6 Ways to Maximize Your Calendar Usage

Since the beginning of time, calendars have helped us stay organized and keep track of the days, but now with virtual and digital options, there are more features to understand,  according to an article from Entrepreneur. Here’s how to make sure you’re utilizing all that these scheduling systems offer. 

There are various online calendar apps, including popular options from Microsoft, Google and Apple. These are particularly helpful because they have reminder functions that send a pop-up with event details to your phone or computer.

You can allow notifications before your event, set them for a few days ahead, or receive multiple cascading reminders. The detailed reminders feature allows you to add notes, links and other pertinent information beyond the title, time and place of events, which can be especially helpful for a school or work assignment.

Grouping tasks or events by color and assigning them a category is a helpful way to organize your schedule. For example, you could assign blue for work meetings, orange for appointments, yellow for school, or purple for travel. While this can require some time to set up, the article says it can help prioritize and execute.

Tasks is a feature that allows you to go deeper into your schedule, as this feature acts more like an online checklist you can refer to throughout the day. There’s also an option to break items into smaller parts or subtasks. This way, you can digitally cross off each item after you’ve completed it. 

Another helpful aspect of using an online calendar is the ability to combine or overlay multiple calendars. Integrating your calendars (school, family, work, etc.) and displaying multiple schedules in one place can reduce confusion and help efficiency.

Entrepreneur suggests using a “do days” and “due days” method to aid time management. This means blocking your calendar ahead of time to work on or “do” the task, as well as indicating the hard deadline or when it is “due,” making tasks feel less daunting.

While virtual calendars are commonly used, it’s also a good idea to have a paper calendar on hand. The old-fashioned tool has its benefits, such as “increased information retention from handwriting and fewer distractions than a phone,” the article says.

Here are six simple tricks from Entrepreneur on how to maximize the way you use your calendar.

1. Set reminders.
2. Try color coding.
3. Use the Tasks app.
4. Integrate schedules.
5. Implement “do” days vs. “due” days
6. Keep a paper planner.