Untangling Your Messy Calendar

A **calendar** on a yellow background with sticky notes on it.

Keeping appointments and deadlines in a calendar is essential. Without one, unless you’ve got a fabulous memory, things go bad quickly!

Unfortunately, many people still struggle with electronic calendar setup, something I see with clients. This is how it usually happens:

  • They have a job before they start their business, and they use a calendar associated with their email for their personal life. That makes perfect sense.
  • They start a business and separate their business and personal lives (just like when they had a job). So they get a new email account for work, something like mybusinessname@gmail.com account. Now, there are two calendars.
  • Then (sometimes), they get a paid domain email account (e.g., yourdomain.com ). Then, they get a calendar with that domain, and there are now three places to log into and three places to track.

I was one of these people until I decided to consolidate everything in one place.

If there is resistance to this idea, it’s usually from people who want to keep their “work-life” and “personal life” separate. I understand, but since there is only one you and only one place you can be at any one time, it makes sense to keep everything in one place.

You can even have other people’s calendars show up (with their permission, of course). For example, I can toggle on and off some clients’ calendars. This way, we can schedule meetings easier, reducing confusion.

Sorting this out can take a little time, but I guarantee it’s worth the effort. Here’s how to start:

  1. Decide which calendar you’re going to use. Open the other calendars and transfer your appointments manually or hire someone to migrate them. Be sure to look a year ahead so you don’t miss any recurring events, like anniversaries and birthdays that might be months in the future.
     
  2. Make sure all calendar invites sent and received are done so using the email address tied to this calendar.
     
  3. Ask other calendar owners, like your children, significant others and select clients, to “share” their calendars with you. If you use Google calendar click here for step-by-step instructions, and click here if you use Outlook.

When you’re finished with the consolidation, you’ll be able to access your calendar across all your devices knowing that everything you need is in one place.