of my calendar the way that Ron Burgundy thinks about the teleprompter: “Ron Burgundy will read anything that is put on that teleprompter.”

That’s me with the calendar. If I get to 2pm and my calendar says, “Rename Dragon Army to Lizard Navy”, I’d be ordering new business cards by 3pm.

I also color code my calendar entries based on categories of my time, such as “personal” or a few different types of work activity. I do this to make sure I’m using my time effectively, giving me the chance to look at a week and see if I’m over-committing to a certain category.

For instance, in the example below (sorry, I had to blur out the actual events), you’ll see several items that are a pink-ish color. That represents “doing good”. When I work with a non-profit, go to a board meeting, or do work on Advice For Good or Match Atlanta, those calendar items are colored pink. I can then look across a week and see if I’m doing too much – or too little – to help others.

JHCalendar

So, between email and my calendar, I can effectively manage the many things I have going on and prioritize against categories of effort. What do you use to accomplish this?

9 Comments

  1. Jacob Smith on July 21, 2014 at 1:50 pm

    Great tips! The Ron Burgundy analogy is hysterical. Without my calendar, I’d be completely useless. I use Google Calendar on my laptop — with a similar color-coding system to what you’re describing — and then UpTo on my phone, which is awesome because it lets me know what else is coming up that I may not have scheduled in my calendar (like when my favorite sports teams are playing or when my TV shows premier).

    – Jacob Smith | Team UpTo | https://upto.com



  2. Jeff Hilimire on July 22, 2014 at 6:10 am

    Thanks, I’ll check out UpTo.



  3. Jacob Smith on July 22, 2014 at 7:57 am

    Awesome. I legitimately love talking about this stuff, so please don’t hesitate to reach out with ideas, questions, etc. I’m [email protected].



  4. Bobby on July 22, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    Jeff, great stuff. We use a lot of the same tricks. I have also recently put Calendly into play. It’s a great scheduling tool that lets people feel some more control over the scheduling process. It also forces me to regiment and schedule my days so that people can’t drop calls/meetings wherever/whenever. You can see mine, as an example, here http://www.calendly.com/bobbynorwood. See ya around the salt mine.



  5. Jeff Hilimire on July 22, 2014 at 1:06 pm

    Calendly looks really cool. I use a blend of doodle and MeetMe for similar purposes, but I like the UI of Calendly a lot!



  6. Bobby on July 22, 2014 at 1:09 pm

    For what it’s worth, they’re local. Their customer service/discovery is also excellent. More than once, they have emailed me to ask about features/tweaks I’d like to see in future releases.



  7. Jacob Smith on July 22, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    Calendly looks awesome, thanks for sharing!



  8. […] been somewhat maniacal about how I manage my schedule (proof: check out this post from 2014 called I use email and my calendar to manage my life.) But right now, my cup definitely […]



  9. […] of my biggest time management hacks is to color-code your calendar. It’s such a great way, as Chris points out, to make sure you’re spending time on the […]



Leave a Comment