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Thomas Frank
How to Organize Your Calendar - The Ultimate Guide
How to Organize Your Calendar - The Ultimate Guide
Thomas Frank
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13:23 · Sep 29, 2021
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- This video is sponsored by Skillshare.
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If you wanna make better first impressions with people you meet,
0:04
build good relationships over time, and in general live a more successful life,
0:08
one of the simplest things you can do is be punctual.
0:10
Be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there.
0:13
Of course that's easier said than done,
0:15
because most of us live pretty complex lives.
0:17
We've got class, we've got work, we've got meetings,
0:19
we've got secret backroom deals to get to.
0:21
So it's not always the easiest task to keep a perfect record of your
0:24
schedule up in the three pounds of mushy cranial material inside your head.
0:28
And honestly, you shouldn't even be trying.
0:29
As David Allen, the original productivity guru, once wrote:
0:32
"Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them."
0:36
So today you, my friend, are entering calendar bootcamp.
0:40
Now, your calendar is a part of what I love to call the productivity
0:43
system,
0:44
which is the combination of external tools
0:46
that come together kind of like Voltron robots to form this cohesive,
0:49
real world source of truth for everything going on in your life,
0:52
and that includes tasks, ideas, contacts, and of course events.
0:56
So today I'm gonna teach you how to set up the calendar part of
0:58
that system so that it never fails you,
1:00
and accomplishing that goal means following three simple rules.
1:03
Number one, set up your calendar in a way that suits you.
1:06
Number two, add events and relevant information to those events.
1:10
And number three, get information out of your calendar at the right time.
1:14
And the right time might not be what you think it is.
1:16
So let's kick this off with rule number one:
1:18
set up your calendar in a way that suits you.
1:21
And that starts with choosing a calendar system in the first place,
1:24
leading us to the inevitable age-old question, what kinda calendar is best?
1:27
Physical or digital?
1:29
And if the answer is digital, what's the best calendar app?
1:32
Well, in the world of fitness there's this old adage.
1:34
"The best workout program is the one that you will actually stick to."
1:38
The most hyper-optimized program for Olympians is gonna be useless to you
1:41
if you don't enjoy it,
1:42
or if you don't have time to stick with it.
1:44
That's actually why I work with a lifting coach.
1:46
If I have a super busy week, or if I'm traveling,
1:48
Matt can just adjust my programming accordingly and I stick to my workout.
1:51
And the same is true for calendar apps and productivity apps in general.
1:54
The best one is the one that you'll actually use and stick to.
1:57
Now, personally, I like Google Calendar.
1:59
Some of my friends like Apple Calendar better.
2:01
My mom actually sticks with an old school wall calendar.
2:03
That works for her.
2:04
These are all legitimate choices,
2:05
because a calendar is really a personal tool that has one main job;
2:09
acting as that external source of truth for your life's events.
2:12
So as I mentioned earlier, Google Calendar is my personal calendar app of choice.
2:16
That's because it is free.
2:17
I can pull it up on my computer and my phone,
2:19
which is always with me, and that's nice.
2:21
Even my watch.
2:21
And it also has some integrations with other apps like SavvyCal,
2:24
which I use for scheduling meetings with other people and not doing email tag.
2:27
So for that reason,
2:28
we're gonna be using Google Calendar as the visual example in this video.
2:32
But I do wanna mention that there are some other great apps out there.
2:34
I've got a companion article for this video, and you'll see them listed there.
2:38
And in general, I will note that, again, for me,
2:40
I do think that digital calendar apps have some very compelling advantages over paper
2:45
calendars,
2:45
namely recurring event support and reminder support, which is very nice.
2:49
But if you wanna use a paper calendar,
2:51
or a paper planner like this one, that's totally cool too.
2:54
And there are some advantages to paper calendars
2:56
as well. - Do you always carry
2:57
that calendar in your pocket? - Yes. - For one,
3:00
it's pretty hard to get sucked into Instagram
3:02
or TikTok when you're adding an event into your paper calendar,
3:05
and also you can use markers and highlighters to make your paper calendar "aesthetic."
3:09
Now, one thing that I like to do
3:10
when I'm setting up my calendar is divide the different types of events in
3:13
my life into groups
3:14
that I call it "life buckets."
3:16
And this was especially helpful
3:18
when I was a student
3:18
and had a much more chaotic life,
3:20
'cause I had work shifts, I had class, I had exams.
3:22
I had on-campus events,
3:24
I had scheduled study blocks with study partners and friends.
3:26
Tons of different things going on in all kinds of different categories.
3:29
And I think a lot of you are gonna be in the same boat.
3:32
We live very complex, multifaceted lives in many cases.
3:35
So doing this just gives you some visual separation on your calendar,
3:38
and just gives you a better bird's eye view of everything you have going
3:40
on in your life.
3:42
Now, in Google Calendar, you can easily choose the color of each event,
3:44
and you can divide your events up into life buckets that way.
3:47
But I like to go one step further
3:49
and create an actual separate calendar for each of these buckets.
3:52
And that gives me a couple of different advantages.
3:54
Number one, I can set a default color for every single event type.
3:57
But number two, and more importantly,
3:59
I can set up default notification preferences for each of these different calendars.
4:03
And that's very useful because I sometimes do wanna get notified about events,
4:07
like for appointments, but I don't need notifications for every single event on my
4:10
calendar,
4:11
like scheduled self-study time in the morning.
4:12
I don't need to be notified about that.
4:14
I know I'm gonna do it.
4:15
Rule number two is to add events to your calendar, kind of obvious,
4:18
but also add relevant information to those events.
4:21
So in order for your calendar to be that trusted external source of truth,
4:24
you have to actually add events to it.
4:26
But for a lot of people, especially over the longterm,
4:29
that's kind of easier said than done,
4:30
because a lot of calendar systems have a lot of friction.
4:33
And when there's friction involved in a system, especially a productivity system,
4:37
we start getting tempted to just try to remember things.
4:39
We go against that David Allen advice from the beginning of the video.
4:42
We're trying to hold ideas in our head instead of externalizing them.
4:46
And that's not good.
4:47
So what we're gonna do in this section is go over several different tips
4:49
for getting events into your calendar painlessly
4:52
and with less friction,
4:53
but also how to make those events more useful to you as well.
4:56
And let's start with optimizing for quick capture.
4:59
In the world of productivity,
5:00
the idea behind quick capture is
5:02
that the faster you can get something into your system,
5:04
be it a task, an event, an idea, a contact,
5:07
the more likely it is that you're actually going to do so.
5:10
And there are a lot of tools out there
5:11
that try to optimize for this.
5:12
There are GTD style inboxes,
5:14
a single default place where you basically just dump everything
5:17
when you're on the go
5:18
and then process it later.
5:19
My Ultimate Tasks Task Manager Notion template has one built in for calendar events.
5:24
There are also some quick capture tools out there.
5:26
The one that I use personally is an app called Fantastical.
5:28
Now, earlier I said that I use Google Calendar as my calendar system,
5:32
but what I actually do is import those calendars into Fantastical,
5:35
which is both an iPhone app and a Mac app,
5:38
and what that gets me access to is Fantastical's natural language processing for adding
5:42
events.
5:43
And if you've ever used Todoist, you're probably familiar with this.
5:46
In Todoist you can type out all the details of a task in the
5:49
quick add bar,
5:50
and if you have a project tag or a due date,
5:53
Todoist will parse that information and add it where it's supposed to be.
5:53
And Fantastical has the exact same feature.
5:53
It pulls out details like location, date, and time.
5:53
So basically I can just type, or in many cases speak,
5:53
the event right into the title,
5:53
and it's gonna get all the information and put it in the right place,
5:53
which is really, really nice.
5:53
I also keep Fantastical's widget on the front page of my home screen,
5:53
so I can just tap in there and tap the Add Event button,
5:53
and that's a tip
5:53
that works for pretty much any calendar app
5:53
that does have widgets.
5:53
Our next tip is a pretty big one here,
5:53
and it's to use recurring events.
5:53
This is another area where, like I said earlier,
5:53
digital calendars have a huge advantage over physical calendars.
5:53
If you have events that repeat, like something that happens every single day,
5:54
or every week, or heck, the third Wednesday of every other month,
5:54
in a digital calendar app, you can go and set up a recurring event,
5:55
so all you have to do is put in the event's details once,
5:55
specify how it repeats and if it ends,
5:55
and that's always gonna be on your calendar at the right time.
5:55
So those are a couple of tips for getting events into your calendar more
5:55
quickly,
5:55
but what about making those events more useful to you?
5:55
Well, one thing that I love to do is add relevant information about an
5:55
event into the description field of
5:55
that event.
5:55
I do this all the time, because when I'm going to an event,
5:55
when it's about to start,
5:55
my calendar is the most relevant piece of my productivity system with respect to
5:55
that event.
5:55
I don't wanna be digging through my email.
5:56
I don't wanna be digging through my note-taking system.
5:56
If there's information about an event,
5:56
I'm just gonna open up my calendar and find it there.
5:56
Another useful tip is to add optional events to your calendar.
5:56
Your set-in-stone schedule isn't the only thing
5:57
that can be on your calendar.
5:57
You can also basically give yourself options.
5:57
So as an example,
5:57
I'm currently taking a course to get my professional barbell coach certification.
5:57
And the course comes with optional coaching calls
5:57
that I can get on every week with higher level coaches who answer questions
5:57
and go through different topics.
5:57
And I'm really busy.
5:57
I've got these videos to make.
5:57
I've got Notion templates to make.
5:57
I can't always make these calls,
5:57
but I always put them on my calendar in a special life bucket called
5:57
EDU Opportunities so that
5:57
when the time comes,
5:57
if I do happen to have time,
5:57
I can choose whether or not to attend.
5:57
And another tip that's kind of along the same lines here,
5:58
create reference calendars for useful information and useful schedules.
5:58
So back in college, my professors, like most professors, had office hours.
5:58
So at the beginning of the semester,
5:58
I would get all the office hours for my professors,
5:58
and I would put them in my own calendar called Professor Office Hours.
5:58
And normally this was hidden by default.
5:58
I didn't wanna gunk up my own schedule,
5:58
but in the case that I needed to see a professor,
5:58
I could easily just turn the calendar on and see when their free time,
5:58
when their office hours coincided with me having some time on my schedule.
5:58
And this is also very useful for things like basketball court schedules,
5:58
open gym schedules.
5:58
Anything that you wanna reference and cross-reference with your own schedule,
5:58
make a reference calendar for it.
5:58
And finally, this is a tip
5:58
that I shared over on my Twitter the other day,
5:58
and it's more of a general personal development tip,
5:58
but if you find yourself with your longterm goals at odds with your short
5:58
term desires,
5:58
if you find yourself skipping workouts, or not cooking when you're supposed to,
5:58
start scheduling things.
5:58
Start scheduling time to work on your goals, whether it's instrument practice, or workouts,
5:58
or cooking dinner, because when you schedule something, you remove ambiguity from the choice.
5:58
And a lot of times
5:58
when we are trying to do things
5:58
that we know are good for us,
5:58
we are dealing with a lot of ambiguity,
5:58
and that contributes to the resistance
5:58
and the likelihood that we're just gonna go play video games.
5:58
So when you schedule it, when you put it in a calendar,
5:58
you're basically saying, "I wanna be beholden to my past self,
5:58
and I'm adding some specificity to this goal,"
5:58
and it's gonna make it much easier to actually do it,
5:58
and it should boost your motivation a bit.
5:58
And now we move on to rule number three,
5:58
get information from your calendar and get it at the right time.
5:58
And I've got two big tips
5:58
that you're gonna wanna follow
5:58
so that you actually get stuff from your calendar.
5:58
Number one, check your calendar every day.
5:58
This is a very simple tip, but a lot of people skip it.
5:58
A lot of people don't look at their calendars,
5:58
even if they're adding events to it,
5:58
and that doesn't make the calendar very useful.
5:58
So right when you wake up in the morning, check your calendar.
5:58
Make it part of your morning routine, and in doing so,
5:58
you're going to prime your brain,
5:58
and you're gonna get a bird's eye view of everything coming up in your
5:58
day,
5:58
and be much less likely to have something blindside you
5:58
and throw off your plans.
5:58
Secondly, set up notifications.
5:58
If you are using a digital calendar app,
5:58
you can set up notifications to remind you before an event happens.
5:58
And I highly recommend using these, especially for very important events, like interviews,
5:58
and exams, and the destruction of the universe by Zorp the Surveyor. - Hail
5:58
Zorp. - Hail Zorp. -
5:58
But hang on a second.
5:58
When should you set these notifications to hit?
5:58
Well, that is gonna kick us into a bit of a discussion on human
5:58
psychology.
5:58
See, we humans, with our mushy brains and all,
5:58
are susceptible to something called the planning fallacy,
5:58
which describes how we are very over-optimistic
5:58
when we are estimating how long things are going to take.
5:58
This is partly because we basically can't distinguish between the best case scenario
5:58
and the average case scenario.
5:58
So best case, like you hit every single green light.
5:58
There's no traffic.
5:58
Average case, there's a few red lights.
5:58
There's some traffic.
5:58
But our brains conflate them when we're making estimations.
5:58
There's research on this.
5:58
And there's also the segmentation effect.
5:58
If I broke down a task, like go to work,
5:58
into a bunch of different mini tasks
5:58
and had you estimate how long each one would take,
5:58
you would be much more accurate than
5:58
if I asked you how long is it gonna take to get to work?
5:58
That's the segmentation effect, and we are very susceptible to it.
5:58
So when setting up our notifications, we should be cognizant of these facts.
5:58
We should know that we vastly underestimate how long it's gonna take to get
5:58
places,
5:58
to do things, to get ready, and we should set up our notifications accordingly.
5:58
Now, one way you can do this is go very simple and just say,
5:58
"I'm gonna make it an hour before,"
5:58
but sometimes it takes more than an hour to get ready.
5:58
So what you can also do is use a fudge ratio.
5:58
Take your initial estimate of how long it's gonna take to do something,
5:58
and add a multiplier to it.
5:58
1.5 is a good starting point.
5:58
So if your initial estimate for getting ready for work let's just say is
5:58
30 minutes,
5:58
then add 1.5 X on that,
5:58
and let's just set your notification for 45 minutes in advance.
5:58
One additional note here is
5:58
that most calendar apps will let you set up multiple notifications.
5:58
So for especially important or infrequent events,
5:58
I would recommend having an additional notification that comes much further out.
5:58
And this is especially important for things like birthdays
5:59
or anniversaries where you're gonna need some prep time to find a present,
6:00
or book a venue, or whatever it is.
6:00
So to quickly recap here,
6:01
first set up your calendar system in a way that suits you.
6:01
It can be digital, it could be analog.
6:01
It's all cool.
6:01
Just pick something that you're actually going to stick with.
6:02
Secondly, add events to your calendar and relevant information to those events.
6:02
Use quick capture techniques
6:02
and apps like Fantastical to cut down on the amount of time it takes,
6:02
and also make your events more useful.
6:02
Add reference calendars, optional events,
6:02
and schedule time for goals and things that are important to you.
6:02
And finally third, get information from your calendar at the right time.
6:02
Check your calendar every single day.
6:02
Make it part of your morning routine,
6:02
and also set up notifications
6:02
so that you have ample time to prepare
6:02
and actually get to your next event
6:02
so you're not freaking out
6:02
and stressed all the time.
6:02
Now, as I mentioned earlier,
6:02
your calendar is just one part of that productivity system.
6:02
If you wanna learn how to set up the entire thing and optimize it,
6:02
including your task manager, the way you take notes, your file organization system,
6:02
you should take my productivity systems class over on Skillshare.
6:02
In this class, you're gonna learn how to set up each of these systems,
6:02
but more importantly, you're gonna learn some techniques for optimizing the way
6:04
that you keep it organized
6:04
so it doesn't get messy
6:04
and unusable over time,
6:04
which happens to a lot of people.
6:04
They end up ditching their systems.
6:04
Over 100,000 people have already taken this course,
6:04
and you can join them for free
6:04
because right now Skillshare is offering the first 1,000 people who click the link
6:05
in the description down below a one month free trial with unlimited access to
6:05
the platform,
6:05
which means once you get into Skillshare,
6:05
you don't have access just to my classes,
6:05
but to thousands of other classes from expert teachers who can teach you how
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to make great YouTube videos,
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like MKBHD class.
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They can teach you how to do 3D animation.
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They can teach you how to mix music, and tons more.
6:05
And even after that trial, Skillshare is a very affordable platform,
6:05
and new classes are being released all the time.
6:05
So click that link right there
6:05
if you wanna start learning today
6:05
and support this channel,
6:05
or you'll find it in the description down below.
6:05
And thanks for watching.
6:05
You can also find two more videos right here and here.
6:05
Hit that Like button for the algorithm
6:05
if you enjoyed this video
6:05
and found it helpful,
6:05
and I will see you in the next one.
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