Have you ever struggled with many appointments, schedules, meetings that you forgot a few? Have you ever had that feeling that you are losing your mind over so many things that you have to keep track of? Have you ever wondered if there is an easier way to do all this while having fun?
A physical calendar in a prominently visible position is your answer. In this article, we will go through the best practices to organize your life with your physical calendar.
Best Practices in Using Physical Calendar
- Recognize the specific purpose
- Use different colors
- Use different symbols
- Ease of access
- Consider using multiple calendars
- Come-up with your own system
- Starting is half done
Most people use their calendars to keep track of birthdays/anniversaries/ events/ family gatherings/office parties/ meetings and appointments. The calendar can be used by a family, team, group or an individual. It can be used in an office, home or a group like in church, volunteer organization. It is important to recognize the specific purpose of the calendar in usage. Is it going to be used by you as a person, would you use it as your common family calendar or in an office to keep track of your projects. The specific use of the calendar would determine what system you would employ to best use it and also where you would place it.
If you would like to keep track of your family as a group then the kitchen is likely going to be the best place to keep this calendar. Put it on a fridge where everyone in the family can easily see it. If you are going to be using it for the personal projects/ habits and goals tracking then hang it in your own room or place it on your desk.
An office team calendar can be hung in the cafeteria or place on the office fridge or in a place like a conference room where all members have an easy access to view/update or keep track of their activities.
The use of different colors is an excellent way to keep track of different types of activities or different members of a team or a family. You may also assign them a position on the daily blocks.
For example, there are 5 rows in a StriveZen calendar daily writing block. You may assign each member a specific row for their appointments. They may also start their appointment with their First Initial. For family events, you may use a different color.
Use symbols like stars or checkmarks to denote very important events or something that you don’t want to miss. You may also circle the dates to add emphasis to certain dates.
This can be an effective way to mark the important milestones for your project. If you are tracking a project or a goal and you have already marked the dates for specific tasks for that project/goal on your calendar in a specific color. Then use a different color to mark the actual completion dates for those tasks.
This will provide you a clear idea if you are going to be finishing your project on time or not by looking at the gap between the different colors.
Determine who would be using the calendar and place the calendar in a location that is most easily accessible for those folks.
At some point, it would be imperative to use multiple physical calendars to keep track of different types of things. You may consider using one calendar for the office, one for your individual goals and projects while one keeps track of the entire family unit. This will also help you clarify the location of the calendar and the system you may want to come up with for the tracking of events and tasks.
Consider these best practices as inputs to your own system of doing and tracking things depending upon your needs. As the whole family/team develops a habit of marking their events and appointments, it will become more and more useful to add more things that can be tracked using your calendar. Marking and checking off activities that have been completed are always a fun time.
Don’t let any of this overwhelm you due to many details. A slow start is better than no start. just start using your calendar first and slowly you may develop your own way of doing things. You may come back to this document again and see if there are any helpful hints that might be able to help you further.