How Flexible Is Your Work Diary?

How flexible is your work diary? I don’t mean can you work all the hours under the sun or if you work weekends. I mean the actual flexibility of your work diary. When you have a meeting or event in your work diary, do you move it? I have a work diary that is pretty much set in stone. My work diary is not really flexible. Instead, it’s a first come, first serve basis. Whoever books into my diary first keeps that slot. 

This means that if I attend a monthly networking event, as soon as it is in the diary it won’t be moved. So, if a client tries to book a meeting at that time I will tell them I am not available. It’s the same for meeting friends. I meet a business friend once a week for a walk at lunchtime. This event is at the same time every week and on the same day. Even if a client that could be offering to pay £10,000 a day for our services wanted to see us then, we would say no. 

For us, this sets boundaries. We are telling the client that we cannot drop everything for them, no matter how important they are or how much they want to pay. We are setting out expectations for our clients too. They won’t get used to us dropping everything for them and presuming this will continue.

Here at Creative Content Company no client is more important than another. Each client gets our respect because each and every client is important to us. Of course we can always arrange meetings out of hours to suit the clients needs. This could mean starting early one day or finishing later to ensure they get to speak to us. But if there is something in the diary it won’t get moved.

By having a strict diary like this that isn’t flexible it means that our clients understand when meetings do need to be moved. They know that they are not being swapped for a client that pays more. Instead, it means there is an emergency. On the rare occasion that this happens it is because of a family emergency or a hospital visit for example. Our clients respect us and we respect them. This is why a strict work diary work for us. But it got us thinking, what sort of work diary works for you and your business?