How To Use Google Calendar To Organize Your Schedule

We're all constantly juggling a lot- between work/family/school/relationships/home/personal time, it can be really overwhelming to stay on top of everything. My biggest piece of advice for not only getting it all done but increasing efficiency and decreasing stress, is to get organized and create lists. When we're able to break down all of our to-do's by day and see everything in front of us, it's so much easier to chip away at things one-by-one instead of feeling like there's a huge jumble of things in our heads that are never going to get done. The way I manage this is through Google Calendar, and today I'm giving you my best tips for getting started:

Put Your Whole Life Into Google Calendar: You schedule your clients every day so you know who you're seeing, when, and why- you should be doing the same for your other appointments and tasks. Think of Google Calendar as an extension of your booking calendar, and include EVERYTHING you have to do. Your lunch, social media posts, kid's soccer game, literally everything. Plan out your week the same way you plan out your clients. 

Sync Calendars With Your Staff/Husband/Babysitter/Etc: I have one calendar for me and one that I share with Abbi. This way, we can both see what we need to work on for the week together, but she doesn't see my personal affairs or things that aren't relevant to her, and vice versa. You can have them all turned on at once or check them throughout the day. It might also be beneficial to stay connected to your partner, family, kid's school, etc, so everything is one place! Keep all of these different calendars color coded, which leads me to my next tip...

Color Code Events: You can color code different events, tasks and keep shared calendars a different color than client appointments or social reminders. For example- Red is reminders, green is for kids, blue is for clients, yellow is for admin, pink is for you. Your eye will start to recognize each category and it's so nice and efficient to be able to immediately recognize tasks.

Set Recurring Events: If you know something will pop up weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly, you can schedule this one time and forget it. I like to sit down at the beginning of every month and look ahead so I can plug in dates and reminders I know are reoccurring. This helps me organize my life better and stay on top of my schedule, and prevents me from forgetting those recurring tasks that always seem to slip through the cracks. 

Pro Tip- Use Google Tasks: While I still use pen and paper for lists-I love using Google Tasks as a running To-Do list that is always with me and always handy. You can create categories such as "work, clients, retail, home, groceries, etc" then add to the list as needed. Once something is done , purchased or crossed off you can click and remove and it places all completed tasks in another section. You can click the completed tasks section to see what you've accomplished and it really helps to see how far you've come when you wonder what you've done with your week

Most importantly, Be Consistent: I have focused a ton of my energy into scheduling my work life so that I'm not a stress case in my personal life. I know that certain days are for specific To-Dos and i've gotten used to being organized, which is something I wasn't very good at in my past. So many of you have your clients scheduled- it's important to do the same for other parts of your business that also need attention!

Like any good habit, while it might seem intimidating at first, you have to just start and be repetitive. Finding a system of organization that works with your lifestyle will help all aspects of your business tremendously.At the end of the day, more organization equals more productivity, which in our industry equals more $$$. 

I hope this helps xx

For more about how I stay motivated and productive, check out this blog on How I Organize My Week and this Free Content Calendar to keep you on track with your social media.