Make Your Summer Fun and Stress-Free With Your Online Calendar As we begin to approach this summer season, it's essential to have a game plan for managing your time. Instead of letting your days control you, why not make the...
By Abby Miller
This story originally appeared on Calendar
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As we begin to approach this summer season, it's essential to have a game plan for managing your time. Instead of letting your days control you, why not make the most out of each day and flip the script? Getting the most out of your summer starts with proper planning and using an online calendar.
We all know how quickly the summer months fly by, making scheduling and planning a necessity. Having a schedule where you can keep track of all of your exciting summer events will help you get there.
In this guide, we will walk through several ways you can manage and maximize your time this summer. Whether you'll be organizing a family event, taking a summer vacation, or scheduling events for your kids, an online calendar can help you optimize your time more efficiently.
How to Manage & Maximize Your Time This Summer
If we don't deliberately plan our summer days, we'll just end up with our days controlling us. You've likely experienced a scenario where your once "free day" is quickly taken up by dozens of tasks.
If we don't block out time to enjoy summer activities, spend time with friends, or go on vacation with family, it'll likely never happen.
We'll show you how you can plan around the weather and organize family events in the sections below. You'll learn about effectively scheduling events for your kids and blocking out vacation time. On top of that, we'll walk you through developing a schedule for working on your home and planning back-to-school activities.
This summer, it's time to maximize your time, taking advantage of all of the wonderful events and activities available.
Plan around the weather
If you're planning several days or a week ahead of time, you have enough buffer to plan around the weather. While the weather can be unpredictable, using an online calendar to check upcoming weather events is a great strategy.
If you have a family trip coming up and have a forecast for rain, you'll be able to plan appropriately. If you're planning to conquer a new hiking trail and see extreme heat, you can bring extra water with you.
These are all simplistic examples, but the primary point is that your online calendar can help you plan around the weather. For example, some online calendars have addons or settings toggles that show you a 7 to 10-day forecast. This enables you to see possible extreme weather events ahead of time, and reschedule your event if necessary.
Organize family gatherings & reunions
Organizing a family gathering or family reunion is often a lot of work. You have to reach out to dozens of people, send invitations, plan events, and follow up with everyone attending.
To make this process easier, consider using an online calendar to aid in your planning efforts. Rather than manually sending an invitation, you'll be able to distribute a calendar invitation in bulk. Instead of receiving phone calls from everyone individually, your calendar will show you RSVP notifications.
Using an online calendar to plan family gatherings has never been easier. Popular online calendars today are designed to foster collaboration and communication. There's never been a better time when you can reach hundreds or even thousands of people at the click of a button.
Whether you'll be planning a family BBQ or a reunion, don't forget to use your calendar to stay organized.
Schedule events for your kids
Extracurricular activities, summer camps, and various children's events always pick up in the summer. So why not take the initiative to plan and block out time for these on your calendar?
Online calendars can help you schedule all of your children's activities ahead of time with zero hassle. Instead of relying on your paper wall calendar or a pair of sticky notes, digital calendars offer much more flexibility.
Since all of your information is in the cloud, you can access it from nearly any device. For example, with an online calendar, you'll be able to block out time for your child's summer camp or camping trip and instantly share it with other parents.
Stay organized and give your kids the summer of their dreams by planning ahead with an online calendar.
Block out vacation time
When were you taking a spontaneous trip or vacation without future planning? If you're like most people, that was either a long time ago or never.
The only way to take a vacation free from distractions in our fast-paced modern world is to time block it. This involves notifying your coworkers and managers about time off and sticking to your days off to take a relaxing vacation.
Blocking out vacation time in your work calendar is the first step, followed by using your own online calendar to keep a secondary record. Finally, you'll be set with your vacation time properly blocked and a notification set. A notification several hours ahead of any transportation can help keep you in the loop and serve as a reminder.
Develop a yard work schedule
The plants, trees, and shrubs growing in your yard won't ever stop growing. Do you have a solid plan in place for maintaining your yard, plants, and gardens?
If you don't schedule consistent time for doing yard work, there'll be weeks where you overlook it or simply forget. This can be especially troublesome if you live in a humid and rainy climate. By the time you get to your backup yard work, every plant will have already doubled in size. You may even consider having a yard sale.
Use an online calendar to ensure you never forget your yard work again. Both your yard and your family will thank you.
Streamline your back-to-school planning
As summer ends and we inch our way back into the school year, you'll have to plan back-to-school events for your kids.
You can use an online calendar to schedule back-to-school shopping times for efficiency. Additionally, you can take notes on your online calendar to your children's shopping lists or wishlists.
Take the time to plan all of your children's back-to-school activities in your online calendar, and you'll save significant time as a result.
Keep track of outdoor home maintenance dates
When are your home's recommended service dates and maintenance dates? If you're like most people, this is a fact you definitely wouldn't have in recent memory.
Depending on your home's age and the last time you serviced anything outdoors, such as your air conditioner unit, you might be surprised at how much regular maintenance there truly is.
While most items will likely perform just fine with occasional maintenance, you can extend their life. Doing this allows you to have longer-lasting appliances, air conditioning units, and any other items that require maintenance.
Final Thoughts
Using an online calendar to plan events ahead of time makes your summer fun and stress-free. We've covered several ways to use an online calendar to plan ahead deliberately.
We discussed planning events around the weather and blocking out vacation time. In addition, you should know how to plan and organize large family gatherings such as reunions, and create a streamlined maintenance schedule.
Now the ball is in your court – it's time to execute and put into action everything we've discussed in this guide.
By planning your most important summer events ahead of time, you'll be well ahead of the competition and prepared for anything that might come your way.
Image Credit: by Nina Uhlíková; Pexels; Thank you!
The post Make Your Summer Fun and Stress-Free With Your Online Calendar appeared first on Calendar.