All posts by Jon Bradshaw

How to Hack Productivity Into Your Schedule

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Online Appointment Software Says a Lot About Your Business

We show up at work planning to be productive, but too often, our plans are thwarted by pointless meetings. Before we know it, the workday is half over, and we don’t have much to show for it. 

For many workers, productivity growth has stalled. Despite technological advances that should be increasing the economic outputs of hours worked, The New York Times reports that Americans’ recent output of work is growing slower than it has since the early 1980s. 

As frustrating as the situation seems, there are steps you can implement to take control of your own schedule:

Know your tendencies.

Like with most things, knowing yourself is the first step in optimizing your schedule. Your tendencies are a great place to start.

Habit expert Gretchen Rubin has a four tendencies quiz to help you understand how you respond to expectations. You can use this knowledge to figure out what aspects of your schedule to prioritize.

Obligers need external expectations in order to follow through with a goal. If this sounds like you, consider prioritizing the tasks that have accountability measures in place.  

If you like to question everything and prefer facts to opinions, you are a questioner. You’d have to understand the reasoning behind certain tasks before you add them to your schedule.

If you naturally go against rules, you’re known as a rebel. As a rebel, it’s essential to align your productivity goals with your identity. In this case, prioritize the tasks that match your personality, and you will be more productive.  

Finally, if you’re an upholder, you meet outer and inner expectations and love to have goals spelled out. You would probably benefit from creating a schedule that emphasizes your most detailed tasks.

Work when it works best for you.

Many self-help books preach the importance of working on important tasks early in the day. But if you hate mornings, why force yourself to be productive at that time? 

Different people have different circadian rhythms, which influence their energy levels throughout the day. Some people are naturally larks, which means they focus best in the morning. Others are naturally owls, and they focus best in the evening. 

We can’t all be morning people. Align your schedule with times that match your specific needs. This way, you won’t be playing catch-up on all your tasks. 

Having a nighttime routine.

According to the CDC, a third of adults in the United States do not get the recommended seven hours of sleep a night. This can lead to all kinds of complications, including diabetes, obesity, and stroke. 

Not getting enough sleep also affects your ability to concentrate. Because sleep has so much bearing on your productivity, the process you go through to get a good night’s rest might as well be part of your work schedule. 

Create a nighttime routine that includes setting a consistent bedtime, meditating before bed, and avoiding large meals as well as screen time before sleeping. Getting enough sleep makes you more alert when you need to be. 

Have an emergency time fund.

In the same way that you might have an emergency fund for rainy days, do the same with your schedule. Having an emergency time fund means working ahead even when it isn’t necessary. If you know that you need to get a proposal done by the end of the week, for example, tackling it on Tuesday might let you take a long lunch with a friend. 

Having a time emergency fund ensures that you are prepared when the unexpected happens, such as when a meeting comes out of nowhere, when a family member gets sick, or when you have to take off from work for a minor fever. Working ahead keeps your schedule on track. 

Keep it simple.

Trying to fix all your scheduling problems at once can be overwhelming and unrealistic. If you want to make your schedule productive, start small. That way, you can keep it up. 

How much change you can handle at once is up to you. For some people, they might only want to focus on three goals a day, while others can consistently handle six.

The most essential part of working new goals into your schedule is that you stick with it. If you can be consistent with even the smallest of habits, then it will add up over time and become something significant. 

Making the most of your working hours is difficult because there are so many tasks to accomplish, and distractions are sure to happen. But taking these steps will put you in the position to execute even in the busiest times.

7 Steps to Make Meetings More Productive

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Leader meeting with employees

Meetings are notorious wastes of time. Although half the battle is calling only meetings that make sense, the rest is a matter of making the meetings you do hold productive. 

According to a Clarizen/Harris Poll survey, the average U.S. worker spends 4.5 hours in general status meetings every week. Employees spend an extra 4.6 hours every week preparing for those meetings.

Ten hours per week per employee is a serious time investment. Add in all the other meetings your team holds, and you had better make sure they’re productive.

Making Meetings Productive

Making meetings productive is about planning ahead, being focused in the meeting itself, and closing with clear action steps. Here’s how to do it:

1. Finish important tasks ahead of time.

One of the reasons that meetings are burdensome is because people do not plan ahead. Being in the right headspace for meetings is key.

Start with schedule arrangement. Use time blocking to ensure you aren’t trying to get other things done during the meeting time. With time blocking, you set aside a specific chunk of time to finish a particular task. For example, you might dedicate an hour to doing nothing but writing a request for proposals. This means no checking your social media or picking up random phone calls. 

2. Make a priority list.

If you want to get the most out of a meeting you’re required to attend, make a priority list. What goals do you want to accomplish by attending this meeting? To get opinions on a new partnership? To determine a new sales strategy? Jot that down, and bring it to the meeting.

This is a great way to keep meetings focused. At the beginning of the meeting, tell the group what you want to get out of the meeting. Ask others to briefly share their own goals for the conversation as well. If it gets off track, look down at your list and steer things back.

3. Participate.

Plans are great, but if you want to accomplish your goals at a meeting, then you have to throw your hat in the ring. If you just sit there like a stone, don’t expect others to think about your priorities for you. 

If you don’t understand what deadline your boss is speaking about, then speak up. If you’re convinced that you’ll forget a newly scheduled appointment with your client, write it down in the notes. 

4. Limit meeting time and attendees.

Do you want to get the most out of your meetings? Limit the time and attendees to what is necessary. The reason some meetings go on for hours is because they involve people who shouldn’t be present.

If the meeting is focused around marketing department priorities, only have marketing folks there. If you’re talking about a patent, then the legal team should be involved. If you’re attending a status meeting for a small department, anything more than one hour is overkill. 

5. Stay focused.

Meetings may not take intense focus, but you should still be engaged in them. If you spend every second of the meeting checking your email, then you won’t come away with anything valuable.

How do you stay focused during meetings? By realizing that the more attention you give to them, the more meaningful they will be. 

Here are some tips to stay focused during meetings: 

  • Listen to music, meditate, or otherwise relax before the meeting.
  • Be positive.
  • Keep your priority list handy.
  • Prepare questions ahead of time.
  • Actively listen and ask questions.

6. Make suggestions.

If you’re spending time in a meeting, you should be contributing to it. If your coworker recommends that you should lead the next social media campaign, ask further questions. Why does she think you should lead the campaign? What are the goals for the campaign? 

Build on those ideas. Perhaps there’s a secondary goal you see as valuable. Maybe you could jointly lead the campaign. When in doubt, adopt improv comedy’s “yes, and…” technique.

7. End with action steps.

Many people complain that meetings accomplish nothing. Don’t just sit there and talk; make a plan. Here are some tips:

To end on an actionable note:

    • Suggest next steps: Who will do what, by when, how, and why? Every action step needs a clear reason. 
    • Get it in writing: Without a written record, the action steps may not be followed. 
  • Ask for final thoughts: Someone else may want to get a suggestion in before the meeting ends. 

 

  • Thank everyone for their time: If people feel appreciated, they’ll be that much more willing to work on the agreed action steps. 

It’s All About Goals

When you have a goal to work toward and stick to it, you won’t feel like you’re wasting your time. That, in a nutshell, is how you make more of your meetings.

Meetings may always be a drag, but they don’t have to be soul sucking. Some simple hacks like planning, participating, and focusing can go a long way. 

5 Tips for Using Scheduling Software for Healthcare

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As many as 50% of healthcare providers are now using cloud-based schedulers to organize their doctors’ schedules. That’s good news for the business, but it also benefits patients.

Nobody likes to sit on hold just to schedule a checkup. Offices that use online scheduling systems offer patients convenience. And because the average call takes 8 minutes or more, it can also free up time for your administrative staff. 

By accommodating your digital savvy patients, you save time and money with the right cloud-based scheduler. Here are some tips to help you use your scheduler for your needs. 

1. Consider your patient volume.

Many online scheduling tools are priced according to the number of users or appointments scheduled over a certain period. You don’t want to overshoot your needs, but don’t run out of slots when people are trying to schedule appointments.

Before investing in a digital scheduling tool, get a headcount of your active patients. Then, ask yourself: Are you planning to grow in the coming year? Is a member of your practice planning to start his or her own? When in doubt, add 10% to the volume you think you might need. 

2. Expect cancellations and rescheduling.

Between 20 and 30 percent of patients cancel and reschedule their appointments. Even if that isn’t true of your practice, it could be in the future as patients cycle through.

Having this many patients move their schedule around can be a huge time-suck for your staff. It can also be inconvenient for the patient if they do not have time to call in order to cancel or reschedule their appointments. The last thing people want to do on their lunch break is to sit on hold with a doctor’s office. 

With a web-based scheduler, patients can cancel their appointments and reschedule they’re at home looking at their calendar. Online scheduling software accommodates their busy life while freeing up your staff to tackle other business needs. 

3. Issue reminders.

Most hospitals and clinicals schedule appointments weeks, if not months out. Patients can be forgetful, but having your administrative staff call each and every patient to remind them of their appointment is a waste of money. 

Embrace automation to provide reminders in a cost-effective way. Most solutions can send out an SMS or email the day before the appointment. The patient, for their part, can respond with a confirmation, cancellation, or request to change the appointment time. 

4. Sync up with their calendar.

Even though patients get reminders, they still may forget about their appointment if it isn’t on their calendar. With the right cloud-based scheduler, patients can click a button to add the appointment to their online calendar. 

Remind patients that most online calendars also have reminder features. If someone wants a reminder 30 minutes beforehand — to ensure they leave work on time, for example — encourage them to toggle that setting in their calendar. 

5. Accept online payments.

Sometimes, patients forget to pay their medical bills. Other times, they relocate and never get the bill at all.

Why not make it easier for your patients to pay their bill? Some cloud-based schedulers hook up with common payment platforms, allowing patients to pay for your services at the click of a button. 

Customization is key. Many tools can be configured to request payment before the patient can see the doctor. Although you don’t want to deter patients from seeing their doctor, this feature will make it so their medical bills never pile up; you won’t have to worry about dealing with collections. 

At the end of the day, cloud-based scheduling is about simplicity: It lets you see your physicians’ calendars and those of your patients in the same place. Through reporting features, it can help you understand trends in your schedule, while billing tools keep the revenue flowing. What could be better than that?

4 Ways Entrepreneurs Go Wrong With Online Scheduling Software

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Entrepreneurial work has a way of snowballing. What started as an idea soon turns into a weeklong project, which then swallows an entrepreneur’s entire life. 

Scheduling is a key solution for keeping productivity high. But that doesn’t mean online scheduling is free of issues. Although it might seem like a simple task, calendar management can be a big challenge for a busy person. 

Here are four of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face with online appointment scheduling, complete with tips around how to overcome them:

  • They overbook themselves.

As the owner of a business, people expect you to be busy. But your time is still limited; treat it as such. Overbooking yourself can lead to many frustrations: You’ll feel overwhelmed, your clients will be unhappy, and people within your organization won’t like it either. It’s not particularly motivating to work for someone who has to cancel meetings constantly.

The solution: Protect your time. If people are constantly trying to book a meeting at times when you’re doing deep work, try time blocking. The idea is to fill every 15-minute slot on your calendar with something, even if it’s just relaxing at home or eating dinner. Personal priorities matter, too. 

  • Their online scheduler doesn’t have the right functionality.

Maybe you want to minimize back-and-forth scheduling emails. Perhaps suggestions around meeting locations matter to you. Every online scheduling solution works a little differently. If yours doesn’t have the features you need, look elsewhere.

The solution: Do your research, and pick something that fits your specific needs. Features popular with entrepreneurs include:

  • Meeting notifications and reminders to ensure you never miss a meeting
  • Daily limits so you can cap the number of meetings on your schedule
  • Time zone detection so you’re never confused about the time of a meeting
  • Customizations so you can align your appointment scheduling software with your brand
  • Team scheduling to encourage collaborative work
  • Up-to-date contact information to easily locate information about a client

There are plenty of other features out there; the challenge is understanding what you actually need and finding tools with those features. 

  • They said “yes” to things that aren’t on their calendar.

If you’re going to master online scheduling, you have to learn to say “no” to meetings. When you constantly say “yes” — especially to things that aren’t on your calendar — you’ll feel overwhelmed. 

The solution: Only accept appointments that are on your calendar. If anyone wants a block of your time, even if it’s just for a 15-minute touch base, tell them to add it to your calendar. Ask meetings to be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance so you have time to prepare for them. This may seem like a pain at times, but it’ll save you time and stress in the long run. 

  • They don’t know how to prioritize their meetings.

You may be using an online appointment scheduler that is perfect for you and fits all the needs of your organization. Unfortunately, if you don’t know how to prioritize meetings, your days will still feel crazy, which kind of defeats the purpose of an appointment scheduler.

The solution: An online appointment scheduler can help you prioritize. Follow the 1-3-5 scheduling rule. Identify your No. 1 priority and make that the focus for your day. Then, determine your three medium priorities (these may be related to your top priority), and lastly, schedule no more than five small must-to-do priorities.

If you can master online appointment scheduling, you’ll be more productive and present for your business. You’ll turn your calendar into an advantageous tool, rather than a chore you have to keep up with. Start managing your schedule like a pro, and the results will be borne out in your business.

4 Types of Meetings Leaders Should Avoid

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Meetings are a non-negotiable part of business. There are work meetings, new hire meetings, team huddles, and client meetings, just to name a few.

Despite your best efforts to make every meeting effective and worth your time, there’s a good chance some of them aren’t necessary. It’s essential that you avoid wasting valuable meeting time. Avoid scheduling these four types of meetings.

  • Meetings without an agenda

If you find yourself scheduling meetings with no agenda, you should ask whether you truly need them. Never put a meeting on your calendar — or let someone else schedule one — without a clear list of talking points. 

Here are some tips for designing a meeting agenda:

  • Prepare your agenda early. 

The earlier you can prepare for a meeting, the better. Developing your agenda ahead of time will help you to improve the effectiveness of your meetings. Without an agenda, meetings can quickly devolve into off-topic wastes of time. 

  • Seek input from team members. 

It’s smart to send out an email before a meeting that outlines objectives or expectations. Not only does this make your meeting more organized, but according to Slack’s Farah Jaffer, it can help you gauge whether or not the meeting is really necessary.

  • List agenda topics as questions. 

Don’t be the type of leader who goes through a list of talking points without giving anyone else the opportunity to weigh in. When you phrase topics or meeting points as questions, you encourage collaboration and discussion amongst your team. 

A question-based agenda encourages a wider range of solutions. Just as importantly, it makes your team members feel like their voice matters. 

  • Status-update meetings

We’ve all attended a status-update meeting. Whether it’s about a change in management, important information about a project, or news about a client, these meetings all have one thing in common: They all involve information that could be conveyed by email. 

While the purpose of status update meetings is to share important information, they do it in the wrong forum. If a company-wide email isn’t appropriate, what about a phone call to the stakeholders who need to hear it?

If someone insists on a status-update meeting, prepare your employees with an email beforehand. Otherwise, the information may come as a total shock, which creates distractions and encourages gossip around the office. 

  • Brainstorming meetings

Brainstorming meetings are a staple at agencies and on creative teams. Mixing a group of unique individuals together may seem like the best way to land on an idea fast, but science says otherwise. A 1958 Yale study actually showed that people generate a higher number of original ideas when they don’t interact with others. 

Yes, brainstorming can make for a good team bonding activity. But if the goal is to generate creative ideas in the most efficient manner possible, ban the brainstorm. Ask people to share ideas via email or Slack instead, and appoint a decision maker to choose the best one. 

  • Client-issue meetings

When an account is “on fire,” so to speak, it might seem like you should hold a meeting. You find yourself suddenly emailing anyone who has touched the account saying, “Let’s meet and figure this out.” The next thing you know, a few hours have passed by and the day is over.

While catering to the needs of your clients is important, you have to realize that both your time and their time is valuable. Avoid long, unnecessary meetings by trying to get to the root of the issue. 

When a client asks for a meeting, respond by asking for more details regarding the purpose of the meeting. Either the account manager can solve it directly, or it’s a topic that’s bigger than a single client account — which may call for a conversation with company leaders. 

Maximizing your meeting time is all about knowing which ones are actually valuable and which aren’t. Review your calendar every Friday to determine how you spent your meeting time last week. Use those details to decide how you’ll spend your time in the coming week. Don’t let a week of wasted meetings turn into a month, year, or career’s worth of them. 

5 Tips for Setting Your Calendar Availability

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Double-booking yourself, setting up an appointment that interferes with your personal schedule, or simply feeling overworked: None of it feels good, and all of it can be solved with some simple changes to your calendar.

Your calendar’s availability settings can and should be customized. Remember, it’s your calendar: Whether you’re available, when you’re available, where you’re available, and with whom you’re available to meet are all up to you. 

To take control of your calendar, use these five tips to set your calendar availability:

  • Align your availability with the company’s.

First and foremost, wrap your professional availability around your company’s business hours. Doing so gives you a reason to say “no” to meetings outside of a specific time range, which is important for your work-life balance. 

It may be hard at first, but you have to get used to saying “no” to pointless or ill-timed meetings. Either offer a time that works better for you, or propose an alternative communication solution, such as email.

Getting tough with people about your availability is key for productivity. Define your hours of operation, and don’t accept meetings outside of that time frame. 

  • Decide on “never ever” hours.

Just because your company is open does not mean you need to be open for meetings during that time. Decide as a company on an online scheduling tool that lets everyone see who’s available and who isn’t at a given time. 

Perhaps you know that you do your best work first thing in the mornings. Go ahead and block off the hours before 10 a.m. for deep work. Many calendar tools let you select “Apply to all weekdays.” This setting is also useful for scheduling recurring meetings, such as a weekly client touch-base.

  • Control how availability is displayed.

Clients do not need to see every appointment on your calendar. At best, they’ll be confused by the mess of meetings that are not relevant to them; at worst, they might see sensitive or private information.

Until you’ve checked a setting to the contrary, assume that everything you put on your calendar is public. Once you’ve found that setting, operate on a “need to know” basis. If a client questions why they can’t see all of your appointments, be respectful but firm.

To help clients know what to expect, share meeting details such as:

  • When you’ll be available to meet
  • What to expect during meetings
  • What number to call or website to visit to join the virtual meeting room
  • Any software the client needs to install for the meeting
  • Who else might need to be in the meetings

Setting general meeting expectations is important, but it is not a substitute for confirming all appointments via email. If you do not bother to communicate with a client between the time a meeting is scheduled until the time it actually occurs, you’ll have more no-shows than you’d like.

  • Sync your personal and professional calendars.

Between your professional and personal lives, it can be hard to keep up with all of your appointments. Avoid conflicts by syncing your calendars. Looking back and forth between separate ones can open the door to mistakes, not to mention the productivity lost in the process. 

Many tools, including Calendar and Google Calendar, put you in the driver’s seat on which meeting details are displayed. Those who view your work calendar can only see your work events, not the private information associated with your personal ones. The same is true of your personal connections who can see a synced version of your work calendar. 

  • Give people a heads up about exceptions. 

There will be normal work days when you’re out of the office for PTO, a conference, or a client visit. On the flip side, there may be days off when you need to work a few hours. 

Try not to catch people off guard. At least 48 hours in advance (and preferably a week), send a notification via email that you will or won’t be available outside of your normal schedule. Be sure to block off (or open up) the time on your calendar. And if you’ll be completely offline, remember to set an out-of-office responder. 

When you take the time to properly set up your calendar availability, you’ll raise the ceiling on how much you can achieve in a day. In doing so, you’ll make not just your life easier, but also that of your clients and team members. Who knew taking charge of your calendar availability could make such a difference?

6 Meetings That Boost Productivity on Remote Teams

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Every company has a unique mix of purpose, goals, and culture. As a result, they also have unique workflows.

Although some teams are still completely in-office operations, about 70% of people globally work remotely at least once a week. To keep communication lines strong and productivity high, remote teams have to be deliberate about when and why they meet. 

Which types of meetings actually matter for remote teams, and how should they be conducted? Here’s our take:

1. Daily or weekly check-ins

In fast-paced, deadline-driven work environments, it’s crucial to keep remote employees on the same page as on-site staff. Starting each day with a 15-minute stand-up meeting ensures that each team member gets a chance to discuss their workload and ask for any support they might need. 

If a daily meeting sounds like overkill for your remote team, consider a weekly one instead. Keep it to 30 minutes or less, if at all possible. This is enough time for a round-up of goals, accomplishments, and concerns — but not enough for the meeting to devolve into pointless conversation. These meetings promote time-blocking while reducing the need for back-and-forth email chains. 

2. Quick follow-ups

Does a project brief, report, or email need more clarification? Is there something you need to chat through before you can take the next step?

Rather than adding to the flurry of digital messages, hop on a call. A five- to ten-minute conversation is all it takes, in most cases, to get clarity.

This is especially important for highly collaborative teams. A quick follow-up meeting can prevent multiple members of a team from heading down the wrong path. 

3. Monthly status updates

Sometimes, a particularly important project deserves its own series of meetings. To keep long-term initiatives on track, consider scheduling monthly or quarterly meetings to touch base. 

What sorts of projects do these meetings make sense for? Marketing campaigns, sales strategies, and product development are common ones. Recruitment and cultural curation initiatives also deserve periodic updates.

Because these meetings happen less frequently, take steps to prevent poor time management. Prepare an agenda with clear action items beforehand. Know who plans to present, and ask them to send summaries of those presentations to the team afterward. Be sure to make time for participants’ questions or concerns. 

4. Brainstorms

The hardest part of any project is starting it. Keep your remote team’s productivity high with opportunities to brainstorm around roadblocks. Virtual brainstorm sessions should last anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes, allowing team members to generate and share project-related ideas freely. 

In these meetings, visual aids are great ways to jog ideas. Consider conducting your virtual brainstorms via videoconference in a room with a whiteboard. At the very least, use screen-sharing so everyone can see the notes and ideas generated so far. 

5. Leadership Q&As

Remote team members get less (and in some cases, no) face time with managers and executives. A great way to maintain communication between them is with Q&A sessions. These types of meetings are best used to discuss team-wide concerns and ongoing cultural issues. Just be sure to schedule them well in advance so workers can prepare questions and leaders can think through their talking points. 

If your company works with subject matter experts, Q&A sessions can also be used to share specialists’ advice with the rest of the team. Employees may not need to understand every detail, but they should be able to get their questions answered. 

6. Cross-team collaborations 

When two or more teams are working on the same project, they need to set common goals and track progress together. Get both groups together to talk through challenges and workflows.

Perhaps your web and product teams are working on an e-commerce launch. Key players from both teams should share their strategies and discuss how the other can help. On-site product details should match the product’s actual functionality.

Schedule these conversations for 15, 30, or 45 minutes. Anything longer should be split into multiple meetings, and anything shorter should be treated as a check-in meeting. Timed right, collaborative meetings boost quality of work and efficiency. 

Remote workers may be physically separated, but that shouldn’t get in the way of their productivity. Scheduling meetings strategically is the best way to keep everyone working well together. And that sort of collaboration is how companies stay ahead of the curve. 

10 Types of Businesses That Can Benefit From Scheduling Software

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To your customers, your team, and your company’s bottom line, time is priceless.

Whether you run a deli or a software startup, you have to ensure that your team never misses a scheduled deadline or appointment. And these days, many customers would rather schedule appointments online as well. 

Still wondering if scheduling software is right for your business? Read on to learn about ten surprising industries that rely on it in their daily operations:

1. Medical clinics

Did you know that more than 50% of healthcare facilities now use online scheduling software? The medical industry is harnessing the power of automation to reduce the cost of no-shows and administrative overhead. In addition to the added convenience for patients, this digital capability allows doctors and healthcare professionals to better manage their hectic schedules, reducing burnout and employee turnover. 

2. Bars and restaurants

Online reservations are user-friendly for customers. To help them seat more guests, hosts and hostesses at many bars and restaurants use scheduling automation every day.

Through online scheduling software, eateries can help their patrons beat long waits — all while tracking their staff’s ever-changing schedules and availability. Plus, online scheduling platforms can be used to track eligibility for promotions and loyalty programs. 

3. Caterers and event planners

Businesses that provide event services or planning are responsible for organizing and tracking dozens of different schedules leading up to the big day. On paper, that’s tough if not impossible.

Online scheduling tools allow event planners to effectively manage different types of staff. They help event managers keep tabs on caterers, DJs, security personnel, and more. And many platforms have custom settings for how far in advance an event (or order) can be scheduled. 

4. Call centers

To provide stellar customer service, companies need to make contacting their reps a seamless process. With an online scheduling tool, customers can book appointments and phone calls from a widget or link in your staff’s email signatures

Given the fast-paced nature of the work, this feature is especially useful for call centers or teams dedicated to customer support. Online booking lets these businesses avoid over-scheduling while giving team members a tool for efficient time blocking and stress management.

5. Nonprofit organizations

Even nonprofits are utilizing scheduling automation to expand their mission and reach. Nonprofits have to manage a mix of volunteers, paid employees, and external stakeholders. They use appointment scheduling tools to keep schedules straight, freeing up the team to spend more time on things like donor newsletters and social media campaigns. 

6. Consultancies

Many people in professional services, such as law or finance, use scheduling software to increase the amount of face time they get with clients. Automation is particularly useful for booking initial consultations and meetings during non-core hours. A CPA during tax season might rely on an online scheduling tool to give people on the waitlist clarity around when they’ll be seen. Automation tools let them make use of every slot on their schedule. 

7. Salons and spas

With our modern, fast-paced lifestyles, it can be easy to forget appointments that are dedicated to self-care. Salons and spas that focus on beauty and wellness can decrease missed appointments with SMS and email reminders that are automatically sent from online scheduling software straight to their clients. This attention to detail only adds to the sense of luxury associated with these services, helping these companies make their customers feel like VIPs. 

8. Shipping and retail

From warehouses to supermarkets to specialty shops, companies in the B2C space see online scheduling as a game-changer. They use it to streamline shipping, receiving, and managing workers in the field.

Not only do scheduling automation platforms allow team members to share calendar access across locations, but they can be used to make out-of-office periods easier. Online scheduling systems can be configured to show certain team members as unavailable, minimizing confusion.

9. Home services

Whether a customer is experiencing an emergency plumbing issue or wants to schedule their yearly HVAC maintenance, online scheduling software provides easy access to at-home services. It also makes rescheduling or cancelling appointments easy, just in case another appointment conflicts with the initial service call. Customers can also book appointments from their mobile devices while at work or picking up the kids from school. 

10. Schools and education services

Online scheduling software is even being used to enhance the college experience. With many busy schedules among students and professors alike, scheduling automation is helpful for managing office hours, labs, library reservations, and more. Students who use scheduling tools get more out of their education, while professors and assistants can organize all their teaching commitments in one place. 

In every industry, scheduling software has value. The key is getting creative to make the most of it.

Create convenience for your customers. Simplify your employees’ lives. Minimize misunderstandings and double-bookings. There’s more than one reason to use scheduling software. What’s yours?

4 Business To-Dos to Tackle For Spring Cleaning

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Business professional sitting outside working on laptop next to spring flowers

Just as spring brings nature back to life, spring can also be a time to renew your business. Spring-cleaning your company can mean less clutter, more clients, and more time to interview prospective employees.

But unlike your home, spring-cleaning your business isn’t as simple as throwing things in the dumpster. Here’s how to be strategic about it:

1. Give your brand a fresh look. 

You know the saying: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Although this applies in certain contexts, your company’s brand is not one of them.

Ask yourself: Is our website outdated? Does our motto still ring true? Does our product’s packaging attract attention? If you’re second guessing the success of something, chances are it should be changed. 

According to Forbes contributor Jessica Kleinman, there are five words to live by during the rebranding process: research, input, goals, support and process. 

Rebranding brings drastic changes, so you must be prepared before making any decisions. Start by meeting with your team to talk about the pros and cons of your company’s brand. Compile the feedback, and then make the final call about what’s in your budget to improve. 

When announcing your plans, explain how you expect the company to benefit from the brand changes. Support is key: If your team isn’t behind the changes, make tweaks until you all agree. Build all those details into a brand style guide. 

2. Get organized. 

Spring means it’s time to kiss the office clutter goodbye. 

Start by throwing away anything that you no longer need. This means no more stacks of papers, capless pens, and broken staplers sitting on your desk. Next, find an organizing strategy that works for you. Try out color coding, filing documents chronologically, or digitizing old records. 

Once your physical space is decluttered to your liking, shift your sights to your schedule. This is the work of becoming a better time manager: Create a master list of the tasks on your calendar, decide on what’s important, and adopt a prioritization method. 

Just like the organization of your desk, how you shift your schedule requires you to decide on a system that works for you. You could use the chunking method (blocking out specific times for uninterrupted work) or the ABCDE method (assigning a letter to a task depending on importance), for example.

3. Reflect on old goals and create new ones. 

This business to-do is similar to a New Year’s resolution — except that the chances of success are hopefully greater.

Whether you’re assessing personal or team goals, it’s important to think about previous ones. Did you achieve them, or did you forget about them? Can they be altered and improved?

Whatever the answer, one helpful approach to goal reflection or setting is the SMART method. Pin down what your goal is and then follow the break down. 

A SMART goal should be:

  1. Specific: Achieve specificity by using the 6 Ws: who, what, when, where, which and why? If the goal doesn’t answer these, narrow it more. For example, would you rather “get more clients” or “increase your account volume by 50% in eight months”? 
  2. Measurable: From minutes spent on the phone to dollar amounts, use measurable parameters to anchor your goal.
  3. Attainable: Your goals should be within your reach. It’s important to challenge yourself, but be realistic and recognize your limitations.
  4. Relevant: Any goals set should align with the company’s mission. 
  5. Timely: Create a clear timeline with action items to work toward goal achievement. 

A goal with these five components has a greater chance of becoming a reality than one without them. And when your employees understand what, exactly, you want to achieve, they’ll be more likely to buy in. 

4. Plan a getaway. 

All work and no play isn’t sustainable. If you’ve been working hard, it’s time to reward yourself with that long-awaited vacation. 

To avoid inconveniencing yourself or coworkers, avoid overlapping out-of-office periods. Also, do any work you can ahead of time. Write down deadlines or delegate tasks for anything you can’t finish before taking off. 

Do your best to minimize the amount of work you’ll have to do when you get back. Vacations are a time to kick back and relax. They give you time to clear your head in order to hit the ground running once you return. Increased productivity, less stress, and better mental health lie on the other side of your trip. 

If you’re a city person, why not spend a few days in New York City or Chicago? For seclusion, opt for a backpacking trip through the wilderness or a yoga retreat. 

Don’t let spring pass you by before planting seeds for a stronger year. Plan ahead, focus on business needs, and don’t forget to take care of yourself as a person, too. 

6 Types of Meetings Entrepreneurs Should Have on Their Calendar Every Week

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You’ve got your business up and running. You’ve got a team nailed down. You have client work on the calendar. So what’s next?

That would be the meeting. 

Meeting should be used strategically, given how much team time they take. To maximize team productivity and communication, these six meetings are worth holding weekly:

1. The Brainstorm

If you’ve reflected on some current business practices and found that you’re in the market for something new, the next step is to develop some ideas. Don’t bother trying to scrape together some ideas over email; it’s best to do the work in person. 

To make brainstorms worth your while: 

  • Encourage your team to speak their minds. You can narrow down ideas later, but it’s difficult to get participation if every idea is shot down right away. 
  • The wilder the idea, the better. A wild idea can be made more realistic. Ideas that start small, though, tend to be harder to improve. Encouraging wildness can also keep the creative juices flowing during the meeting. 
  • Facilitate for efficiency. The point of brainstorming is to get as many ideas on the page as possible. However, you have to maintain some kind of structure: Have one conversation at a time, and write things down in a centralized place, such as a whiteboard. 

Having weekly brainstorming sessions will keep you and your team on your toes. Even if the ideas don’t become a reality right away, you’ll have an arsenal of things to choose from down the road. You can also use this time to workshop old ideas if you don’t need to come up with new ones. 

2. The Task Setter

The task-setting meeting is the time to put ideas into action. Think of it as the brainstorm’s older, more mature brother. 

Learning how to prioritize tasks is important in making the most of everyone’s time. The last thing you want is to focus on tasks that don’t help you reach your goals. One approach to task management that works well for task setting is the 4Ds technique:

  • Delete: Drop anything that isn’t time-sensitive or crucial to progress. 
  • Delegate: If you are not in the best position to take on a task, delegate it. Considering everyone’s strengths and weaknesses is important here. Explain the reasons for your choices, tell delegatees what they’ll be doing, and set deadlines appropriately. 
  • Defer: Some tasks can be pushed back if they aren’t as urgent as others. 
  • Do: If a task can be done quickly or needs to be finished soon, just get it done. 

3. The Status Update 

The status-update meeting is critical in determining whether the team’s actions are aligned with an overall goal. Not every update deserves its own meeting, but don’t be afraid to get everyone together once a week for a chat with the project manager. 

In this meeting, you can determine which team members are on top of things and which ones might be struggling. Luckily there are plenty of solutions if the issue is, for example, poor time management. 

How can you identify poor time management skills? Common signs include poor quality of work, missed deadlines, and unhealthy habits — such as getting too little sleep.

4. The Problem Solver 

You and your team should have talked about any challenges in the status update meeting. If there’s a big-picture on you couldn’t solve in that conversation, the problem-solving meeting can help you find a solution.

Whatever the problem, use this four-step framework to get to the bottom of it:

  1. Gather a list of potential causes of the challenges.
  2. Brainstorm some helpful resources. 
  3. Make a list of potential solutions or approaches. 
  4. Decide on recommendations for action by debating solutions and agreeing on one. 

5. The Sales Check-in 

Because the green keeps the business going, it’s important to give extra attention to sales. But these meetings, like any other, can lose you money and productivity if not done correctly.

Sales check-ins should be grounded in hard evidence. Be sure you bring at least one of three things — and ideally all three — to every sales check-in: data, feedback, or action. 

One topic to chat through at these meetings? How salespeople are following up with clients after a sale. Follow-ups can engage customers, leading to higher lifetime value. This can be as simple as inviting customers to webinars or more hands-on, such as volunteering with customers on a cause they support.

6. The Team Builder 

Team building is one of the most beneficial things you can encourage as a leader. It’s as critical, if not more, than talking through the numbers. 

When team members get to know each other more deeply, they get a better sense of one another’s strengths, weaknesses, fears, and capabilities. They enjoy working together more, improving efficiency while minimizing employee turnover. 

Team-building activities can range from chili cook-offs to icebreaker games. It’s up to you to decide what your team will enjoy.

Meetings may not always be fun, but they should always be valuable. These six meetings make sense to hold at least once a week. Can you think of any others?

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