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8th January 2021 by Ben Barden Leave a Comment

How recurring calendar reminders help me to get things done

I often think of things I’d like to do more consistently.

Reading. Writing. Coding. Making music.

All things I do from time to time, but I tend to do a lot of them in bursts – and then not again for a while.

Throw in gaming and watching TV shows – mostly on Netflix – and I have plenty of distractions to keep me from doing the things I want to be doing… or feel I should be doing.

I’ve heard about doing something until it becomes a habit. But you know what? I’ve often heard that approach without much to explain HOW to make something a habit – beyond “do it more”.

Sure, find what works for you. But what if nothing works? Or if you often feel unmotivated?

Recurring calendar reminders to the rescue!

I have recurring reminders in my work calendar – and some for personal projects in my personal calendar. One of my personal reminders is for the Review highlights post I write every week for Switch Scores. Following my first blog post of 2021, I created another reminder to write a weekly blog post. It’s a recurring reminder with no end date. This will then prompt me to write a post every week.

I use my calendar a lot. It allows me to see what’s coming up, when I have free time and when I don’t.

But calendars aren’t just for meetings. They work for tasks, too. There’s a reason why lots of productivity tools boast “Google calendar integration”! So why not go directly to your calendar?

You can use more sophisticated tools if you like. I find that Google Calendar helps me to stick to a schedule, because my phone alerts me when an event or a reminder is coming up. You can also post your reminders in a personal calendar, rather than mixing them in with your work calendar. Or you could even create a dedicated blogging calendar.

One blog post per week isn’t a lot. But it’s a start. Without the recurring reminder, I wouldn’t remember to write – or I wouldn’t bother.

It’s not rocket science – but this is a tip I’ve found to be extremely beneficial over the last couple of years.

Bonus tip: Don’t post too quickly

At the start of this post, I said I do things in bursts.

After writing my first blog post, I thought up the idea for my second post. So I continued writing and got the second post done too – but held back on publishing it as soon as I finished writing it.

In the past, I would’ve immediately put it online. But if I’m aiming to write one post per week, that doesn’t just mean pushing myself to write. It also means holding back and not putting up the next post as soon as I write it.

Sometimes, the excitement of finishing a new blog post gets the better of me, and I share it immediately. But unlike catching up on Twitter posts, blog posts take longer to read, and can take longer to digest. Posting too quickly can be overwhelming, and result in a post not getting the time of day it perhaps deserves.

Filed Under: Productivity

About the author

Web dev, bug finder, writer of niche music
Founder/coder at switchscores.com
Product Manager at Octopus Energy / Kraken Technologies Read More…

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This was good! Nothing clever but 😁👍 This was good! Nothing clever but 😁👍
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New music coming soon to #spotify and most other o New music coming soon to #spotify and most other online stores. Release date tbc.

This is my 3rd release, containing 2 tracks: November Dawn, and Legacy Layers.

The tracks originally featured as part of my self-produced albums, Symmetry 1 and 2. Each track on Symmetry 1 has a companion track on Symmetry 2. These two are cut from the same cloth and are a kind of "trance guitar" style.

Newly-mastered for 2020, I think the music sounds nice and fresh. Maybe you'll like them!

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Way, way back in September 1995… I wrote my first proper song, called “Waiting for the Sun”. It’s a bit basic.

Fast-forward to 2005. I had a pile of about 100 unfinished tracks. Tired of never finishing anything, I wanted enough tracks for an album. Over the next few years, I put together five albums, before taking a break in 2009.

In 2016, I decided to start music again under a new artist name – “GFD”. I did three more albums, a remix album, before writing two more albums under my own name. Eleven in total. (Album 10 was called “Ten”, in case anyone lost count.)

So, what now? Well, I’ve had a go at mastering one of my tracks, added some basic artwork, and uploaded it to stores.
The track has been approved, and will hit streaming services in a couple of weeks. It only took 25 years!

A truly epic journey… and the track is quite aptly titled Epic Journey.

Epic Journey by GFD hits Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google Play, Tidal, Shazam, and Deezer on September 18th, 2020.

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