What to look for in day planners & appointment calendars.

what-to-look-for-in-day-planners-appointment-calendars

It’s amazing how much you can get accomplished when you go in with a plan. Good time management is the key to success in any project. Nothing helps you stay on task better than an old fashioned day planner. The approach of the new year is good time to pick one up. You’ll find lots of deals on 2011 calenders and planners at OnTimeSupplies.com.

Day planners are available in daily planner, weekly planner and monthly planner styles and fall under two main categories. Office Ink shows you which style of day planner will best meet your needs.

Appointment calendar

Day planners with an appointment calendar, or appointment books,  help you organize your work day.  Whether you manage a salon or an executive’s schedule as an assistant, you want your appointment book to have the same features as a regular day planner, with the added benefit of an an hourly appointment calendar.

Planning calendar

Day planners with planning calendars  come in a range of styles and go by a lot of names – student planners, personal organizers, etc. – but they are all designed to help you track your task lists, manage your time, and plan short and long term projects. Whether you choose a style with daily, weekly or monthly planner pages, your new day planner should have:

  • space for jotting down notes and reminders. If your day planner doesn’t have adequate space for notes, it will become filled with short, cryptic scribblings and cramped, illegible handwriting. With ample note taking space, you’ll be able to actually read your notes instead of trying to divine their meaning.
  • a section for telephone numbers and addresses. You haven’t memorized anyone’s telephone number since you bought your cell phone ten years ago – not your boss’, not your best client’s, not your kid’s. Use your day planner to back up important contact info in your day planner.
  • large calendar pages for at a glance viewing. Your day planner should be convenient to use and consult, otherwise you won’t use it.
  • relevant calendar, i.e. public school calendar or other academic calendar, fiscal calendar, etc. Whatever your business demands.

AT-A-GLANCE, Day Runner, Day-Timer, and FranklinCovey all make great 2011 day planners and appointment books that will help you stay organized all year long. Order now at OnTimeSupplies.com to get same day shipping, and to get a jump start on an organized new year.

Organizing Quick Tips – “From Piles to Files”

Here’s are a few useful quick-tips to avoid those piles in your work area

  1. Keep only those items on your desk that you use every day – stapler, calculator, phone, pencil holder, etc.
  2. The less often you use an item, the further from your desktop it should be stored.
  3. Keep personal items in one area. Then, move everything back an inch to increase workspace.

Pretty useful, don’t you think? Though it may seem like pure common sense, it’s certainly something that I could apply more often, and probably will now that I’ve read that.

That is the “Tip of the Week,” from the website of “Piles to Files,” a consulting outfit aiming to help companies improve their organization. You can find the company online at www.pilestofiles.com.

Though I haven’t used this firm myself, it appears to be a useful resource if you are willing to spend some money for some quality information to make your business more efficient. The company covers topics such as:

Organizing Paperwork
Managing Time
Personal Coaching
Home-based Business, Home Office Consulting
Seminars and Workshops
Training

In the words of Piles to Files, “Break Free From the Clutter!”

Appointment Juggling: Planners & Calendars are Critical

Appointment Juggling: Planners & Calendars are Critical

It’s Tuesday night. The clock says it’s four-thirty, but it feels as though it has been saying that for the last half hour. You were supposed to be finishing up some payroll busywork, but have instead found yourself fiddling with the contrast on your monitor. Perhaps making it brighter would make it more pleasant to look at. Darker? Mainly, you’re just trying to kill the last half hour before its time to go home. True, you could just leave now and no one would think the worse of you, but you like to set a good example for your employees. Besides, you like to leave your early escapes for Friday.

Then the phone rings. It’s your boss, and he wants to know why you aren’t at the meeting downtown! Oh no! You completely forgot about it. You scramble to make up an excuse, but he doesn’t sound happy. He advises you to meet him first thing in the morning so he can catch you up on what you missed. You hang up and lose interest in the contrast of your monitor and decide you have to do something about your appointments. But what is the answer? Is there one, or are you simply doomed to a poor memory and an inability to juggle time?

The Planning Calendar

There is an answer, and it is found in the planning calendar. At-a-Glance is but one company that makes a fine planning calendar. These calendars make it easy for you to keep track of all of your appointments, meetings, and special events that you have a tendency to forget. And you’re not alone. If everyone could simply remember everywhere they were supposed to be, planning calendars wouldn’t be one of the biggest selling office supply items on the market. You just need to take the time to get one, and get organized.

Of course, having a planning calendar will not do you much good if you do not use it the right way. You have to make sure you right everything in that calendar, no matter how small and insignificant. You then need to make it a point to look at the calendar every morning and plan your day accordingly. Take the time to thumb through the next few days as well, just to make sure there isn’t something on the horizon you need to be planning for today.

Overall Time Management

While a planning calendar is important, it’s not the only aspect of your overall strategy. You can do many other things to help you start controlling your time, rather than have it be the other way around. One of these ways is to start each day by creating a to do list. Granted, this isn’t a revolutionary idea, but are you doing it? Or do you easily get sidetracked even when you know there are things to get done. Having a to do list, and writing it up in the order in which the tasks need to be completed is an excellent way to start managing your time better. Encourage your employees to do the same. Just the act of creating the list can make you feel better and more in control.

Get Help with Time

Don’t hesitate to bring others in to your time management strategies. This particularly includes your employees. Make sure you use these people in such a way that they can contribute to getting tasks done and appointments kept. After all, that’s part of why you’re paying them. If need be, incorporate your family into the mix as well. If you have important tasks that can be delegated to anyone else, make sure you do so if you won’t have time to manage the project by yourself. Of course, when it comes to friends and family, this only works if you’re willing to do the same for them should the opportunity come up.

Time management doesn’t have to be the bane of your existence. If you take some simple steps to get it under control, you’ll find that you had much more time in your day than you originally thought, and you won’t feel that constant weight of stress crushing down on you throughout your days. Isn’t that reason enough to get things in hand?