Calendaring for joy
CALENDARING: the process of entering into a calendar; scheduling
Labor Day marks the beginning of Strategy Season which means a flurry of Outlook Invites for the next year will start hitting my Inbox like Amazon packages on my porch before the holidays. Those Invites are little gifts that contain the important things.
What are the important things?
The answer to this question is the prerequisite to effective calendaring and it depends entirely on your personal and organizational values.
Three of my personal values are freedom, learning and relationships (which map to our organizational values at ADVISA of family, continuous learning and belonging). Accordingly, my work calendar reflects:
- A 4-day work week that kicks off the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and ends the Friday of Labor Day weekend
- Time off for vacations
- My monthly Vistage Worldwide, Inc. peer group meeting
- Book talks with new employees
- Hamilton County Leadership Academy events
- A master class on leveraging AI
- Employees’ work anniversaries and birthdays
- Networking meetings
- Community service for Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity
Other meeting rhythms and notable events that are calendared include our monthly A-Team meeting, our mid-year and end-of-year meetings, 1-on-1s with direct reports and our annual strategic planning and talent review meetings.
What are the important things? The answer to this question is the prerequisite to effective calendaring – and it depends entirely on your personal and organizational values.
How do you neutralize the tyranny of the urgent?
When we proactively consider, prioritize and schedule important things, we neutralize the tyranny of the urgent – that invisible, insidious enemy of the 4 Fs:
- Focus
- Follow-through
- Flexibility
- Fun
Why are the 4 Fs important to leaders?
Focus is the difference between being busy and being productive. (Essentialism by Greg McKeown is required reading for new employees.)
Leadership is a game of “Whack-a-Mole.” When important things are already on your calendar, you can respond with measured flexibility vs. frenzy when unexpected issues pop up.
Follow-through is the difference between ideas and action, good intentions and results, consistency and chaos. Meeting rhythms force follow-through.
Fun happens when we have white space at home and work. Counterintuitively, calendaring helps you see and protect the white space so spontaneity and connection can occur as opportunities arise. Fun leads to joy.
And joy is worth more than our paychecks.
Happy calendaring!