The Basics of Calendar Management (Part 1 of 2)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! So

Thank you, thank you, thank you! So excited... Your time-management cast has been one of my all-time favorites, can't wait to check this out. Still struggling a bit with it even after studying "the effective executive" and actually going through a Drucker-Analysis...

Great cast Mike & Mark, If enough

Great cast Mike & Mark,

If enough managers listen to this and start to even out their work-life balance, then maybe the paradigm will change where family realy does comes first.

Thanks for all you do!

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual

Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (November 26, 2007)...

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Approver Update ... Approver updated its online document approval service. "The fixes mostly had to do with workgroups, contacts and inviting users to review documents." Approver Int...

Hi Mark & Mike, I thought I was doing

Hi Mark & Mike,
I thought I was doing ok, picking the kids up from school & working in my home office with them at home, but you have made me rethink this. There are no boundaries to my home office, and this works fine for us, but you have made me rethink, whether I am really giving the family quality time. I shall be re-looking at my priorities.

ANISE from Brisbane Australia

Anise- Thinking about family and

Anise-

Thinking about family and considering priorities is ALWAYS a good choice.

Mark

I listened to the podcast today driving

I listened to the podcast today driving to Dallas and decided that it was time for me to get back to my habit of checking e-mail 3 times a day. I considered putting some sort of message in my sig block, but couldn't think of an appropriate way to write it. Until I read this blog post tonight: http://mikeschaffner.typepad.com/michael_schaffner/2007/12/getting-contr...

Part of the reason why I had abandoned the habit was because I needed access to my calendar. It was too easy to click over to the Inbox. But now I have a Blackberry Curve (love it) and I can check my calendar without opening my inbox.

Great cast. I look forward to listening to part 2 on my return trip.

I listened to the podcast today and was

I listened to the podcast today and was so glad to hear you guys address this subject. For a while, my wife and I would "synchronize" calendars over the weekend. We have fallen behind on this habit since we both got onto Outlook and schedule family events with each other, but it been left to her more than being a mutual process. I think that it is time to resuming the weekend synchronization.

Another point I want to raise is the family first issue. I brought up to my business coach one time that I needed to consider my family my first priority. He stopped me and corrected me that my first priority should be me. I immediately knew that he was not asking me to be selfish or disregard my family. He wanted me to realize that if I did not take care of myself then I would burn myself out, as I have done so many times before. I would like to hear your feedback on that angle, because I suspect that I am not alone.

Lastly, your conversation reminded me of a book by Arlie Russell Hochschild, "Time Bind", mostly because of the subtitle, "When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work". I have only read a small portion of the book. Have you read it?

Mike and Mark, thanks for the

Mike and Mark,
thanks for the cast.

It is not a first time when I hear about a rule of checking e-mail several times a day (not only from you). I periodically consider an opportunity to do so but every time realise that I do not have such a stream of e-mail and instead would be simply more often disturbed by phone (if I cancel checking it). When I do an inportant task requiring my concentration on it I turn off e-mail but in overall activity I consider it is not worth doing so when you receive not so much e-mails.

[...] One podcast that has been on my

[...] One podcast that has been on my subscription list forever is Manager Tools. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience managing some great teams and have had over 100 people under me in the org. chart, but I still get something worthwhile out of every episode. [...]

Mark & Mike, I appreciate this 'cast

Mark & Mike,

I appreciate this 'cast very much--especially your emphasis on family first. Recently left a higher paying job because the company did NOT value the family life of its employees. I took a job with another company at a considerable loss of pay because of its family friendly policies. I and my family are much happier now. In my previous company it was expected that employees--esp. management would arrive very early, leave very late and spend at least a couple hours each night answering emails--sometimes to the wee hours of the morning. On one occasion, I was congratulated by a senior manager because I had worked from home until nearly 1:30am!

My current employer (which is actually a previous employer) does not have those kinds of expectations, and tries very hard to honor work-life balance.

Hopefully one day more employers will realize what you guys have realized about family first. Thanks.

ESchenck- Our pleasure. We feel

ESchenck-

Our pleasure. We feel privileged to be serving you in this way.

Mark

One more suggestion on the e-mail bit

One more suggestion on the e-mail bit that's been helpful for me. I use Outlook, and what I've started doing is to put it in Offline mode most of the time. I think Mark hinted at something like this in the cast, but I didn't catch it explicitly. This means that I can get into Outlook, for example to look up a piece of information needed for the task I'm working on, or review a series of e-mails that relates to an issue, but without being confronted by a bunch of new e-mails. And I long since set the blackberry so that it doesn't do anything (sound or vibration) with new e-mails or SMS messages -- unless it's from my wife or kids. Those kinds of things really help.