Combining & Balancing Your Calendars

As a business owner, your personal life intertwines with your professional one all the time. On the plus side, you have the freedom to take care of errands--like grocery shopping--during the day while everyone else is at work. On the down side, when it comes to delegating, some people uncomfortable with someone else knowing what personal tasks they are up to.

How can you have someone else book appointments for you if they cannot know when you have a doctor’s appointment or are picking up the kids?

Solutions for balancing your personal and professional calendars

The easiest solution is to combine all your calendars into one. Does it really matter if someone else knows you have a doctor’s appointment? That way, too, you are only using one calendar for your entire life.

Another option is to use a calendar booking site, like Calendly. At certain subscription levels, you can connect up to six calendars. Calendly checks across all six for your availability when someone is looking to book an appointment and only shows available time.

A third option is to block a certain time of day or day of week. For instance, no business calls or meetings to be scheduled on Mondays and Fridays. That way your virtual assistant knows not to book appointments on those days and you can book all your personal appointments on those days only.

Balancing family expectations

Sometimes families think that because you work from home, you do not have a real job. They will call, walk into your office, ask for errands/favors at any time. Set boundaries with them about work hours or work days. Continuing with the example above, you can set times that you are only open to pick the kids up from school on Mondays and Fridays, etc.

Guilt serves no one

It is easy to feel guilty about not working enough. It is also easy to feel guilty for missing out on your personal life as a business owner. Sometimes if feels like you cannot win!

First, remember that the average office worker is only productive for less than 3 hours per day, so you are likely doing fine with how much you are putting into your business. With your family, it is important to set boundaries around your work though so that you can be more productive. Part of the reason office workers are not so productive has to do with interruptions; avoid letting your family be that to you.

Balancing your social and professional calendars has its unique challenges when you have a more flexible schedule as a business owner. It is important not to compare yourself to a typical office worker and to balance your calendar in a way that works for you. That is the beauty of running your own business: you can choose your schedule!