How to keep track of your appointments
“We’d like to confirm your appointment.” When I first moved to the region, I found it quite odd how everyone called me to confirm our appointments. I quickly learnt that sticking to appointments was a given and just the other week, a reader asked me how to keep track of appointments. By now, I use the confirmation calls as pure reminders. But surely, there’s also a simpler way to keep track of your appointments?
Yes! Being a little bit pro-active and organised, you won’t lose sight of your appointments. Here are 5 great tips to keep you on track for all your appointments!
Put the appointment in your calendar. Sounds obvious, right? Our brain is not configured to keep more than 5-7 things at a time as you may remember from David Allen. Whether you’re working with your phone calendar (that’s my primary calendar), one of the many apps, your office calendar or a paper calendar, add the appointment to it. Specify the purpose of the appointment (e.g. dentist), the name of the person you’ll be meeting (Dr. Henze), the location (34th floor, ABC Tower) and the time (e.g. 4-5 pm).
Include travel time for your appointment. If not, someone may put another appointment adjacent to this one. If both are in the same building, that may not be an issue. If you need to travel from one end of town to the other, you wouldn’t be able to get to your original appointment on time. Whether it’s a business meeting or your hairdresser, you may not have an opportunity to start later and lose that slot.
Keep a reminder. 1 week, 2 days or 1 day in advance. Depending on with whom you’re meeting or where the meeting will take place, 2 hours in advance may also work. You can include this reminder in your appointment if storing it electronically. If you’re using a paper based calendar, mark the reminder day (e.g. 1 week prior) in your calendar, too.
Call the person you’re meeting when your reminder pops up. Do it then and there or you may never confirm it. If they are not available, put a new reminder in your calendar and follow up again.
Schedule the next meeting when you’re finishing this appointment. Meeting someone on a standing basis, like every week, is easy to remember. If you only have this particular appointment every quarter or every 6 months, you may forget when the next one is due. Scheduling it immediately and in advance means you don’t have to worry about it. You can start this cycle and go back to “Put it in your calendar”.
I love working with the calendar on my iPhone. It connects with my iPad and Outlook. The reminders are working well and as annoying as they can be, they keep me on track. By now, I’m also confirming the meeting I’ve schedule and don’t mind the reminder calls for my medical check up or hairdresser.
How are you staying on track with your appointments? Share with us your number one thing that keeps you organised with all your meetings! Leave a comment below!
Until next time,
Agni