6.6. Summary Managing your calendar is important to you and your career. People associate punctuality with responsibility and reliability. People who miss appointments and forget about meetings don't get promotions. Without a well-managed calendar, you risk missing important work and nonwork events. It is important to keep balance among work, family life, social life, volunteer work, personal projects, sleep, and so on. Your calendar can help you do that. It is important to have a place to write down appointments (or meetings, events, and so on). Write down any appointments that you schedule. Don't agree to an appointment until you've checked your calendar. Your calendar fits into The Cycle System by being where you record appointments, dates, milestones, and other information. When you plan your day, you start by using the calendar to plan today's schedule and to add items to today's to do list. If you use a PAA, you can organize what you write into each calendar square. I write birthdays and anniversaries at the top, then any vacations and multiday events. I use the middle part of the square to make a mini schedule for the day: morning appointments first, lunch in the middle, and afternoon appointments next. I reserve the very bottom to write my plans for the evening. When agreeing to appointments, consider your personal rhythms. If you have the choice, plan brain work during the hours that you are best at focusing. When making plans with others, always check your calendar before you agree to the appointment. Don't be embarrassed to make the other person wait for you to find and open your organizer. Automate the reminders of appointments. Set alarms on your PDA or use other technology (alarm clocks and so on) if you use a PAA. PAA users can record repeating events by making a list of weekly, monthly, and yearly repeating events. On the first day of the week, write the weekly appointments into your calendar. On the first day of the month, write the monthly appointments. On the first day of the year, fill out your yearly repeating events. Most companies have a yearly rhythm. For example, retail often has a busy time around December. If you identify the rhythm, you can plan your projects around it. If you don't, you will find yourself swimming upstream. If your company doesn't have a defined rhythm, define one for yourself.
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