How College Graduates Can Better Utilize Digital Calendars

From the Personal Branding Blog

In the past few weeks, college graduates have moved their tassels from the right to the left. Some are moving to their first jobs, some are still looking and others have decided to extend their college experience all of which will need to be managed with digital calendars. 

During college, students live an unstructured life. Classes may not start until the afternoon and assignments aren’t due till midnight, giving students the perfect opportunity to procrastinate, sleep in or run late. However, with such a big change graduates will experience how structured the “real world” is.

Deadlines must be met and there is no room for procrastination in our fast-paced world. Lucky enough this new graduating class, and those to follow, have access to technology our predecessors before did not, digital calendars and calendar apps. And there’s no shortage of calendars. However, the outlook calendar can help graduates save time, increase productivity, and focus on what matters. 

Saving Time During the Workday

After throwing their caps, graduates will begin to have a calendar filled with events, meetings, and appointments. Google calendar, Apple calendar, and Yahoo all allow users to easily search for events.

Many digital calendars and apps also allow users to merge their preexisting calendars. This can help college graduates take their preexisting calendars and combine them with their new work schedules or upcoming interviews. Time is money. Plus, adding preexisting events takes time away from the excitement of a new job or the nervousness of finding one. 

Digital calendars have made it easier than ever to not only connect your pre-existing apps but have made it possible to share calendars with others. You can share your calendars and others can share with you making it easy for coworkers to see your work schedule. This can make it easier to set up meetings and make time for interviews.

Calendar apps like outlook calendar can allow users to specify what others see on their calendars. If you have a chunk of your day that is already filled, others can see your busy schedule and meet when it is convenient for you. 

Connect to the Cloud

The magical cloud makes it easier than ever to access our schedules on the go. While it is important to separate work and pleasure, our digital world often merges our free time with work.

The events you create on your desktop easily transfer to the apps on your phone without manually entering them. Need to make a change while at home? It is easier than ever with our phones. This capability allows you to spend more time off work than on. 

Using the cloud creates other benefits for college graduates as well. By letting apps, friends, and followers see some of your day-to-day activities, your personal brand only increases. You become known as easily available and open about your time and activities. Both matter when creating a digital brand for yourself.

Increasing Your Productivity

Being busy vs. being productive is quite different. College graduates will begin attending meetings and creating appointments with clients and events outside of the office. The dread of emailing back and forth can take time away from your day.

Digital calendars, especially since Office 365, make it easy to create events allowing for one to make details of the when, where, and why of the event. Others can make edits to the event and with the share feature, you can plan the event that fits both your schedule and others. If others want to add detail to the event they can easily make a change. No more back and forth between the offices, when you create an event and share it with others it will show up on their calendar. 

Life happens whether meetings/events need to get moved, changed, or deleted and digital calendar apps users can easily make that happen even if the event has already been created and sent out. Co-workers and interviewers can also make those changes(if you allow it) if something comes up with them.

Spending Less Time on Work When You’re Off

Work-life balance is not often taught in the classroom for many college graduates. It is something one must learn on their own. Digital calendars can make that lesson easier with the ability to create multiple calendars on one platform.

For example, joined a rock climbing group recently? Users can create groups and specific events for the group. Follow a certain sports team? Outlook calendar easily allows you to add their schedule to your calendars so you never miss a game. Need to know the weather for an event? One can add the daily weather predictions to any calendar they need. This way, users are always one step ahead.

Oftentimes if users with multiple calendars will experience that they all start to blend. Office 365 calendars and other digital calendars have made it easy to separate your calendars by adding themes, changing the appearance, and creating different types of notifications. 

Conclusion

No matter what life throws at these new graduates, they will be able to tackle their busy schedules. Digital calendars leave them with the ability to stay organized and easily available. With the help of these calendars, new graduates become better employees, group members, and friends. 

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