Using Google Calendar to Block and Batch Time

As an independent business owner or small business executive, a healthy work-life integration or “work/life lifestyle” is crucial for maintaining sanity. One of the first steps anyone with a demanding lifestyle can take to regain control is to manage their time on the go with a cloud-based calendar. Cloud-based calendars also allow for automation, integration, and sharing with team members.

Keep reading for practical tips and guidance on how to optimize your calendar for a healthier work-life lifestyle using free tools like Google Calendar to prioritize and organize both work and personal events. Implementing these strategies will save time by providing more time to focus and a clearer picture of an individual or team’s overall workload.

1. Start Where You Are, With What You Have for Free

I use Google Calendar and recommend it to everyone because it’s free, easy to use, and integrates with almost everything. Of course, these tips can be used with any cloud-based calendar (or even pen and paper) so those already using another system may not need to switch. For anyone new to Google Calendar or online calendars in general, start by watching “Getting Starting with Google Calendar” to get set up before getting started. 

If you’re comfortable using online calendars already, then start simple:

A. Add all upcoming events for clarity

Many of us were taught to keep our business and personal lives separate. Unfortunately, when that carries over into our calendar, it limits our scope. If we can’t see everything on our plate, then we’re more likely to overlook something when another priority pops up.

So start by adding all upcoming obligations both professional and personal for a clear picture of any individual work/life lifestyle – it may be yours or a teammate’s. For teammates, consider holidays and special events, as well as sick or personal time. Start small with just 2-3 months of planning then work up to 6-12 months of planning. Ideally, we all need to block enough time to have a least a rough plan through retirement so plan accordingly but realistically. These updates can be done weekly or monthly over the years.

B. Add or build a weekly work routine to batch priorities

Next, use SMART goals to determine daily or weekly priorities for each individual. For example, if your business goals involve marketingMarketing is a series of steps used to achieve a sales goal.... More your website then you’ll want to block a few hours every week to optimize your blog. You may also want to block a few hours each month to review your website analytics.

Block time for top priorities ensures nothing pulls attention away from them. Plus, when the unexpected inevitably happens, the calendar not only reminds the team of a missed event but also makes it easy to manually or automatically move things around. For example, some calendars automatically move missed events to the following day or week.

C. Block time to work on your top 1-3 goals for growth

Finally, build growth into your schedule by blocking time to achieve your goals. For example, let’s use our goal of search engine optimizing our website from our previous blog post. Optimizing a website can be a big project so you may want to block time to work out a timeline or you may prefer to jump right into optimizing your image names. Either way, you’ll want to block an hour or two to get started. Then you may want to do this again weekly or monthly. 

It can be challenging to predict where success will take us, so scheduling time for the essentials ensures nothing gets overlooked. Using an easily editable, cloud-based calendar makes it easy to move things around on the go and at your leisure. Combining the two gives you a clear picture and better control over your time.

2. Consider Using Labels To Stay Organized

This step can be done before or after Step 1, but if you want to see what you’re working with before deciding how to label things, then you want to do it second.

Labeling can be simple or fairly complex so, of course, I recommend starting simple. By default, Google Calendar and most other calendars assign unique colors to each type of calendar. You can use this to group calendars, group events, and prioritize items.

For example, if you manage multiple accounts, you may use the same color for all their calendars or tasks. Similarly, if you want to prioritize your salesSales is any set of activities related to selling products a... More tasks over your marketingMarketing is a series of steps used to achieve a sales goal.... More salesSales is any set of activities related to selling products a... More, you may assign them different colors so they’re easier to distinguish.

3. Connect Your Resources for Automatic Updates

The final step to excelling at batching and blocking time is connecting all of your tools and human resources. As you grow, you will likely add booking software, a client relationship manager (CRM), or project management software (PMS). You may outsource work or hire a team. So you’ll want to make sharing and communication quick and easy for all of you.

A CRM will link tasks, meetings, and emails to each contact while tracking their salesSales is any set of activities related to selling products a... More journey. It also allows you to automate each step of the salesSales is any set of activities related to selling products a... More process by connecting all your tools and data. They’re powerful tools but starting slow and small helps to drill down the details. So, start with your most important, most time-consuming tasks. Then grow from there.

When you’re ready, check out “The 3 Best (and Free) SalesSales is any set of activities related to selling products a... More Tools for Independent Executives” to learn how to get started.

Need Help or Training?

If you need coaching or would like help setting up your own calendar, automation, or related tools, you can chat with us now using the bubble in the bottom right corner.