Successful entrepreneurs have clear goals, a strategy to reach those goals, and are
willing to make changes along the way to stay on track. One of the most important tools
any entrepreneur can have in their office is a printable calendar on the wall where they
sit. The calendar sits in plain sight every minute of the day and is not only essential, it
helps a person operate efficiently by organizing their thoughts in one place.
Here are 7 ways to increase your efficiency using the printable calendar;
1. Capturing Business Ideas
Throughout the day, ideas are coming at you from every direction, and scribbling notes
here and hanging Post-It notes there is sloppy and inefficient. Visit a printable calendar
website, download a calendar you like, use it to capture ideas for the day to develop the
habit of always looking to expand and increase productivity. Each night those ideas can
be reviewed in more detail when the stresses of the day are behind you, allowing you to
better choose ideas to expand on or delete.
Looking at the printable calendar all day will help to remind you of new ideas you are
excited about and ones that may not have panned out and should be placed on the back-burners.
2. Increase Your Productivity
During the day, new appointments will need to be made, and other ones canceled or
moved. Trying to juggle your schedule for next week or the rest of the month is a
challenge when you keep putting everything on little notes or reminders on your
cluttered desk. The printable calendar works like a monthly scheduling tool at a glance,
allowing you to increase productivity by seeing what dates are open, which are booked,
and which ones are set aside for other important business projects.
Instead of becoming overwhelmed at the thought of a million meetings this month,
glance up at the calendar and recognize you chunked down those dates in a way that
you can easily handle them with little effort.
3. Repeating Important Tasks
There are certain tasks that need to be done every week or month, in addition to all the
other things going on around you. Instead of trying to commit those tasks to memory,
the printable calendar can act as a simple daily reminder that these things need to be
addressed. These tasks can range from analyzing sales reports on Fridays to making
certain your website is compliant on the last day of each month.
Adding these tasks to the printable calendar at the beginning of the month will help to
ensure they are taken care of when the time arises.
4. Setting and Tracking Goals
The only way that a business or a person can grow is setting and achieving goals. The
printable calendar is a great way to recognize the goals for this month, then see how
progress is bringing you closer or further away from them being attained. At a glance,
you can see each day how much progress you are making and fine-tune your action to
stay the course.
When you are able to meet the goals each month, by the end of the year you have
come so far that looking back it seems like you did something otherwise impossible.
5. Recognize Upcoming Due Dates
Nothing can be more frustrating than letting a bill lapse and paying re-connection fees
or late charges. Use the printable calendar to keep track of important dates where
services need to be renewed so they do not terminate. If you know that your websites
are going to expire this month, instead of relying on an email to tell you they will lapse,
you won’t risk losing them when you see them on your calendar.
Jot down confirmation numbers on the dates so you can look back and have a record in
case a discrepancy arises.
6. Following Up With People
During the course of the month, you will interact with a number of people. Some of
these people need to be followed up with, some need to be reminded of certain things,
and others need to know that you are appreciative of their business. Use your printable
calendar to nudge you to make that contact to keep the lines of communication open
with the individual.
Marking the calendar with the birthday of the CEO of the company you want to do
business with is a great way to make a unique connection and grow that relationship.
7. Planning Time to Relax
All this hard work, your printable calendar is most likely full from the beginning to the end of
the month. Nothing will motivate you more to keep driving forward than recognizing the time
to relax for you and your family. Set aside a day each month or week that is just for you.
Highlight the calendar with a special color that shows the day you are going in for that
relaxing massage.
Pamper yourself and mark it on the calendar because it will be the driving force that
helps to keep you motivated when things don’t seem to be working as planned.
The printable calendar is an essential part of any successful business plan because it
helps to keep you on track and recognize when changes need to be made. Acting like a
little nudge every hour of your busy day, this calendar can be the key to meeting and
exceed all your business goals.