As much as you may love your job, it surely involves tasks that feel menial and tedious. These small chores can put a damper on an otherwise perfect role. Even if they don’t necessarily bother you, they could be slowing down your pace or keeping you from mission-critical work.
Here’s the good news: With the right business calendar, these tasks don’t take nearly as much bandwidth. Smarter scheduling can improve your speed and quality of work.
Where Your Calendar Can Lend a Hand
Still not a believer? Here are nine work tasks that an online calendar can help you handle in no time:
1. Scheduling Meetings
Sometimes, planning a meeting takes longer than the meeting itself. Making meeting arrangements is so much easier when you use an online calendar. The time you save scheduling a meeting can instead be spent digging deeper into the meeting topic itself.
With an online calendar, you can create shareable scheduling links. You simply put in your availability, send the link to the person you’re meeting with, and ask them to choose a time that works for both of you. This eliminates the back and forth emailing nobody enjoys.
2. Planning Events
One-on-one business meetings are tough enough to schedule; event planning can be a nightmare. Seminars and training sessions are part of the regular routine of a manager. The right calendar can make planning these events a cinch.
Event creation is fast and simple when using a calendar app. All it takes is a few clicks and you’re set. These events can then be shared to others, ensuring attendees don’t forget about them.
3.Tracking Hours
An online calendar is helpful for more than just filling your time. A smart one can analyze how your time is being spent so you can use it more efficiently.
Tracking hours is especially important for contracted workers completing large projects. When you create events in your online calendar, it will take the time spent and add it to an analytics page.
Take a few seconds to plot out your projects for the day in your online calendar. The software will automatically calculate how many billable hours you’ve accumulated.
4. Sending Emails
In 2019, the average office worker sent around 40 emails per day. And the higher up the corporate ladder you are, the more emails you will send and receive every day. Using an online calendar to batch your emails makes a huge difference.
You can take a couple different approaches: You might use your calendar to remind you to get important emails out by the end of the day. You could also block off a section of time in your online calendar to dedicate solely to emails so you can move on with the rest of your day.
5. Paying Bills
No business owner enjoys paying bills, but it has to be done. Late payments can rack up interest and fees that cost you more money, so it’s important to take care of your expenses promptly.
With an online calendar, you can set recurring reminders to get those bills paid. Reminders can also be set to take care of one-time payments, which are more difficult to remember because they don’t repeat.
6. Invoicing Clients
Invoicing brings in revenue, which is a lot more fun than paying bills. With that said, the process can be just as tedious. Creating and sending invoices is a repetitive activity that can weigh you down and drag out your day, quashing your productivity.
Just as you would with your bill payments, make reminders to get those invoices out as quickly as possible. Prompt invoicing can avoid confusion with clients, who might otherwise wonder what a bill they receive was for. You also can use the time-block technique to get your invoicing done in a set period of time, letting you move on with your day.
7. Ordering Inventory
Inventory management almost certainly isn’t the most exciting part of your job. Dealing with it is worse, however, when it’s put off until the last second. Don’t let inventory orders get backed up; get on top of them with an online calendar.
When you lay out your inventory schedule, you can make sure shipments are made in plenty of time. You’ll prevent shortages and cut overhead costs caused by inefficient planning.
8. Doing Taxes
Every worker and organization has to get their taxes done. To avoid dealing with it altogether, some hire a CPA — but that comes at a cost. Why not make the time to do your own taxes this quarter?
Saving all your tax work until the deadline can be burdensome and stressful. Getting a headstart is in your best interest.
Mark important tax dates in your online calendar. You have a better chance at catching mistakes early and maximizing your returns by doing your taxes early.
What if you’re a contracted worker? Your taxes aren’t pulled automatically from paychecks, so set regular reminders to reserve a portion of your income. Don’t run the risk of being unable to afford your tax bill.
9. Commuting
If you’re a commuter, the daily trip to work and back can grow old fast. You can use your online calendar to use your commuting time more effectively.
If you drive yourself, use your online calendar to plan your commute times. Set reminders to download an audiobook to listen to during the trip. If you take public transportation, you can make this your email time, or use it as a chance to schedule out your weekly meetings.
Whatever the work task may be, an online calendar can make it easier. Save time and effort by scheduling out even the smallest of activities.
Hunter Meine
Hunter Meine is a BYU-Idaho graduate, husband, father, and writer. When he's not writing, he's playing sports or enjoying the outdoors with his wife and daughter.