After the fun and relaxation that summer brings, September jolts everyone back into reality. While we may not have to shop for actual “back to work” supplies like kids going to school, it is a great time to refocus on strong productivity habits. Two of our top habits are calendar management and fully utilizing all of our tools.
Manage Your Calendar
We’ve shared some of our tips for calendar management before and we continually refine how we handle scheduling to maximize our productivity. The key is to determine how you work best on your projects: are you more efficient when you block out several hours to work on one project, or do you get more done when you schedule an hour on each project? Or a combination of both approaches?
When setting our schedules for a particular week, we first review our project timelines to see what deliverables are due. The specific deliverables then dictate whether that week will be one where we need to block several uninterrupted hours or one with a lot scheduled into smaller appointments. As an example, if it’s a week where a master event plan is due, that’s a several hour commitment. But if it is a week where we have a lot of information to review and approve (menus, printer proofs, AV specs, etc), scheduling each of those into 1-hour slots works best.
Use Your Tools
Sure, you CAN manage everything using Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. But, is that actually efficient? For us, the answer was a resounding NO. We used to spend many hours per week on things like reviewing Excel timelines, chasing updates, sending documents back and forth, and dealing with merging changes between 2 files. We made the switch to Basecamp for project management years ago, and it was one of the best business decisions we have made. It keeps the entire project organized in one place and everyone who needs the information has instant access to it. Now, the hours we used to waste on inefficient processes are allocated to positive and productive work. We’ve come to rely on Basecamp so much, that we use it for all internal projects as well. Even when a project only involves me, myself, and I, it’s still the best way to keep each of those personalities on-track.
Planning for the Rest of 2019
A quick review of our processes earlier this month was necessary, as we head into a very busy fall season. Here are just a few of the things the Perfection Events team is working on:
- September: We serve as the meeting team for the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2019 in New Orleans running from September 30 – October 3 in New Orleans. The Cable-Tec® Expo boasts more than 10,000 participants coming together to gain knowledge about the latest breakthroughs in cable and telecommunications, connect with industry leaders and create opportunities to move business forward.
- October: we are excited to be involved with multiple events for B. PHL Innovation Fest, Philadelphia’s first city-wide innovation festival. This three-day festival will include experiential workshops, speakers and exhibits that showcase innovation in healthcare, technology, engineering, art, music, film and more in locations throughout the Philadelphia area. Our team is involved with multiple organizations and boards in the Philadelphia area, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). We are proud to be involved with the planning for the HBCU Career Development Marketplace, which takes place at the end of October in Baltimore.
- November: we are working with Better Than Success to plan the 3rd Annual Women in Real Estate Summit, an event that gives attendees the skills to achieve their real estate investing goals and build wealth through real estate.
- December: Another organization that we are involved with is New Voices for Reproductive Justice, and we are proud to be serving as a board member and Special Events Committee chair. We are working on the 15th Anniversary celebration that will take place in December.
Your turn: what are your top productivity habits? How do you continually refine them? Tell us on Linkedin.