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Save 3 Hours Per Week with These Calendar Automations · The Daily Writer

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast, the show that helps you share your message, increase your impact, and grow your business through the power of writing.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, before we get into the main content for this episode, I want to mention something really quick.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I forget that many people don't know what I actually do in my business.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just forget to mention it on the podcast sometimes.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'd take a minute to fill you in on what my business actually is and then tell you how it can help you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a company called Inkwell Ghostwriting, and we provide writing services for busy leaders.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the best ways to establish your authority and your credibility in your field is by creating content.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that could be content like books, articles, blog posts, social media posts, and other types of content.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those are great ways to share that knowledge with other people.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that if you're a busy entrepreneur or you're a business leader or you just have a lot going on in your life, it can be really difficult to find the time to write that content and to market it and get it out there in front of the people who need to see it.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where my company can help.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: We work with you to craft books, blog posts, articles, or social media posts, or other content that opens doors and helps you to get notice.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to chat with you about your project or your idea if that's something you're interested in.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net, or you can also visit my site at inkwellghostwriting.com.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's today's commercial, I guess, but more than a commercial, I just wanted to let you know what I actually do in my business in case you're interested in that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's jump into today's episode.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about what your time is worth?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a business leader or entrepreneur, you know that your time is really valuable.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you have a set hourly rate for your work or you don't, the fact remains that time is your most precious resource.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Time is one of the few things in life that we can never get back.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Once it's gone, it's gone.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I love using tools and resources that save me time.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that our time should be invested, not just spent on frivolous things.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have to invest our time into projects, relationships, and other things that bring us a return on that investment if we want our businesses to grow and ultimately if we want our lives to thrive.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be wise about how we use our time.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, today on this episode, I want to share three calendar automations that save me time every single day.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I use these automations so often that at this point it's become second nature.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: As I was thinking about the title for this episode, I had a title and then I wanted to add some specificity to it because, well, it's a better headline writing if I can make it more specific, but also I wanted to just think through for myself how much time do these tools save me every week?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm estimating that the tools I'm going to share with you, just these simple three-calendar automations, I'm estimating that these save me about three hours a week, give or take.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because these tools help me to be more efficient and they eliminate the need to think about trivial things like you know sending 45 emails back and forth to somebody to schedule a meeting and things like that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I love these tools.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're really helpful for me.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not making any money off these.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just really like these and I think that you'll enjoy these as well.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's dive in.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tool number one is Google Calendar Notifications.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have used Google Calendar for several years now, and I highly recommend it.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tons of people use Google Calendar, so that's nothing unusual.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the features I think a lot of people miss on Google Calendar is the notifications.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're like me, you probably have a lot of different things on your calendar.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a college professor in my day job, so I have classes, meetings, chapel services, and other things going on for my day job.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Student meetings, advising appointments, and all kinds of other stuff.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: But then for my business, I also have things like podcast interviews, client meetings, appointments, chats with friends and colleagues and potential vendors and all that kind of stuff.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then in my personal and family life, I have things going on, as I'm sure you do as well.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So taken together all those things mean that we all have a lot going on, and we've got to have some way to keep all that organized, but also we've got to have some way, we've got to have something that reminds us of things that we're likely to forget.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I have my Google Calendar set up to remind me to take out the trash on Sunday and Wednesday evenings because our trash, the trash in our neighborhood, gets picked up on Mondays and Thursdays.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a simple notification set up that just kind of blings at me.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It sends an email and pops up on my computer and my phone, hey, take out the trash.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I would forget to do that.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Another example is on Saturday mornings I have a notification set up that reminds me to plug in my backup drive into my MacBook Pro so that my MacBook hard drive gets backed up.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just simple things like that, which aren't going to make or break anybody until they do.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever had a hard drive fail where it wasn't backed up, but when that happens, that can be really bad news.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I have something that reminds me to back up my hard drive.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I tend to forget a lot of things.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have the memory of an elephant and can remember all those a thousand details in your everyday life and all your meetings and stuff, that's great.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I love notifications because they're not just on my calendar passively, they also actively remind me to do something or that I have an upcoming appointment.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to set up notifications, in your Google Calendar, just open the calendar event and go to the notifications section, and then you can set up whatever kind of a notification you prefer.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's number one, Google Calendar notifications.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is Calendly, which is a scheduling tool.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I love Calendly, but I've got to be honest, I wish you I wish that they had chosen a different name because the term Calendly is really difficult to say correctly.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: You have to say it really, really slow.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if anybody from Calendly is listening, um, if you ever change your name, make it something easier to say, that would be awesome.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, back to the main point here.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Calendly is a meeting scheduler, and it's what I use to schedule all of my podcast interviews and online meetings.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: For example, whenever I have a guest on the podcast or whenever somebody wants to talk with me over Zoom for an online meeting, uh maybe it's a client or a colleague, I give that person my Calendly scheduling link.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, there are other scheduling tools as well, such as Schedule Once, and there's a bunch of other ones.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just happen to use Calendly.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They pretty much all work the same way.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's how the whole system works.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: In my Calendly account, I set up times that are open for meetings.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And because my Calendly account is synced with Google Calendar, nothing ever gets double booked.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say I have an open time scheduled and somebody goes in and wants to schedule a time for me via my Calendly link, but I already have something set up in Google Calendar for that.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Calendly will not show them that time as available.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it avoids double booking, which is really, really handy.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So when somebody wants to schedule a time, all I do is send them my link and then they can choose from the times that are available.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I typically don't have open times on Thursdays or Fridays on my calendar because I like to block out all of my online meetings for Mondays through Wednesdays.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I focus on content creation in the time that I have to do that on Thursdays and Fridays.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if all this sounds complicated, it's it's really not.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to give Calendly or Schedule Once or some kind of similar scheduling tool a try because it's really, really super handy.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just give my meeting type a name.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I call it Conversation with Kent Sanders because I use the free version, and you can only have one meeting type on the free version on Calendly.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that meeting title, Conversation with Kent Sanders, can apply to a client meeting, a podcast interview, or other type of online meeting.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this takes me to the third automation that I want to share with you, and that is the Pretty Link WordPress plugin.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, once I have my Calendly link that that tool has generated for me, it's a link that's specific to me that I can send to people where they can look at my calendar and schedule a meeting with me online.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Once I have that link, I need to keep that link handy because I'm going to be giving that link to other people who then want to schedule a time with me.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem is that I don't want to devote brain space to remember what that link is from Calendly.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So to simplify this whole process, I use a free plugin on my website called Pretty Link, which lets you take any link from the internet and create a custom link for it on your website.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, I took the link that Calendly gave me.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's calendly.com slash whatever it is, and I created a link on my site via the PrettyLink plugin that is KentSanders.net slash schedule.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That way I don't have to remember what that Calendly link is.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just KentSanders.net slash schedule.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I use that link several times a week because I'm total I'm constantly scheduling meetings with people and podcast interviews and that kind of stuff.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a very simple automation tool.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to remember the link.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: You just use the pretty link WordPress plugin in it, and you can set up whatever kind of a link you want on your own domain name.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's super, super handy.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is a WordPress plugin.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a website that's not WordPress, I'm sure there's some other kind of a plugin that you can use, but it's probably not going to be Pretty Link.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to summarize, these are the three calendar automation tools that I use Google Calendar notifications, the Calendly Scheduling Tool, and the Pretty Link WordPress plugin.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope that's helpful.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: I use these all the time.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: They save me a lot of time and hassle every week, and I think they will save you time as well.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear what calendar automation tools you are using.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot me a message and let me know by uh sending me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net or on Twitter or Facebook at Kent Sanders.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, thanks again so much for listening.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.