Your calendar can be a tool that protects your focus, defends your productivity, and gives a sense of what you can accomplish in a week. Merge your to-do list with your calendar. Whenever you add something to your to-do list for the week, immediately add the time it will take to your schedule. It will give you an actual picture of what you can accomplish.

Use your calendar for productivity

A focus block is a period of work where you shut out everything, turn off your phone, and pay attention to one task. The key to success for a focus block:<ul><li>No notification sounds or pop-ups.</li><li>The block should have a specific goal in mind.</li><li>Focus on one subject/project, rather than one area to another doing shallow work.</li><li>Train the people around you not to interrupt except for an emergency.</li></ul>

Get deep work done with a focus block

Without lunch blocked off, people often find that they do meetings or eat from their desks. The same can be said for rest and fitness time. Ensure you protect yourself from working during these times by blocking off specific times for it. Having a schedule isn't about doing more work but getting what you want done in all areas of your life, not just your day job.

Block off meals, fitness, and rests in the calendar

Do a schedule prep. Lay out your focus blocks, fitness, meal times, and major tasks into your schedule. Leave lots of room for the unexpected and ensure you're not overcommitting.

Plan your week on Sunday

Try to keep your default meeting length to 15 or 30 minutes. When you constrain time, you focus more. Longer meetings should be the exception, not the rule. For internal meetings, allow people to book based on your calendar. For external meetings, give people access to open spots in your calendar.

Keep meetings short

Some people see their calendar as a weight around their necks. I see it as a tool that protects my focus, defends my productivity, and gives me a reasonable sense of what I can get done in a week…

Stashed ideas

6 Very Practical Calendar Tips for People Who Want to Take Control of Their Time

The role “project manager” or PM, is exactly what it sounds like: a person responsible for the day-to-day management of a given project. Think of this position as the chef d’orchestre, football coach, or a CEO of a temporary team who works to create, manage, and track a project from start to finish. Almost every industry — from tech to retail to publishing — requires people with this skillset. As a project manager, you could be employed by a startup or a big corporation. You could work full-time, freelance, or even be a consultant.
Project managers are responsible for planning, organizing, and managing the completion of a project, while ensuring that it delivers the expected results on time, on budget, and within scope. The exact duties of a project manager will depend on their industry, organization, and the types of projects that the manager is tasked with overseeing.

Project Management: The Basics

<ul>
<li>Initiating: As project manager you begin a project by defining its purpose, the business case, its benefits, and its high-level scope. This includes identifying the key stakeholders, or the individuals or groups who will be impacted by the project, including both employees and customers.</li>
<li>Planning: Create the larger plan of action. You come up with key deliverables, deadlines, major risks or obstacles you may face, and you set a budget, among other details.</li>
<li>Execution and Monitoring: Ensure that your team members are motivated and complete the work identified in the project plan. Project management does require some people management skills, but only as it relates to creating a high-performing team and helping that team successfully complete the project at hand.</li>
</ul>

Responsibilities Of A PM

You need a good understanding of basic project management concepts, methods, and tools that will help you make a reliable project plan, identify the stakeholders of your project, or manage the project risks.
More and more universities now offer project management courses, but you can also learn the basics by enrolling in online courses, listening to podcasts on the subject, and watching related webinars to keep up-to-date on any new developments.

The Hard Skills Required For the PM Role

Reach out to project managers in your organization or those in your social circle for informational interviews. You can ask:
<ul>
<li>How did you train as a project manager?</li>
<li>How do you keep your knowledge up to date? Are there specific courses you would recommend?</li>
<li>What are the most important things to pay attention to as a first-time project manager?</li>
<li>Do you have any other advice for me?</li>
</ul>

Getting Help

In this role, you will need to learn to communicate well, actively listen to your colleagues and stakeholders and motivate your team.
Some of the skills you would need:
<ul>
<li>Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive your emotions and those of others. </li>
<li>Critical thinking is rational, logical thinking. It helps you identify the root causes for any given problem.</li>
<li>Decision-making is critical, too, as it can help you reason and select the best course of action.</li>
<li>Influence is the ability to inspire or persuade other people.</li>
</ul>

The Soft Skills

You will also need to have a minimum understanding of the technical aspects involved in the project. For example, if you’re implementing a new HR application, you must take the time to comprehend some of the technical aspects of the software, like the phases of the development, the configuration tools, or how it is tested and integrated.
You don’t need to become an expert; a certain level of understanding will give you credibility with the team and the stakeholders.

Technical Know-How

You can find project management opportunities in all sorts of industries. But which one is good for you? Here are some questions you can ask during your interview to guide your decision:
<ul>
<li>Do you provide training/certifications to help your project managers build new skills?</li>
<li>Are project managers fully dedicated to projects, or does the role involve additional responsibilities?</li>
<li>What type of projects will I be working/managing: strategic, technology, customers, internal?</li>
<li>What is the usual scale of your projects — local, regional, global?</li>
<li>What is the usual size of the teams and what are the budgets?</li>
</ul>

Companies With The Best Opportunities

Use this guide to make an informed choice.

Is Project Management the Right Career for You?

If you search for the Pros of writing a manuscript and publishing it, most articles will mention things like:<ul><li>Visibility </li><li>Networking </li><li>Lead-Generation </li><li>Personal Brand SEO </li><li>As James Altucher said about self-publishing, it can be your new business card. </li></ul>

Pros of writing a manuscript

<ul><li>You will learn how to talk clearly. A good writer never wastes time from his readers. Neither an entrepreneur should waste the time of his customers or employees. Clear communication solves both problems.</li><li>You will become curious and handle feedback better. Even when we dominate the subject, the need to organize ideas, make references and consult other specialists in the area paves a path for curiosity.</li><li>The outline will be the tool to organize your ideas and sharpen your arguments. </li><li>Pre-sales will teach you an important lesson about delivering on time.</li></ul>

Other benefits, often neglected, from writing

Writer's block is not a lack of inspiration but a lack of motivation and research. There is a third element that can make you stuck: lack of urgency. A considerable share of the books that are started, ends unfinished. This happens because people have no deadlines, no clear targets. How to solve it? Pre-launch. Promise to deliver it on a certain date. People will pre-order your book and you will need to deliver it to them. Your image will be at risk and your skin will be

Lack of urgency

We all have many stories of defeats, victories, and experiences to tell each other. The increasing number of podcasts or YouTube channels where people from all age narrates their lives proves this…

How Writing a Book Revolutionizes the Speed You Manage Your Business

The number one perk to consider, for obvious reasons, is that supporting local means that you care about the community that you live in. You’ll be able to put money back into your community and the other people who call it home, too. It’ll give your local economy a chance to thrive, too.

It shows you care about your local community

Local business owners don’t have the funds to go big or go home, so when you buy local you are going to be respecting that they are getting out there everyday and trying their best to make an honest living even against all of the competition out there. There is a lot to be said for that. Shopping with a local business — regular shopping, that is — shows them the respect that you have for them and their attempts at doing things the right way.

It shows respect to the business owners

There are lots of local makers who bring their personal experiences, skills, and creativity to their products. Take the time to go to a local market event sometime and you’ll find out how these local people bring the soul to their products.

You’ll get unique products

Lots of companies provide lower quality products that are less fresh and full of Trashy ingredients. A local company will guarantee you a product that is the real deal. The money is going to go back into the business to give it the ability to succeed in the future.

They always want the best final result, not your money

There’s no question that the job market is tight these days, and by shopping local, you are keeping a business open (one that cares about you) and giving people jobs within it so that you can help the local economy in more ways than one. So think about that next time you debate between one option at a local shop versus one that is slightly cheaper at a big box store. Think about the people that you help employ.

You are giving people jobs

There is a fun and practical purpose to shopping local. If you have the chance to choose between the local business and a big Superstore, go with the local option. Join the budding community of conscious consumers right now and help save the planet by encouraging people to live in a healthy and sustainable manner.

Other ways to support local businesses

In this extremely competitive world, it’s really hard for small and local businesses to make an honest living. Here are some reasons why you should support them.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Kathryn Perry
@kathryper

6 Very Practical Calendar Tips for People Who Want to Take Control of Their Time

Is Project Management the Right Career for You?

How Writing a Book Revolutionizes the Speed You Manage Your Business

Why You Should Support Local And Small Businesses

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Kathryn Perry@kathryper

6 Very Practical Calendar Tips for People Who Want to Take Control of Their Time

Is Project Management the Right Career for You?

How Writing a Book Revolutionizes the Speed You Manage Your Business

Why You Should Support Local And Small Businesses

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Kathryn Perry
@kathryper