As an entrepreneur, you must make sure that you manage your calendar both effectively and efficiently. If you do not, you will soon find yourself lagging behind your close competitors. Therefore, it is important that you know about the signs that will indicate whether or not you are managing your calendar properly. This will ensure that you stay on top of your appointments.

Ideally, just like any other entrepreneur, your calendar will also be full of appointments, jobs to do, and much more. This may at times seem overwhelming to keep and manage. However, that does not mean you will not consider it seriously. In fact, if you let your calendar remain a cluttered mess, this may be one of the significant reasons for the failure of your business.

Even though you may be using the best app or method to manage your time, it is only you who can make sure that it is closely and strategically followed. Here are a few signs that will indicate any gaps and areas that need further improvement.

Not Enough Time 

If you often say that there is not enough time for you to get all the things done, this is a downright lie. Why? This is because you have the same number of hours in a day (24, in case you do not know) as the most successful business owners of this world – the scientists, the TV artists and even your successful entrepreneur friend. Then why do you fall short? 

Instead of complaining, make an effort to find time to do all of the things that need to be done on a specific day and at a specific time. How you will go about it is a different issue and is entirely up to you, but the best approach to follow is to conduct a time audit. Find out:

• Whether you over or underestimate the time required to complete a specific task
• Whether you are spending a lot of time on unproductive activities such as checking your social accounts or zoning out.

This will help you a great deal in time management and eliminate the mistakes that you commonly make in a rush against time to complete a given task.

Punctuality is the Key

Imagine how you feel when the cab you have booked to go to the airport arrives late and you miss your flight, or when the online lending resource, such as Liberty Lending US, fails to deliver on time as promised. Frustrating, isn’t it? It is the same thing with your schedule. 

In addition to the fact that it will cause frustration to you, it will also delay your proceedings and you may start to procrastinating things. This will give your competitors a good opportunity to get ahead, leaving you far behind them.

Being tardy is one of the worst habits that an entrepreneur could have, and it will affect them both personally and professionally. Being late is rude and will eventually harm your reputation as well as the relationship with your customers. Additionally, you will have to scramble and rush from one thing to the other, making the entire process more stressful.

Once again, a quick time audit will help you to eliminate this issue and will also offer you better insight about your daily tasks get you into the habit of leaving buffers between two meetings and appointments. You will also learn to take travel time into account so that you are always punctual in your work.

Last Time Reviewed

If you do not remember the last time you reviewed your calendar then you are not managing your calendar well. Ideally, you should glance through your calendar at least every evening as well as first thing in the morning. 

This will ensure that you are always there where you have to be right on time. It will also ensure that everything is in order and there are no amendments necessary, such as a conference call with a client that needs a rescheduling.

If you check your calendar regularly beforehand, it will give you enough time to prepare and help you to save a lot of time on getting things organized as well. This time saved can be used for preparing something else that is next on your to-do list of the day. 

Ideally, regular monitoring of your calendar will help you to schedule and reschedule your calendar. All you have to do is use the right set of scheduling tools and software, such as intelligent calendars. This will always keep you on top of all things and your intentions. 

Therefore, make sure that you find out some time to review your calendar either every week or at least every month. This will help make you a successful entrepreneur.

The Homogeneous Look

If you do not make your calendar color-coded (or some other method of differentiation), every entry in it will have the same look. Though this may not sound like a big deal, it will be quite difficult to know where exactly you should look when you open your calendar. If you are confused with your calendar it will hamper your productivity.

Therefore, color-code your calendar, though it is up to you how exactly you will do it. However, be aware of some psychological aspects of color coding when you do so, such as

• Grey color represents balance and therefore this is an excellent color for making your meetings.
• Blue color triggers a relaxed response in your mind making it a perfect color choice for those less-taxing jobs.

If you want more motivation simply by looking at your calendar, you can try out chakra color-coding, which is associated with the energy points of your body.

Lastly, you must make sure that you accept all time requests and make no excuses to keep them.