Calendly

After years of oscillating back and forth between a paper day planner and an online calendar, a few years ago I finally made the leap online and found a permanent home with Google Calendar. However, it wasn’t until I added an online scheduling tool on top of my digital calendar (I use Calendly) that I really started to reap the benefits of these digital tools.

Now, I have a central place where I always can look to see what I’m supposed to be doing next, and others can book time with me directly. Here are the three things I did, and what this gave me:

1. ACTIVATE GOOGLE CALENDAR: Within Google Calendar, I created separate calendars for different areas of life like “social” and “work” which allowed for streamlined or segmented visibility of my schedule. I got in the habit of always proactively sending invites to friends and colleagues, ensuring a well-organized schedule that matched my actual activities.

2. CREATE A CALENDLY: I established a Calendly account with your different meeting options, for me this included a “virtual tea” option for friends as well as different length client meetings. including 15-minute prospective client meetings and 30-minute virtual catch-ups. I imposed time restrictions to hours I knew I could be on a computer and synced with my Google Calendars so no one could book during times I was busy.

3. EMPOWER OTHERS TO BOOK TIME: By sharing my Calendly link with those who need to book time with me, I started to eliminate a lot of scheduling back and forth. This liberated time, allowing a shift from administrative tasks to focused work and time off.

Main takeaways: Transitioning to a digital calendar isn't an overnight process; it's fine to take months or even a year to adjust.

Start with Google Calendar, then consider tools like Calendly once you're comfortable.

My success came from learning these systems gradually and customizing them to fit my needs.

Good luck, you got this!

Avi

P.S. If you want to get your digital life in order and could use a little help, schedule a free 15-minute consult to learn more about how I can help.