I’ve had this conditional love for my blackberry ever since I got it in November. When it’s working well I love it. I had some problems syncing with my outlook calendar initially, which was frustrating. Yet, even in the midst of my frustration, I gleaned some valuable insights regarding time commitments that I thought was worth sharing with you.
One of the solutions offered by blackberry tech support was that I put an end date on my recurring calendar options. I had all my regular time blocked business activities, workouts, re-occurring social activities, and birthdays on a “no end date” re-occurrence. This caused some sort of computer sync malfunction with blackberry. When I put an end date on them, it resolved the problem. It was an interesting exercise going through all my activities and determining how long I would commit to them in the future. For my current networking groups I committed to five years. For business activities and business contact birthdays I committed to ten years. For my workout routine, 20 years. And for lifelong friends and family member birthdays, I committed 40 years. I realize I can change these commitments at any time, but for now I’ve noted the intended duration of my commitment in my calendar.
Have you ever looked at your existing relationships, personal or professional, and put an end date on them? 
It has you really evaluate how and with whom you spend your time. You essentially ask yourself, “am I going to know this person in a year, or five, or ten, or forty years?”
It was also interesting what events and contacts I deleted from my calendar. Groups I no longer attend, and birthdays of people with whom I’m no longer in contact were promptly deleted from the calendar. These items could have been deleted long ago, but I thought “what’s the harm of keeping them in the calendar?” In actuality, this passiveness did cause harm, because my blackberry didn’t function properly. It made me wonder how many other things I tolerate rather than eliminate, when they have run their course and should be deleted from my schedule, thought patterns, behaviors.
My sister happened to call when I was in the midst of this exercise and she was happy to hear that I planned on celebrating her family’s birthdays and her wedding anniversary for another 40 years. She mentioned she couldn’t plan too far ahead at the moment, because she was in the process of coordinating her work schedule not knowing if her youngest is going to be in Kindergarten next fall for a full day or half day, due to impending budget cuts by school districts.
Whether we’re doing long term or short term planning, our commitments are always reflected in how we spend our time as well as our money. What changes have you made when it comes to spending your time and money, in light of our current economy? Do you make long term plans, or are you taking life day by day? What long term commitments remain in your life at this time? I’ve always been a planner, both long and short-term. As time evolves, I’ve learned to adjust the plan with more grace than in earlier days. Do you welcome or dread an unexpected change in plans? Do you feel that your current schedule accurately reflects your priorities?
Your comments and perspective are always welcomed.
Good stuff, Lori. Haven’t tried syncing my Blackberry yet, but that’s good info to know when I do. As far as planning, I do have long and short term goals, but I suspect I don’t put them in as concrete form as you do. They’re more in my head and part of my guiding principles for how I approach my time management. Sure I have a to do list on my desk and a list of upcoming deadlines. But planning for them and my longer term goals, like creating a thriving social media practice for my firm, aren’t on a hard and fast list or my calendar. It would be interesting to do your how much time exercise with the open ended events in my Outlook though. Good thoughts to ponder. Thanks.
Sometimes it hurts to clean out the toxic people from our lives. But when your realize this it is one step forward to moving forward. I have been going through this myself and I am sometimes NOT completely committed to doing so even though I know it must be done.
Great advice.
Thanks for your comments Mike and Jamei!
Mike, I do a general time block with something like “marketing” in my calendar several times a week and then go through and type in what the specific task will be such as phone calls, blog article, enewsletter, etc. I’m more a “to do list” person when it comes to what I want to accomplish in a day and then I put it into the calendar that day so I accomplish it.
Jamei, I know what you mean about toxic people. Years ago, I found it helpful to disassociate from all the negative people in my life. I started with the people in my business community and general network, and then my distant friends, and finally removed anyone close to me who was negative. I didn’t go through a formal “break up” with each person. I just chose to invest my time only with those who were optimistic, encouraging, like-minded, etc. I simply filled my schedule with people and activities I truly enjoyed, until there wasn’t time for anyone else. While one may worry that this behavior can be isolating and you’ll have few friends and contacts, I can assure you that my network is bigger than it has ever been. I know that you attract who you are, and I’m happy there are so many happy, uplifting, people out there. I don’t miss the negative ones at all. So I encourage you to keep purging the toxic people from your life. You’ll have more time and energy for good things and you won’t be drained by the negative folks.