For those of you who’ve double-booked yourself, eaten lunch at your keyboard, or discovered a “surprise” 3pm meeting because your calendar didn’t warn you one time too many, welcome.
Prioritise, Automate, Declutter, Repeat
Diary management shouldn’t require an MBA in time-travel, but for most NZ business owners, it’s closer to “choose your own disaster.” You’ve probably threatened to yeet your laptop out the window more than once. Let’s sort that out.
Here’s the Project Seven playbook for keeping your day under control, no 5am miracle routines (we hate hustle-pr0n) or corporate nonsense required.
- What matters goes first
Diary management starts with ruthless prioritisation. If it is important, put it first. Protect those big rocks. Block our your highest priority tasks before anything else sneaks in. Have a designated colour for “non-negotiable” stuff, including that leave me alone, I am working time. Every week, review it. If it doesn’t matter, throw it right out.
2. Let the robots work for you
Automation should be your first line of defense for better calendar management and maximum productivity. Connect your calendars to your emails, accept and reschedule work or personal without switching tabs. Use a diary booking platform that shows exactly what your availability is to others to eliminate the endless “does Tuesday work?” email chains. Set up automated reminders for more than just meetings so nothing falls through the cracks. Follow-up reminders are a blessing.
3. Chaos is not a personal brand
A cluttered diary = a cluttered mind. (And a fast track to forgetting your own birthday.) Do a diary audit every month. Delete pointless recurring meetings. Move tasks you never do. Resist the urge to colour code with too many shades or they will all start feeling meaningless and you will miss what mattered. Use folders or tags for types of events (work, home, self-care). The simpler, the better.
4. Don’t miss a beat
Those reminders we mentioned before? They deserve their own spot here, they’re that important. Stop relying on your brain to remember everything. That’s what your diary is for. Set reminders for every key meeting, deadline, or task..choose pop-ups or notifications that work for you, just set them. Use daily or weekly digests, not just one-off reminders. That way, nothing sneaks up on you.
5. Unsubscribe from meetings and notifications that don’t serve you
Saying no to the time-wasters can be the biggest productivity hack of all. Ruthlessly unsubscribe from meetings you never join, or don’t want to. If you aren’t adding value, skip it. All those weekly, sometimes daily (FML y’all) marketing emails? Either set up a rule that moves them straight to a separate folder that is not your inbox to read later, or take the 10 min to unsubscribe to as many as you can. You cannot convince us that you read them all, or that every one of them is providing you value.
6. Duplication is for chumps
Integration is where it’s at! Your diary should work everywhere you do. Sync that bad boy across all your devices. Make sure all of your project tools talk to your calendar (Slack, Teams, Asana, Google, Notion…whatever you love)
Diary management is about making your calendar work for you, so you can get more done and feel less like a headless chook on Red Bull.
Prioritise what matters.
Automate what you can.
Declutter what you don’t need.
Set reminders for everything important.
Unsubscribe from meetings and noise.
Integrate everywhere you work.
Need some direction on coping with your inbox too? Try our Inbox Reset Checklist.
Still feeling buried? Project Seven can tame your diary and free up your brainspace. Because your calendar should not spark existential dread.