Effective diary management is fundamental to the smooth running of any successful business. From prioritising meetings and projects, to managing travel arrangements, booking rooms, catering, creating agendas, to arranging meetings, and managing expectations. There’s so much that goes into managing a diary effectively.
However, handling a busy and ever-changing diary is a difficult task in itself. It can be a time-consuming job, and if you get it wrong, it could have significant repercussions on the business. Wanting to change one meeting could have a knock-on effect and involve rearranging an entire day, or even a week of meetings and appointments. And the consequences could lead to meetings being missed, projects being forgotten, and ultimately leading to loss of sales.
Here are 3 ways to master diary management.
Choosing the right platform There are so many different platforms, apps and integrations available now that there is such a wide choice of what platform to use. But it’s crucial to find the right one, and one that works well for you. Finding the one that fits your needs, business and lifestyle.
Having features like being able to manage your diary on the go, linked to your emails and easy to use are important things to consider when making your choice.
But also consider other features like tasks, reminders, notifications, access for others to see and book meetings with you. Whether you want to be able to customise it with colour coding, having multiple calendars, the synchronisation with other calendars and platforms. There’s so much to consider so make yourself a list of key features that you’d find useful.
Have one dedicated person managing the diary Whether you’re managing the diary yourself, have an assistant or a team of assistants, the key to effectively managing a diary is having one dedicated person managing it.
Having multiple people managing a diary leaves too much room for error. Where one person might think adding in another meeting won’t have a knock-on effect, it could have significant consequences to the whole planning of the day. Will there be enough time to get there? Does the travel need to be rebooked? Will it impact on other appointments and meetings?
One dedicated person managing the diary will be able to decide whether adding that one meeting in would cause disruption, but also allows them the ability to look into the impacts of adding that meeting in. This dedicated person is able to take on the responsibility and know the diary inside out to ensure the diary’s purpose is fulfilled.
Scheduling time for everything Many business owners and executives focus on using the diary purely for business meetings and appointments.
However, the key to ensuring effective diary and time management, is to use the diary to its full potential. This includes adding in every little detail of the days work. What admin and projects need to be planned in. Any prep time before meetings, and time to follow up after. Adding in personal appointments and commitments. Reminders to follow things up, when to complete actions etc.
Adding all of these details into the diary keeps everything on the radar but also helps ensure appointments aren’t missed, tasks are carried out and deadlines met.
Plans can change at any point, so don’t get carried away planning too far in advance, leaving no room to move anything around.
Diary management is so important but can be difficult and time-consuming. If you’re finding it hard keep track of your diary, not quite sure how to use it to the best of its ability or just struggling to find the time to organise it all then why not get in touch and find out how we could help you to effectively manage your diary. Contact us now on 020 3370 4075 to find out more.