In our last post, we described how using a calendar app for both meetings and tasks is a great way to organize your life. That's one part of the overall strategy to organize your workflow. After several years of trying different strategies to manage my workflow of emails, calendar events, and tasks, I've settled on the strategies that I'll describe here. Notice how a calendar app is at the center of the strategy because I found myself frequently and naturally referencing the app to answer the question of what to work on next.1. Read emails. Create 30 minute calendar events.Read emails. Star emails. Move them to folders. Archive them depending on whatever inbox-zero-ish scheme you come up with.The biggest tip here is that I create 30 minute calendar events for new tasks that spawned from an email that I just read and handled.For example, I'll read an email thread and determine that I need to talk to someone today about it. If I can handle that task immediately, I will. If not, I'll create an event titled 'Talk to John Smith about Topic X' from 2 to 2:30pm. Archive the email. Move on. Rinse and repeat.2. Keep some emails in inbox.I know this is against inbox-zero, but I like to keep emails in my inbox if they need my reply and are a lower priority. I'll sometimes add a calendar event to follow up on the email if the reply is a higher priority and can't wait a day or two. I'll scan these emails during my normal daily email reading routine, and reply when I get the chance.3. Create Google Docs for more involved projectsThis becomes important when you have to juggle multiple projects at both work and home, from work projects to vacation planning to planning events for your kids. I like adding current tasks, next tasks, future tasks, meeting notes, and other relevant info to these docs. When I organize my calendar in the morning, I'll look at these Google Docs and add calendar events as needed.For example, let's say I'm planning my next vacation. I'll create a Vacation Google Doc, add destination notes, hotels, places, etc. I'll reference this doc every couple of days, and add calendar events for things like 'Book hotel and flight' and 'Request time off from work'.4. Use multiple calendarsI keep multiple calendars, each with a different purpose like Work, Home, and Sports. I use a different color for each calendar so I can quickly scan my calendar. This screenshot shows three calendars.5. Delete calendar events as they're completedAs I complete tasks that are in my calendar as events, I either leave it there if I want to keep a history of doing that task, or I simply delete the calendar event. OneStack Calendar makes this a bit faster and safer by using a Trash calendar when deleting events and by removing the extra "Are you sure you want to delete?" prompt.6. Create calendar events for everythingAnytime I think of something that I need to do, big or small, today or a month from now, I create a calendar event. Deadlines, things to do when I get home from work today, planning, etc.7. Reference your calendar app oftenThe last step is that I reference my calendar app throughout the day to see what's next. Following this last step makes it easy to stay on track and work on the right task. Making this a habit is one of the keys to making this all work.I hope this workflow helps you organize your life. If you're looking for a clean and powerful calendar app for organizing your life, take a look at OneStack Calendar and let me know what you think.
