The great thing about utilizing your phone calendar is that it is typically always close at hand. So, are you taking advantage of this tool to make your life run more smoothly? If not, I’d like to persuade you, my friend, to take another look at:

• How you can make the best use of this tool, and
• The advantages of using your phone calendar daily

Use it daily.  To benefit from this tool, it is important to develop the daily habit of inputting data and referring to it.  Check it in the morning and sometime throughout the day. The more you put in your calendar, the more you will depend on it, and the more benefits you will reap.

When you make any appointment, immediately put it in your calendar.  I mean, RIGHT THERE. At the doctor’s office, when calling for an oil change, when scheduling a meet up with a friend, it doesn’t matter what- get your phone out and immediately type in the event and time.

Use it for your To Do Lists.  I schedule everything I need to do on the very day in the calendar, from appointments down to remembering to take the garbage out Tues. nights. (I used to forget! Now I don’t!)  I put in when to pay bills, reminders about getting rebates mailed out, birthdays, reminders to call for appointments that are hard to get in, when webinars are happening, shows I want to watch…it’s all there! I even record fall clean up weekends and Christmas decorating days because I have a small window of time to do those things and it reminds me those days are taken.  I also record when free trials expire by reminding myself a few days before to deal with it if I plan to unsubscribe.

Use entries as a log.  I record the days I get gas and how much I paid and put in. It helps me track my budget.  I’ve done it with car washes, eating out, and other activities I want to track for a while.

Record events you might want to attend. When I see something in Facebook about an upcoming event I might want to attend, it goes in my calendar. If I attend an annual event that I really liked, I put it in the next year’s calendar if it’s something that happens the same time each year. 

Some advantages to habitually using this system:

• You will feel more in control of your life
• You will not forget things nearly as often
• You will not double up on scheduling events
• You will have a record you can search to keep track of dr. appts, oil changes, flu shots, and other regularly scheduled appointments you might want to know the last date of service, or those gas station stops!
• The more you record in it, the more you will check it, the more efficient you will become.

Have I convinced you yet, on how this tool can greatly serve you? I challenge you to open your calendar app right now and put something on it for several days this week. Then think about the rest of the month. It can actually become addictive once you start!  Then make it a part of your daily routine to check it in the morning and at night.  See if you don’t feel more in control of your life!

-Jan Jones

For more on how to make better use of your calendar, here is David Allen, author

of Getting Things Done