Virtual Moxie

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Planning Your Day When You Don’t Know How Much Time You Need To Do the Work

Virtual Moxie

This often comes up after I recommend that they not try to manage their time on a to-do list, but instead, with the only two tools we humans have that help us actually manage time…clocks and calendars. My thoughts on doing that are here and here. Here’s the hard news. You scheduled 40 minutes and it took you 25?

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Simple Structure; Immense Freedom

Virtual Moxie

And you can''t manage your time if you aren''t using a clock and calendar to do it. The fences—your clock and calendar. You can feel free to do whatever you want, as long as you can point to a time and date on your calendar and block off the time for it. There really are only so many hours in a day.

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Control the Time; Control the Work

Virtual Moxie

The problem is that “later today,” and “as soon as you can,” aren’t times you can point to on a clock and calendar. It’s this: put everything on your calendar. I set my calendar up in 15 minute increments (you may decide it’s easier for you to think in terms of a different type of time block). Everything. Every task, every.

Calendars 100
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Stop Struggling; Start Scheduling!

Virtual Moxie

The problem is that “later today,” and “as soon as you can,” aren’t times you can point to on a clock and calendar. Put everything on your calendar. In reality, most people find it incredibly freeing because in seeing a calendar full of work, it makes it painfully obvious that to try to squeeze anything in is insanity personified.

Calendars 100
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Schedule a Call ONLY at the Point You Confirm It.

Virtual Moxie

Amy wrote to pick my brain , with this conundrum: “When a potential client emails me and wants to do a consultation, I always send back three very date/time-specific appointment possibilities, and immediately block those times on my calendar, pending his response; it's what I feel I should do, since I offered those times.

Calendars 100
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A Smart Way to Think About Your Spare Time

Virtual Moxie

One of them is a perpetual wall calendar (I admit I don''t use it, but it''s beautiful, so I keep it). In my office, I have many things that inspire me. It''s done in mixed media, and across the top in fabric, paper, blocks, and marbles, is a sentence: . Although paraphrased from a longer Emerson quote, I prefer this one!

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How I Stay Productive

Virtual Moxie

said that I live and die by my calendar, and that if something isn’t on it, it doesn’t exist in my world. I seriously count on my calendar to keep track of what I’m supposed to do, and when, and it’s my first-used tool in just about everything I do. I calendar (in Outlook) everything during my work day (generally 8a-6p, M-R).

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