Welcome to my new series of articles where I share my 6 TOP TIPS ON HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR LIFE LIKE A PRO!

Life can be so busy for most of us these days and we are bombarded with so much external “noise” due to our digital lives that it is extremely easy to lose ourselves and our time. It’s easy to get to the end of your day and think “what have I actually achieved?”. The good news is that this can be avoided.

It is possible to take control of your daily life and being very organised and working smarter is part of the solution. I am incredibly organised and it comes naturally to me (not to brag, OK bragging just a little). I have so many tips on being organised within your business and personal life that I can’t go into all of them in this series. For now I want to give you, over the next few articles, my 6 TOP TIPS that put you back in charge.

TOP TIP NUMBER 1:  MASTER YOUR ONLINE CALENDAR

There are hundreds of tips to utilise your calendar to improve your productivity but these are my key tips. Mastering your calendar will stop you overcommitting yourself and reduce stress.

• Put everything in your online calendar (business and personal) so you can see exactly how much free time you actually have (or not!). Then you can address any imbalances

• Colour code entries so you can see which is business or personal

• Everything means business meetings, planning time, content creation, client work, social events, dog walks, school runs, you time, hair appointments, mealtimes, meditation, food shopping, etc.

• I use my calendar for reminders too (for instance I put all birthdays in my calendar with a reminder set to go off two weeks before)

• Don’t rely on keeping things in your head as it takes up too much thinking space that is better used elsewhere

• Review your calendar each evening so you can prepare for the following day

• Remember to schedule breaks!

• Schedule time in between meetings rather than jumping from one to another

• Try to keep at least one day per week free of meetings or calls and schedule in time that day for admin and personal errands

• You could use Calendly to allow people to book directly into your calendar

• Schedule daily time for reading and responding to emails

• You could have a Virtual Assistant manage your calendar for you

• Did you know there are keyboard shortcuts for your Outlook or Google calendar for example?

• Basically, if you want to do it, schedule it!

Using your online calendar in this way will clearly show you when you have far too much on your plate and you need to think about engaging outside services (for your business and/or personal life) because you really don't have to do it all. I have a method that I share with my clients that helps them to start using their calendar in this way.

My next Top Tip article focuses on using To Do Lists so do look out for that. 

Yolanda is a freelance Virtual Assistant and organisational gem who loves to lighten the load for busy entrepreneurs and small businesses.