If you are working the chances are pretty high that you are using a calendar. At least for most types of jobs. Although the goal is mostly the same, I noticed that there are three different ways to use your calendar. First, we have the way to put literally everything in the calendar (from meetings to dinners with your partner etc.). Second, there is the way to leave your calendar as empty as possible to be able to decide more spontaneously. And last but not least you can also use your calendar as a to-do list. But look at all of them one by one.

At first, we look at the “put in everything” calendar. This mostly looks like this:

Screen-shot-2014-01-27-at-9.31.35-AM
via Google Search

Especially people who are liking it really organized and structured are preferring this and it definitely has its perks – when you are sticking to it! I failed at the sticking part, so it didn’t really worked for me personally. If you want to have a calendar with basically everything in it, it doesn’t make much sense to use it when you are forgetting to put in half of your appointments.

So let´s come to the second method – a more blank and as a result more flexible calendar like this:

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Source: https://m.signalvnoise.com/what-my-calendar-looks-like-11724d3a8b7e#.plsouwc0x

A calendar like this gives you way more flexibility – so you don´t have to say no to something a 4pm today because you scheduled a meeting there couple weeks ago. Of course, sometimes there are appointments you only can schedule weeks in advance – like a visit at the dentist. But this is more occasional than regular with this method. My calendar actually looks almost the same. I only put in meetings (normally not more than two a day) and other things where I come into danger to forget them. So if you want to book me via Vyte you´ll find pretty much space to do that! 🙂

The third option is to use your calendar as a to-do list. Here is an example:

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via Google Search

As you can see there are work tasks which appear as calendar events. So if you have tried countless to-do list apps with no success you should definitely try this method (here is a detailed way to do that)! This way you can easily see when a task should be started and completed, you get a great history log of how you spending your time plus you probably already use your calendar every day – so why not include the to-do part. It is definitely worth a shot! I am really liking the idea behind this but for me personally it lacks flexibility which makes method two more appealing to me. 

How are you using your calendar? One of the three methods above or completely different – we`d love to know!