Strategic Planning: Using a Wall Calendar System

As I’m mapping out a time line for the coming new year, I thought I’d take a moment to share my system with you. For the most part, I use computer-based planning tools because that keeps everything in one place—essential for any kind of organization. Yet for being able to strategically think about the year as a whole, I find this wall calendar system absolutely essential. Although I’ve developed my analytical skills over the years, it’s not my basic nature. I’m actually a right brain-dominant visual learner. Besides, a big layout is just more practical. My lap top screen simply isn’t big enough for me to see everything I need at once!

The following is the 4-part process I use to mock up a yearly plan on a wall calendar system. There are other planning tools that I use, but I like to start with this one. Scheduling is so very important. Shall we begin? Here are the steps:

Step 1. Contemplate
Most of my projects start this way. I like to let the concept of what I’m planning simmer awhile. The most important parts will eventually bubble up to the surface and begin organizing themselves in my mind. Sometimes this looks identical to procrastination in that there is no doing, only thinking. I might leave my office to go get a cappuccino, head out for a walk, or load up a bunch of new music on my iPod. This is not the same as avoidance however—it’s more about clearing out my head and getting in a creative mood. For something as important as my New Year’s planning, I will take a few days off to decompress and let inspiration come.

Step 2. Prepare
This is one of the rare projects that I prefer to do with paper instead of my computer. Later, it will all get entered into my Outlook calendar and task-management system. For the creative process itself, I use the following tools, available at any office supply store:

• Jumbo Yearly Wall Calendar (erasable)
Essential to the project, the one I use is a 2x3’ wet erase poster made by the At-A-Glance company. It allows me to see the year as a whole and how the weeks/months flow together. I keep the poster up all year long on the wall over my printer and fax machine.

• Wet erase pens
Note that these are not the same dry erase pens you might already have! When you buy your calendar, make sure you ask about the wet erase pens. I use 6 color-coded pens:
o Blue: Seminars/tradeshows/meetings that I am definitely attending
o Black: Business events that events I might attend
o Red: Business activities or project due dates
o Green: Personal activities
o Orange: Travel days
o Purple: Holidays/birthdays

• Post-it notes
For use with the wall calendar system, I prefer the small 2” square ones in multiple colors.

• Push pins
Important detail for hanging up the calendar. Six will do the job.

• Chocolate
Very important to have nearby. Only dark chocolate for me, but if you prefer, you can have milk chocolate.

Step 3. Schedule Already-planned Events
Grabbing my color-coded wet erase pens and date book, I look for events with firm dates and write them on the wall calendar. A few things I make sure to do:
• Read the fine print on the wall calendar. I circle the major non-working holidays, and just underline the ones that are less important to me.
• Look at the upcoming year for things I already have scheduled.
• Look over last year for recurring annual business events & personal holidays.
• Look at dates when I am speaking/teaching, and reserve preparation time where available in the 6-weeks before.
• Mark out the days I am traveling for events.
• Copy everything from the wall planner into my date book & double check it.

Step 4. Schedule in New Events
• Mark out the last 2 weeks in August & December as my annual time off.
• Squeeze in a few 3-day weekends, especially between busy months.
• Check industry resources for dates of other important tradeshows and events.
• Speak with my collaborative partners about scheduling our seminars.
• For very tentative commitments, use a post-it note as a movable reminder.
• Copy everything from the wall planner into my date book & double check it.

It takes me a couple hours to plan out my year on the wall calendar, not including the time it takes to think about it before and after. In fact, thinking about it afterwards is almost worthy of a step 5. If you’re like me, you might want to make sure you’re not overbooking yourself. The big events on the wall calendar might not take up all that much time, but there are many corresponding tasks that need to be accomplished. Take care not to get overly ambitious and book every minute of every day! Most of us entrepreneurial types tend to underestimate how long things actually take to implement.

If you’d like to take a look at my nearly-complete wall calendar in detail, click on the big photo below. That will take you to my Flickr online photo album. When you view the picture in Flickr, the photo will reveal some little boxes that you can scroll over and pop-up notes will appear.

Comments

[Robert Kingston]

Nice wall calendar you've got, Jaya...

I really want to get a small white board for myself. Checkout John Reese's war room - he's managed to cover walls in whiteboard material. http://www.marketingsecrets.com/newblog/?p=13

It just goes to show how important planning is in the scheme of things.

[Jaya Savannah]

Robert, thanks for sharing that link. Boy, to me that is crazy-town! I'm too much into visual design to be able to hang out in a white board room.

Love the "hall of fame" idea!
And I do agree that brainstorming is better done with the hand than a computer.

That reminds me. Have you seen this magnetic paint? It's got metal in it, so that magnets will stick to the wall. It's on my favorite decorating blog:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-does-magnetic-paint-work-016118

[Pamela Mitchell]

Hey Jaya,

Just as I was staring at the one wall in my new office wondering if I should put up a 2007 calendar, I came across this blog post! Given that I have very limited wall space in this new place I had been kind of feeling that I should try to go 'all-electronic', but there's a part of me that needs to see things visually, large-scale. I did a 2006 wall calendar in my last office with color-coded markers and Post-its (we're so alike!) and I loved it. So thanks for inspiring me to follow my gut and get another one this year!

One question though-- why wet-erase markers instead of dry-erase?

[Jaya Savannah]

Happy New Year Pamela!

The reason for wet-erase markers is because they are the only ones that work on those calendars. I learned this the hard way last year. Dry erase markers won't budge! This stymied me, until I looked at the teeny fine print in white font at the bottom of the calender "For best results, please use wet-erase markers."