Do you know when your passport expires?
How about the deadline for renewing your registered business name?
Dates like these come up so infrequently, and without any notice or reminders, it’s no wonder we forget!
And even if we could receive some kind of email reminder or notification, would it get lost in our busy inboxes?
With so many things to juggle nowadays, it can be hard to keep it all straight.
That’s why I put together this helpful list with my top 4 tips for keeping track of important dates and emails:
1. Use a Digital Calendar
I always recommend adding important dates and deadlines to a digital calendar (think Google or Outlook calendar), especially if it’s several months or years away.
Whether it’s birthdays, passport renewals, annual conferences, etc., adding to your digital calendar ensures you don’t lose track of them if you change paper planners, personal assistants, or CRM systems. Plus, this makes the event searchable in case you ever need to look it up.
2. Set Up Reminders
To make sure you don’t miss any upcoming events, especially ones you might have added months ago, you’ll want to set up event reminders. There are two ways to do this, depending on how much advance notice you’re looking for.
If you’d like a reminder shortly before the event (about 5 minutes to 1 week before), you can add an email or pop-up notification to any event on your digital calendar.
If you’re looking for more advanced notice (more than 1 month ahead), you can create a reminder event on your calendar.
For instance, one year before your passport expires, add an event to your calendar called, “Renew my Passport.” Make sure to include at least one pop-up and email notification so don’t miss it!
3. Snooze Your Emails
When an important email comes, and you don’t have time to handle it but you also don’t want to forget about it, use the Snooze feature.
You can tell your inbox to redeliver that email at a better time for you, like in the evening after you’re off work, or first thing on the weekend when you have more time to deal with it.
Snoozing keeps the email from getting lost or buried in your inbox, plus the redelivered message serves as a reminder so it doesn’t get missed.
4. Create Tasks
Another way to stay on top of important dates and emails is to turn them into tasks or items on your to-do list.
For instance, with your registered business name, you could add a task called “Renew my Business Name” that’s due one month before it expires.
Or, when you receive an email you need to take action on, you can add the items to your tasks list so they stay front and center.
PRO TIP: If you’re using Google or Microsoft products, you can take advantage of their built-in tasks lists - Google’s list is called Tasks and Microsoft’s is called To Do - to instantly turn emails into new tasks.
The original email is attached to the Task or To Do for easy reference, plus you’re able to add notes, subtasks, and due dates as needed.
For more business tips and information to help save you time, money, and headaches, be sure to subscribe to my email list and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.