Is your digital calendar robbing you of the time you need to be productive? Maybe the problem isn't your calendar.

Back in my carefree boat bum days, my course was governed by the world's natural rhythms. I rose and retired with the sun, minded the tides as I planned my passages across shallow waters, and watched the night sky circle slowly around polaris on North Atlantic night watches. 

Here in the terrestrial world, my digital calendar provides a scaffolding upon which I stand to schedule meetings, presentations, coaching sessions, and production time. I even have a scheduling form that allows people to view the available slots in my schedule and reserve a meeting time. 

If you run a business and you're not using a digital calendar, it's about time! Though it may feel too structured at first, if you use it correctly, you'll soon find it liberating. Aside from the delightful advantage of not having to haul a fragile list of the week's appointments around in your way-too-porous memory, your digital calendar (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook et al) offers a powerful benefit that too few of us take advantage of: 

You can schedule personal time on it!

Block off the time you want to work on your book.

Block off naptime at 2:00 if you know your 12:00 lunch meeting's going to be a gut bomb.

Block off the end of the day if you want to leave early on Friday … or Tuesday. Isn't that one of the reasons you own your own business?

Schedule 50 minutes for your 10:00 meeting instead of 60. Then add that ten-minute sliver of downtime before the 11:00 meeting starts. Watch a cat video, work on today's Sudoku puzzle, or listen to music before you jump back in. That quick break is a productivity multiplier.

What about company birthdays, holiday promotions, and your annual sales meeting? You know when they're coming. Why panic because you suddenly discover that Diwali or Sukkot is tomorrow? Google provides pre-built calendars for religious holidays, sports, and moon phases. Schedule production time, campaigns, and trade show prep months in advance to enjoy a stress-free creation, production, and approval process. I had a client ask me to help with the wording for a last-second Thanksgiving promotion—on Thanksgiving Day! I hate to say “no” but…

Are you a writer? “Blog” is short for “backlog.” This article was written six weeks ago and set to publish today. Whatever I did this morning had nothing to do with creating this post. Why be a slave to “I publish every Tuesday at 10:00am” when you can schedule writing time on your calendar and get ahead of the game?

If you want to move your enterprise forward, you need time to think and dream. 

Schedule it!

If you want to be productive and healthy, you have to rest.

Schedule it!

I went to hear a friend play and sing at a restaurant last night. He sang non-stop for almost three hours. “Bob,” I advised him. “You're at the top of your game—you sound great—but if you push your voice past a certain point, it could take months or even surgery to recover. You might not be feeling the stress but you could still be doing damage and risking being able to work. Schedule that break time. You'll play better, sound better, and get paid more for less work.”

We all need a vacation. 

Schedule it!

You'll be amazed to discover just how flexible your clients can be and just how well your business can run without you if you give them a calendar to follow.

Too many leaders labor under the misapprehension that if they work even harder—nights, weekends, early mornings, holidays—they'll make the business grow. They conflate a suicidal work ethic with hyper-productivity. Every day is a new crisis waiting to be conquered through dedication and brute force. This is a recipe for getting sick, losing focus, or stumbling when a sudden situation knocks over your existing house of unscheduled cards. 

When opportunity knocks will you be rested and ready to answer the door without looking like you just ran a marathon?

Effective leaders manage the calendar. The calendar manages the business.

Take the Effective Leader's Scheduling Challenge

Schedule ten hours a week of personal time each week (weekends don't count). If you don't reserve it, someone else will grab that time and you'll lose it (and you'll lose the time, too)!

Want to survive in the land of clocks and calendars? Just pay attention to your clocks and calendars! Otherwise stop pretending to run a business. Tracking the sun, moon, and stars in the wilderness is a wonderful way to live as long as your goals don't include making a profit.