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Dear Friends and Clients,

I recently listened to a client complain about an employee’s difficulty in managing her calendar. As I tried to understand why my client was so upset, I realized that he was talking about “time management” but what actually troubled him was the employee’s failure to honor her commitments.

That employee’s poor scheduling habits meant that she was missing deadlines, disappointing customers, and letting down her colleagues. She knew herself to be disorganized, but she didn’t realize that she was becoming known as a person who couldn’t be counted on.

So then I thought about my own calendar, and I found that it took on new meaning when I focused on its role in assuring that I honor my various commitments. In this issue, I'll talk about the promises that shape your work life, and about ways to use your calendar to help you keep those promises.

Warmly, Bev

Your Calendar is a Tool For
Managing Your Commitments

April 4, 2006 * Number 35

Our work lives are shaped by a complex pattern of commitments. As each day goes along, and often without even realizing it, we continue to make promises and enter into agreements.

If you work in an organization, for example, on a typical day you may agree to attend meetings and a cocktail party, your voicemail may promise that you'll quickly return phone calls, and you'll probably commit to some project deadlines.

Every time you fail to keep one of those commitments, somebody will be a little bit disappointed or annoyed. Somebody will notice if you arrive late to the meeting, if you forget to send out that information, and if you blow off an event that you said you'd attend.

The consequences of a single failed promise may be too small to count. But, if we consistently ignore our commitments, the level of our productivity and the quality of our lives will be compromised. As I'll discuss below, your calendar is a major tool for managing your commitments:

Take time to plan. Look at your calendar frequently so that you can envision what lies ahead, complete necessary preparation, and spot any problems. Notice the gaps between appointments, and plan how you will use the available time to accomplish your most pressing tasks.

Coordinate with your TODO list. Keep your project list close to your calendar, batch similar tasks, and schedule blocks of time to work through each batch. If you make a lot of phone calls, for example, schedule one-hour blocks for working through your call list.

Renegotiate as you go along. Our schedules change constantly, and life tends to get in the way of our plans. The goal is not to be a slave to our calendar, but rather to be impeccable in the way we use it to manage our commitments. When we're faced with the unexpected, we often can renegotiate our dates and deadlines. At the very least, we need to anticipate problems and give advance notice when we're not going to be able to deliver as promised. And when the worst happens, we must apologize for our failures so that we can move on.

Align your time with your priorities. Your calendar can provide a good picture of how you're allocating your resources. As you look at it, ask whether the allocation of your time is consistent with your priorities. Is most of your time going to your most important projects? Are you saying “yes” to requests when your priority list suggests that you should be saying “no”? Are you building in time for things that really matter, like working out and taking care of yourself?

Align your time with your values. While you're studying your calendar, occasionally ask yourself whether you are managing your commitments and allocating your time in a manner that is consistent with your value system. Research suggests that if you routinely fail to keep your promises, if your behavior is not consistent with your value system, your body will sense this. According to psycho-neuro-immunologists, your body will know, at a cellular level, that you are not living in integrity, and your immune system could suffer.

Resist being hijacked. Once your plan for the day is in place, your next big challenge will be to resist being hijacked by phone calls, email, visitors, and your own compulsion to multi-task. Research suggests that, to be most efficient, you may need to overcome old habits, like checking email every 10 minutes and answering the phone every time it rings. Sometimes honoring your commitments means fighting off interruptions in order to stick to your schedule.

Keep appointments with yourself. It's important to fulfill even the commitments that we make to ourselves. To illustrate the point, imagine that you keep promises made to your clients and colleagues, but not the ones you make to yourself. You forget about your yoga class, you fail to get back to a friend about a lunch date, and you don't submit your expense reports on time. If this keeps up, soon you'll be feeling frustrated and annoyed with yourself, your energy will flag, and your confidence could falter when a big opportunity comes along.

Be careful with shared calendars. The need to manage carefully becomes even more compelling when you are part of a group where calendars are shared. A group calendar should be treated with great respect, in part because it may reflect a series of agreements about how projects will be carried out. And if you make your own calendar available to colleagues, they may perceive your schedule as a series of commitments, even if that's not what you intend. If, for example, your calendar says that you'll arrive daily at 9 o'clock, but you seldom reach the office before 9:30, it may appear to your colleagues that you are always late.

Want to Read More About
Calendar Management?

Below is a brief book review, as well as links that will allow you to buy the book directly from Amazon.com. For reviews of other helpful books, along with Amazon links, go to: ClearWays Books and Services. If you buy a book this way it will contribute to the cost of distributing Bev’s Tips, and be much appreciated.

Hyrum W. Smith, The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management, Warner Books, 1994.

Smith is the creator of the Franklin Day Planner, and his approach to time management has been embraced by hundreds of organizations.

This book is a little dated in that it doesn’t reflect the many electronic options for managing your calendar. Also, I find Smith’s tone to be too preachy, and I don’t agree that his recommendations rise to the level of natural law.

That said, I still think the book is worth a read if you are exploring ways to get better control of your schedule. Some of Smith’s rules are right on target, including these:

You control your life by controlling your time.
Plan every day.
Align your activities with your priorities and values.
Developing good habits is a way to bring your performance in line with your priorities. And,
An “urgent” task is not the same as an important task. Infuse your most important projects with a sense of urgency so that they can compete with distractions that feel urgent, like ringing phones and beeping messages.

Click here to buy this book.

Want to hear more about workplace issues? Want to learn more about managing your work life? Bev offers executive coaching and leadership consulting, and is available to speak about a broad range of issues related to your work life. Visit her website at www.ClearWaysConsulting.com or email to Bev directly. Bev is associated with Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates.

Bev’s Tips for a Better Work Life is published on the first and third Tuesday of each month by Beverly E. Jones of ClearWays Consulting, LLC. Bev is a lawyer and former executive who now coaches accomplished CEO's, public afffairs executives, and other professionals to bring new direction, energy and enjoyment to their work lives.

All rights in all media reserved. However, the content of Bev’s Tips for a Better Work Life may be forwarded in full without special permission on the condition that (1) it is for non-profit use and (2) full attribution and copyright notice are given. For other uses please contact Bev Jones.

Our address is: 2925 43rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016.