I’ve become a crazy ca…lendar lady
Do I think everyone needs to time-block, yes.
Do I think you can be an ambivert time-blocker, also yes.
Could you become a crazy color-coded lady like me? Also, also yes.
Chances are you’ve heard me say a million times now how I take a daily siesta, I practice micro-ambition, etc.
The issue here is that I did all of it in my mind.
I’m horrible at writing things down — and it wasn’t that I was forgetting anything, but I knew that by freeing up just a little bit of space, I could create more time to do better work or even build new projects.
So I started documenting every action I took in my business.
I started slowly just adding items to my calendar one by one, but then there was so much added I couldn’t tell what items belonged to which project or where my time was being spent, so I started using the colored labels within my calendar.
Google Calendar labels feature
The issue with these is that there’s a limit to how many labels you can have — and of course, I hit that in a matter of days… but there had to be another solution.
I knew I was not the only person who wanted to have my Google Calendar organized more efficiently.
So I did some digging.
I tried rigging the system, dove into several searches to find a solution and ended up creating a multi-calendar system.
This system is pretty simple — actually, it’s stupid simple, and for me who I’d like to assume is tech-forward, I had no clue I could create this.
Before I show you how to set up your different calendars, here is a breakdown of the categories I use, to give you some inspiration:
Main Calendar — this is the default calendar that’s associated with your email, think when people invite you to an event, it will show here.
Admin — I use this calendar to document random blocks like email catchup or planning.
Client Calls, and
Client Deliverables — these are pretty straightforward
Content Creation — one of my goals this year is to find a better balance between client work and content, so this is probably my most important calendar to use for tracking items right now. I feel guilty when I look at my weekly spread and don’t see red blocks.
Internal Projects — this seems pretty straightforward too — but I will say this calendar is what I lean on my assistant Alexa with the most. We meet once a month and I braindump different projects I want to work, we break down all the line items to get it done, and then she plugs everything into my calendar to work on over time.
Networking — this calendar has become a lifeline lately. Back in May I made it my mission to attend 2 to 3 events every week and network more here in Austin. I use this calendar to track all of my RSVPs and reoccurring meetups.
Partnerships — Alongside networking, I’ve been making more of an effort to connect with people digitally by cold/warm email, LinkedIn connections, etc. This is a simple reoccurring block so I spend dedicated time doing it.
Personal — this is pretty straightforward too. I block my morning workout, lunch, errands that may cut into my work day. I don’t however track things like chores because that just seems depressing.
Project Management — instead of looping planning and management of my team and projects as deliverables, this calendar defines PM as it’s own focus so I know exactly how much time I’m spending every week checking in on progress, prepping for calls, etc.
Sales — this calendar tracks sales calls, sending RFPs, and following up with leads. My goal is to have 2 sales calls per week, and this makes it easy to see if we hit that goal or not.
Last thing — I have a dedicated calendar for each “side-project” I’m working on.
So one for our production house, PRDN Me, one for the board I’m on — Future Front Texas, etc. If anything, this was probably the most helpful to create because I don’t use separate emails for these interactions. Instead, I can just simply see if I have commitments “outside of systms” that week.
All in all, I have 14 different color-coded calendars to track the major areas of my time.
screenshot of my calendar to see each category breakdown
I will say, that while my calendar seems overwhelming looking at it, it has reduced so much stress and overwhelm for me because I know at all times where my day is headed, how much energy I need to give, and most importantly if I’m spending my time how I want to, rather than working reactionary like I used too.
Circling back to the beginning of this article, I am very much am an ambivert time-blocker.
Yes, I have the majority of blocks pre-added, but I also add as I go — especially admin & client deliverables.
For instance, if a client emails me for troubleshooting, I do the task and then add it to my calendar however long it took to complete.
Then every week, my assistant Alexa looks at each calendar and calculates the total time spent, before popping everything into Harvest for a monthly report to see a true breakdown of my time.
OKAY now that the semantics are out of the way, here’s what you’ve been waiting for, creating the extra calendars.
All you have to do is:
Open up Google Calendar,
In the left-side panel, click the + sign next to “Other Calendars”
Select ‘Create New Calendar’
Name the calendar and click “Create Calendar”
Once it saves, then you can change the color to whatever works for your vibe.
That’s it. Easy peasy.
Written By: Sara Loretta
👋🏼 Sara Loretta is the Chief Digital Architect & Founder @ _systms™ — she’s also the 10th US Certified Notion Consultant, and 1st Certified Paperform Expert. Through her work and creatorship, Sara is focused on connecting and educating teams on tech, workflows, and all the ways they can optimize their business to scale.
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