How to Manage Your Calendar According to Your Career Goals
As we prepare to close out the year and spend the holidays free from our inbox notifications (does anyone still have this feature on?), now is the time to take a cleansing breath and make some decisions about how we will play (or choose not to) in the upcoming year.
If you are like us, we used to view our calendars as a constant source of anxiety. Where do I need to be, who am I meeting with, why am I receiving this, etc. It just felt like we were not in control of achieving our goals with all of these detours. Rather than fighting outlook reminders daily, we choose to get strategic about where to place our time based on our purposes, and that made all the difference.
“A plan is what, and a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done.”
When you choose to thrive, really thrive in your corporate career development, you quickly find the areas that set you up for growth and those that are holding you back.
How to set up your work calendar for success using your career development goals:
Get a promotion.
Search your calendar for recurring department meetings. Ask yourself what role have you played in these over the past twelve months, and how might you show up differently in these meetings to stand apart? In the guide to a well-designed corporate life, we ask you to take action and share how you are growing - your department meetings could be an excellent opportunity for you to do so. Talk to your supervisor about carving out some time during an upcoming meeting to share your learnings with the team.
Additionally, you could assist your leadership team with crafting agendas or getting feedback from your peers on what they would like to see or learn during these meetings. In your next one-on-one meeting, suggest a plan to assist with upcoming department meetings. Creating a layout will instantly elevate your ability to contribute and can deepen your relationship with your supervisor, giving way to new opportunities throughout the year.
Focus your energy on a project.
When you want to execute a successful project plan, prioritizing your time is critical. Ask yourself what will it really take to make this effort successful and then build your calendar around this.
In previous roles, we have had broad responsibilities and skillsets singular to the organization. This meant that our time was in high demand for multiple projects, but we knew that doing many instead of a focused few would not give us the ability to succeed. By prioritizing the most critical project, we were then able to communicate where our time and energy would be focused, setting ourselves up for the best use of our talents.
To ensure we stayed on task, we reviewed prioritization with leadership regularly and used the 15Five toolkit to communicate effectively. The day before weekly C-Suite meetings, we took fifteen minutes to answer questions about what we accomplished in the past week, and the update took leadership 5 minutes to read. So simple and kept everyone in the know.
More accessible to direct reports or others in the company.
Maybe your goal is to help others succeed; we applaud you! As we grow in our corporate career and take on leadership responsibilities, finding time to dedicate to successful one-on-one meetings or mentorship can become difficult. It feels good to be included in every decision, but the result can be stress on our direct report relationships.
Take time to look at upcoming meetings on your calendar and ask yourself if you can elevate others through delegating meetings. Doing so is not only a benefit to you but those you are bringing forward. We grow our skill set through a combination of learning and adapting, thus, giving this ability to others outside of our leadership is setting them up for success.
To make this successful, discuss the opportunity with the meeting organizer and create a plan with your direct report for the transition. It may make sense for you to continue to attend the next few meetings to ensure expectations are appropriately set. Keep regular check-ins with both the meeting organizer and the person you delegated the meeting to provide the appropriate level of support. Give it a try with one set of sessions, learn from this, and then you can begin to delegate more meetings as you identify people to elevate. Do make sure to spread this opportunity across multiple direct reports.
BONUS: Weekly calendar tip.
Each Sunday, look at your calendar for the week and ask yourself, "what am I most excited for this week?". Re-orient your time to ensure that this happens and that you have as much space around it as possible. This effort will keep you on track for your goals and give you a healthy boost of confidence, knowing you have carved out time to focus on something you enjoy.