Check if you'll need to reschedule

Look forward a week or two to see if anything's unusual

As a life hack, recurring appointments are a great idea. There’s no reason to discuss when you’ll meet with your trainer each week, or when your cleaning service comes. Likewise, setting up a regular Saturday morning run with a friend makes it a lot easier to see your friend and get some exercise. When things always happen at the same time, you don’t waste time finding a mutually convenient time because everybody reserves the time in advance.

The one trick with recurring appointments, though, is that sometimes you need to reschedule them. I was thinking about this recently because I work out with my trainer every Monday around lunch time, but on a recent Monday I was traveling to give a speech so I needed to cancel or reschedule. And of course some Mondays are holidays — and it’s curious how even if you plan pretty well, these things can sneak up on you. The part of my brain that registers that the house cleaners come on Thursdays is different from the part of my brain that remembers that Thanksgiving is a Thursday.

Give your brain a nudge

So how can you remember to cancel or reschedule enough ahead of time that no one is inconvenienced? I find it helpful to do two things. One is to use the occasion of the recurring appointment to nudge your brain to look ahead to the next one or two. Since the appointment is happening right then, you may be around the people who can make the rescheduling happen. This is more efficient than trying to reschedule over email or text later.

You can also use your weekly planning time (because if you read this newsletter you have a weekly planning time!) to look forward a week or two and remind yourself if anything unusual is happening. If you’re normally around on Wednesdays, but the week after next you’re not, you can think about whether anything normally happens on Wednesdays, and if you’ll need to adjust it.

A little extra time

Of course, if something does recur frequently, I think it’s generally best to cancel rather than reschedule. If you’re off for a work holiday, just pick it up the next time. I didn’t need to have my house cleaned three times in a week when I got home from two weeks at the beach. Most people don’t mind a little extra time in their calendars if they’re given advance notice.

But do give people notice. You probably know if you’re on vacation two Tuesdays from now. So why wait until a day before to let people know that? Check if you’ll need to reschedule, or cancel, and you’ll make life a little easier for everyone.