Allison Rapp

How Do You Keep Track Of Your Time?

One perk of being self-employed is being in charge of your time... until you realize that you're never getting anything done. An online calendar can help.

I use Google Calendar, and I love it!

I never thought I would like an online calendar — for loads of reasons — but I’ve found that this works incredibly well for me. I started with it just to try it out, and I found myself using more and more of the features, until one day, I realized I wasn’t using my big, heavy, paper book anymore.

Let me tell you some of the reasons I like it so much:

  • The same information is available to me everywhere I go, without ever having to remember to carry my date book.
  • It’s accessible from all of my devices.
  • I appear more organized to my clients, in the instances where we schedule in person. That helps me look like the professional I am.
  • There’s unlimited space to write notes. I take notes about phone conversations, lessons, ideas for the ezine, etc. If I go to a workshop, I put all the info I need into the memo for that event, including hotel confirmation numbers and details of my flight.
  • I can search for my clients by name, and their past and future appointments all appear in a list.
  • I use it to remind myself to do tasks that are in the future… like send birthday cards, plan my next series or … write the ezine!
  • I haven’t double-booked myself since I started using it! The calendar knows I’m busy when I make an appointment! This alone is enough reason for me to use it!

However, if you’re having trouble finding time to work on the business side of your practice, the most important thing you can do is schedule the time you commit to spending on a specific day and during specific hours.

Get it into your calendar.

Make it sacred.

Show up and do what you committed to do.

Having it in your calendar—as if it were as important as seeing a client or teaching a class—is an important step toward becoming a competent, confident self-employed practitioner!

I could go on, but I ‘m sure you get the idea. Google is not the only online calendar… check them out and see what you like. Try it for a while together with your usual system, and see which one works better for you.

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