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About this lesson
How to print a hard copy of the calendar and good tips for calendar management.
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2016, 2019/365.
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Printing and Calendar Best Practices.docx79.6 KB
Quick reference
Printing and Calendar Best Practices
Print a hard-copy of the calendar and good tips for calendar management.
When to use
Printing a copy of a busy calendar can save a lot of frustration if you are unable to log into your device to view your calendar.
Also, calendar best practices share some ideas gleaned from administrative assistants who work with busy travellers.
Instructions to print a calendar
- Open the calendar and change the view to Month, Week or Day.
- Press “Ctrl P” and the print screen will open.
- Click Print and select the settings style you prefer.
Calendar best practices
Schedule the time before and after meetings or travel
DO: Consider travel time to the appointment, whether it is air travel, driving, or just walking to another building on campus.
DO: Allow a leeway window after and between meetings, whether it is leeway for extra hashing of the topic, or just to get to the bathroom between meetings.
Color coding
Don’t: Color code too much of your calendar or your boss’ calendar (if you maintain his/her calendar). Too much color can be just as inefficient as no color at all.
DO: Select a Color code for external meetings, like vendors or customers. So at-a-glance, an external customer would appear a certain color, but internal employee or departments would be another color. This might be more efficient than a different color for every customer.
Respect meeting times
DO: include a “Hard Stop” message in the notes of your meeting requests. This will let everyone know that the end-time is not just a suggestion.
DO: If a meeting is hitting the hard stop and people are not moving to leave, have an assistant or co-worker ready to ring into the conference room phone number. This has the effect of startling the attendees and they’ll think the next conference call is ringing in. They will quickly scatter.
Print the calendar
DO: If you have a busy day ahead, a printed copy of the calendar can be a life-saver and frustration saver.
Edit the subject line for clarity
NOTE: When a meeting request is updated by the Sender, the subject or time will change the meeting for everyone invited. But - when updated by the Recipient/Attendee, it will only update the Recipient’s calendar, and no one else.
DO: This is a good feature, because you can safely add details to the subject line. For instance, use brackets as the signal that it is your own note: [Joe, Bill, Sarah] or [Customer wants a discount].
No one else invited to the meeting will see the notes you typed on the meeting subject line of your calendar.
Make use of the event area
DO: Post team member or co-worker vacation days as events so you’re not wasting time looking for Bill when he is out on vacation.
DO: Post future events as placeholders, i.e. board meeting dates 3 months in advance.
DO: Post your travel days in the Event area, mark it as busy so no one else can schedule you. But you or your assistant, can still schedule specifics for those day.
Tips for busy travelers and their assistants
- Enter the legs of the trips individually, thereby leaving the layover gaps open. This will allow for conference call meetings between flight legs.
- If a flight is delayed or canceled, since the legs are scheduled separately on the calendar, you’ll know at-a-glance whether you have to re-book the entire trip or just one leg of the trip.
- Separately schedule the driving time to the airport and to the meeting location.
- Separately schedule time to clear security at the airport.
- Separately schedule the car rental pick-up and return time, and include the address in the appointment details, for hotels, too!
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