Does your Calendar start your New Year like you mean to finish it?

We're rushing to the 2013 finish line at a break-neck pace. There's still a ton of email sitting in your inbox, your to-do list is that long it looks like another inbox and your popularity is soaring if your invitations to attend meetings is anything to go by. You're juggling three projects at various stages of completion not to mention your half-done Christmas shopping and no one's getting hand written cards this festive season because there's no room in your schedule before you fly out at the end of the week on vacation. At this rate you should set the record for promotion to CEO faster than anyone else has in the firm if you're not burnt out first.

Is this you or someone you know?



It doesn't have to be this hectic all the time. Below are some suggestions for making life a little easier for yourself. This example is based loosely around a Team Leader in a Customer Service department for a large firm and assumes you are working with MS Outlook in an Exchange environment. The shape of the events will change depending on your personal role but you get the picture.

1. Set up Calendar sharing in your application with those key people in your organization. (iPhone/apple go here)

2. Set up an All Day Event colored Out of Office for the duration of your holiday and invite your Senior Management, Peer and Team members and any Key people outside of your organization especially if you're involved in projects.
NB. In the notes area of the invitation set up contact details for those people who are overseeing your role whilst you are away.

3. Set up your Out of Office Reply in your inbox with the details of the people who are overseeing your role, contact numbers and when you'll be back in circulation. Also advise in this note if mail has been re-directed and how it is being managed whilst you're away. If you use Gmail, Yahoo etc. as a backend with an Outlook browser then you will have to go into that applications settings and turn your "Out of Office" on/ off there.
- Suggestion: Make your first official, open for business day back in the office the 3^rd day e.g. Start Monday but open for business Wednesday. This gives you two days to get thru you email, reprioritize your tasks and meet with your senior manager, peers and direct reports.

4. Set up Re-direction Rules for email from certain people or companies to go to the person or people overseeing your role whilst you're away.

5. Brief your 2IC/person overseeing your role whilst away what constitutes an emergency to the point they must speak with you personally by phone.
- Suggestion: Do not check your work-email whilst on holiday or it's not a holiday. If this is leaving you anxious - set a task to further up-skill people in your team in the near future so they are able to manage 80 %(+) most of the time in your absence.

6. Update & Date activate your tasks – spend the necessary time to go through and update each task and then in the last half an hour before stepping out of the office to go on vacation change the start dates of your "Tasks in Progress" to 1^st or 2^nd day back at work and only those that must be attended to that day. Remember a lot is going to come flooding thru the door as you re-enter the workplace and priorities will change almost certainly.

7. Delegate Tasks – MS Outlook on Exchange has a remarkable electronic task delegation function which, once delegated (and accepted by the person who will pick up the work in your absence) will electronically update you as the person doing the work updates the delegated task you sent them.

N.B. The automatic update feature is not available outside of the Exchange environment. 

  
8. Set up the first day back at work in your Calendar with dot point agenda items so that it best suits your pro-active approach to getting in touch with what's going on: Suggested approach - adjust as necessary(Remember to own your calendar before someone else does.)
  

9. Set your profile on your phone to Calls and Text Only.

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11. During meal and rest times, leave your phone(s) on the lounge or dining table.

12. If you're out for an evening walk with family after dinner, do take a phone with you (on silent) for safety reasons but insist on the others leaving their devices behind so the focus is on the people that are present.

13. On the first day back arrive early and turn your automation off such as Redirection Rules and Out of Office.

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Remember - The above may or may not suit depending on the nature of your workplace, your contract and workplace agreements you have set up with colleagues and clients. These ideas can be used prior to any planned absence from your life's vocation. The most happy medium will be discovered by you as you improve personal and team process.

...safe journeys