KNOW | TWELVE, AUGUST 2019

The Benefits of Blocked Times on Your Calendar for Priority Tasks

We’ve all been there at some point. You view your calendar and notice that you have more on your to-do-lists than hours in the day. For the best in benefits of your calendar, you need to block times for certain tasks. This will avoid the stress and frustration that comes with the ineffective ways you have managed your time in the past and help you remain productive. Time-blocking can be used to save the day.

In this quick read, you will learn about the benefits of time blocking. Here are the main points:

Blocking time gets you started and maintains motivation.
Blocking time helps you focus on and efficiently complete your most important tasks.
Blocking time also encourages healthy work-life balance.
Blocking time can improve your physical and mental health.
Blocking time helps you say “no.”

At Delegate Solutions, all of our Associates block their time in a way that enables them to prioritize client work for optimal efficiency. We also help our clients block their time to help them prioritize and stay focused. Take a look at this quick read to learn more about the benefits of, and implementation of time blocking! - Entrepreneur

Keeping on top of active leads and managing the day to day relationship with clients is an area of your business that can’t be ignored. We’ve helped many of our clients translate their piles of client notes and stacks of business cards into a system that works for them. It’s important to understand the options and limitations of each system before investing the time in setting up your CRM. The key here is that it needs to work for you so you will use it!

Consider the following when selecting your CRM:

- Integration: What other tools or systems are you currently utilizing that your new CRM will need to easily integrate with ? Think: calendars, email, website, accounting, event software, email marketing, shopping carts.

- Make a list of your must-haves. What are your top three requirements for your CRM? Most CRMs will not be able to handle your lengthy list of requests so narrow it down. Think: price, levels of access, analytics, contact categorization, lead or client progression tracking, mailings, scheduling, social media integration.

Below are a few of our favorites:

- Salesforce: the Cadillac of CRMs, it literally does everything and integrates with just about anything! The only downside here is the pricetag per user (and) it may do more than you actually need.

- Highrise: Built by the creators of our PM tool, Basecamp. It also plays well with others- especially Basecamp! Biggest downside here is that it does not allow for recurring appointments- which means ongoing manual entry.

- ZohoCRM: The basic version of this is free and it offers alot of sophisticated options at this level including email and calendar integration. Downside: Can be confusing to setup and doesn’t integrate as well as the others.