For any startup aiming for smooth operations, a team calendar isn't just a tool; it's the backbone of your workflow. A shared calendar is essential for improving communication, balancing assignments, and boosting team productivity. Especially in the fast-paced startup environment, a team calendar makes long, hectic days more organized and manageable.
A well-maintained team calendar serves several critical functions:
- Reminding everyone of project deadlines and due dates.
- Scheduling meetings, client calls, one-on-ones, and work shifts.
- Notifying team members of your availability.
- Mapping out long-term projects, like a content marketing schedule.
- Tracking the progress and milestones of a project.
Ultimately, a shared calendar keeps your team aligned, creates accountability, and helps everyone focus on their highest priorities. To unlock these benefits, you must properly set up and manage your team calendar from day one. Here’s how to get started.
1. Choose the Right Cloud-Based Calendar App
Your first step is to select a calendar tool that fits your startup's needs. At a minimum, it should be user-friendly, easily shareable, and within your budget.
Here are a few popular options to consider:
- Google Calendar: Free, straightforward, and excellent for scheduling meetings and setting reminders for key milestones.
- Microsoft Outlook Calendar: A comprehensive tool that most professionals are familiar with, perfect for generating detailed schedules and agendas.
- Apple Calendar: A simple and intuitive option if your team primarily uses Apple devices.
Beyond these, you may want a more specialized solution. For a tool built specifically for high-performing teams, consider Novacal. It seamlessly syncs with existing Google, Outlook, and Apple calendars to create a single source of truth for your team. Novacal also uses smart technology to suggest optimal meeting times, removing the back-and-forth of scheduling.
2. Appoint a Calendar Manager
Once you've chosen your app, designate one person, such as a team lead or an assistant, to be in charge of it. If too many people can add and edit entries, your calendar can quickly become disorganized and full of scheduling conflicts.
While your team calendar should be collaborative, that doesn't mean everyone needs full editing permissions. All changes should go through the calendar manager to keep it clean, organized, and accurate.
3. Customize Your Calendar for Clarity
One of the greatest advantages of online calendars is their customizability. You can create multiple calendars for different purposes: one for project tasks, another for meetings, and a third for employee vacation time. You can then color-code each calendar so they are easy to differentiate at a glance.
Additionally, you can customize notification settings. For instance, you might turn off desktop notifications to reduce distractions while setting email reminders to go out 15 minutes before a meeting begins.
4. Prioritize and Block Non-Negotiable Time
Non-negotiables are essential items like project due dates, critical client meetings, or recurring deep work sessions. Placing these items on the calendar first ensures that less important tasks won't steal valuable time.
The sooner you add these priorities, the better. This way, the time is already blocked out when someone tries to schedule another activity, protecting your team's focus.
5. Schedule Around Your Team's Peak Productivity
We all have natural rhythms that dictate when we are most productive. Research suggests that for many people, this peak occurs before lunch. You can leverage this for your entire team.
Schedule your most important tasks, like uninterrupted deep work, when everyone is alert and focused. Reserve less critical work for periods of lower energy, such as the mid-afternoon. To identify these peak times, you can have your team track their time or use simple polls and surveys.
6. Use Staggered Schedules to Ensure Coverage
While it requires some initial planning, staggering employee schedules helps you maintain coverage and offer more flexibility. It prevents situations where you are understaffed, especially during popular vacation times like summer or the holidays. With a shared team calendar, employees can see when others have planned time off and select different dates.
7. Build in Buffers and White Space
Your team can't operate at full capacity without breaks. To account for this, schedule buffer time and white space directly into your calendar.
For example, avoid scheduling back-to-back meetings. Leave a 30-minute gap between events so everyone can process information, grab a coffee, and prepare for the next discussion. Leaving open blocks of time also adds flexibility to your schedule in case of emergencies or unexpected shifts in priority.
8. Sync Personal Calendars for Availability
Syncing calendars doesn't mean sharing every private detail. It simply allows team members to see when colleagues are free or busy. For instance, if a team member is traveling for a client lunch, the rest of the team will know they are unavailable during that time without needing to know the specifics. This is also useful for planning around vacations and personal appointments.
9. Account for Time Zones and Holidays
As remote work becomes more common, managing different time zones is crucial. A 3 p.m. meeting for you might be during a colleague's lunch hour. Always check time zones before scheduling.
Furthermore, be aware of national holidays if you work with an international team. You don't want to schedule a major deadline or an all-hands meeting on a day when part of your team is offline.
10. Rethink Your Approach to Meetings
Unnecessary meetings are a major drain on productivity and morale. Before adding a meeting to the calendar, confirm it's truly necessary. If it is, don't just accept the default 30 or 60-minute slot. Adjust the duration to the exact amount of time you need, which is often less than 30 minutes.
Avoid scheduling last-minute meetings. It's disrespectful to your team's time and often leads to poor attendance. If a topic needs immediate attention, consider using asynchronous tools like email or Slack until a proper meeting can be scheduled.
11. Review and Adapt Your Team Calendar Regularly
Finally, make a habit of reviewing your team calendar frequently. Projects get completed, schedules change, and new priorities emerge. If you don't update the calendar to reflect these changes, it will quickly become obsolete. For example, team members who are parents may need more flexible schedules during summer and holiday breaks, which should be reflected in the calendar.