Your calendar is a tool, make it work! Stack it up and make it carry the weight like a sherpa.

I use my calendar a lot! It's a tool I use for my than just telling me the date. 

Praise God for Google calendar too ... I have multiple calendars and share some with my wife and kids too. 

When some people see my calendars they perceive them to be overwhelming. But you have to remember, I don't stare at it every day. I stack it and it delivers to me what I want and when I want it. That's the point.

Here's a snapshot at what mine looks like. You don't need to copy this but here's an example of my logic. 

In a minute I'll suggest what you DO need to put on yours.

Green = Swebb's main calendar
Orange = Swebb.fyi business
Blue = Loren's calendar
Purple = finances
Brown = birthdays
I also have various calendars I subscribe to from Google - a Dallas Cowboys game calendar, holidays, history, and more.

It's not overwhelming to me because once I know the colors, I only focus on that. Yes there is some overlap and that's on purpose. Redundancy. 

Ultimately the point is that my calendar works for me, I don't work for it. If something isn't on the calendar then it's optional. 

Some things I think everyone should have on their calendars:

• Work - whether regular office hours or special meetings, put them in. 
• Off time - when I'm "off" then people can't book a call. I'm free. I add those whenever I want. I'm the boss. If you're not your own boss then this is even more important you learn to add this to your calendar in the few chances you actually can. 
• Monthly and Annual appointments - paying bills, registering your car, paying rent, transferring money to savings, etc....
• Anomalies you'll definitely forget - For example, I update my Passport and Global Entry/TSA status every 5 years or so. I'll forget by then, I don't trust the government to send a reminder, and I may change my email by then. So I put it down for 4 years from now. Most of you don't ... that's why you call me and ask about how to renew your passport quickly since you forgot and didn't listen when I told you to put it in your calendar. Your inability to use a calendar or listen literally costs more money. Think about that. 
• Family, Spouse, Kids activities - I like to know what my wife is doing so we don't have the insane, cliche, and completely avoidable double-booking that so many families have. How is this still a thing in this millennium? If she has a meeting at the time my daughter gets out of school then I can infer I need to get her from school. In the RARE (yes it's rare for you too) circumstance I need to book something when she's booked, we discuss. We've had ZERO problems with this in 17 years together. When we both worked for 'the man', when I worked at that big church, when she was a teacher, when we had babies, when I traveled. Zero problems.
   

Some things I think CHURCH LEADERS should have on their calendar

• The 4 prescribed high-attendance days you're building each year. Yep, 4, only 4. It's mapping momentum. It's predictable. You haven't had my coach you on momentum yet? You're late. :) 
• Giving series dates and the big giving day. This is annual and is not hard to plan and build around. Yet so many are surprised by it every year and literally waste money, energy, and buy-in from your church. 
• When you send out your annual report. This is an overlooked and wasted opportunity for vision and growth. But too many just send a hurried doc or IG video out with a few stats. Man, that's sad every year to me. 
• Major initiatives - groups enrollment times, volunteer engagement pushes, fasts, spiritual depth initiatives, etc.... Most, by far, are reactive just a few weeks before they come around. But these can literally be calendared up to a year in advance. Seen it, done it, coach it, and celebrate the many winners in peace while everyone else scrambles.
  Folks, what we do isn't new. You can be creative within rhythm. Why the Church is reactive and can not build predictably is beyond my comprehension. Don't be this leader.
• Assimilation days (Growth Track, Next Steps, etc...) - these should never be 'every other week' or some robotic cadence. They should be custom crafted to fit in line with the momentum map of your church. "But people need to know when they're coming up." Then tell them. 
  I'll do another email or coaching session on why your "easy" and "efficient" robotic nature of your connection classes is actually hurting you in at least 3 areas. 
• Coaching calls & development meetings - block out time up to a year in advance. You don't have to know the person or the details to at least program in systematic development. This is why so many are underdeveloped... they think it's just gonna occur to them. Nope, literally never does. So the development is reactive and therefore always insufficient to maximize the potential of the church and leader. Block out days/windows now.

What else are you putting on your calendar so you can stay ahead of the game and not let the EASY WINS of leadership fall between the cracks and be wasted?