How’s your to-do list looking right now?

As people who have done Transform will know, I have no time for to-do lists, and the longer they are, well, the worse they are.

And here’s why:

Or … it will get done in a reactive last-minute rush, which often doesn’t give anyone the desired outcome.

What I like to do is this:

• Make a list of things I want to do (usually a long list)

• Look at the list and pick out the two most important things (focused work)

• Block out time to do those things on my calendar, in and around all the other stuff that goes on for me - recording podcasts, internal meetings etc.

I used to have a person manage my calendar, sometimes two people. But for the past seven months, I’ve done it all myself using Hubspot’s scheduling tools, which do things like booking meetings and podcast bookings really well.

But does it make me as efficient as I could be?

Today’s tool of the day

So while we’re on the topic of AI tools this week, my daughter Amy alerted me to an AI Calendar tool which I’ve used for less than two days and already love, love, love and might just be better than the humans - it’s called Reclaim.ai.

A few clicks to integrate it into my Google calendar, and the first thing it takes care of is my human needs so I can avoid burnout: Lunch each day, a break after Zoom meetings and morning “catchup” sessions, and travel time where it finds offsite meetings. It predefines my working hours and asks me other questions about when I want to work out.

Then it asks me what I do for a living and I say I’m in marketing. So it then blocks me some time for standard marketing-type jobs, which I never seem to find time for - now they are non-negotiable.

But these blocks that get set aren’t just dumb immovable calendar appointments, using some internal smarts, Reclaim.ai will juggle things based on certain parameters so that I don’t miss things like talking to clients, collaborating with the team and more because some static calendar block got in the way.

But the best thing is that I can put my to-do list in with a due date, and reclaim will automatically shuffle my calendar so that the important sh*t gets done, on time.

Anyway, I could rave more, but here are a couple of videos that might interest y’all (and might just save a salary or two!)

Dear Reclaim.ai.: If you’re listening, a template for a real estate sales agent or property manager would be nice, blocking out callbacks, routine inspections, prospecting time, social media calendaring, newsletter writing and more. Let’s talk!

Happy Hunting 🚀