It’s the first month in your new calendar and hopefully you’re busy arranging meetings or booking in new shows. If you’re concerned about clashes, especially when it comes to overseas productions and constantly changing quarantine rules, we’ve compiled some tips on how to manage your diary.
1. Update regularly
As obvious as this may sound, make a note of any new dates as soon as a schedule comes through, even if it’s TBC. By putting all of the details in your calendar straight away, you can prevent any clashes happening and update the dates as and when more information becomes available.
2. Organise
Highlight each show (or project) you’re working on with a different colour so you can immediately see which one it refers to and notice any clashes straight away.
We also advise that if you're due to travel for a show and you may have to quarantine, tell the producer about any potential clashes - they’ll understand as everyone is very aware of the risk of travel restrictions at the moment!
3. Easy access
Make sure you have access to your calendar on all your devices so that you can easily check dates while you’re out and about. You can use Google Calendar and iCal as well as apps like Teamup, which allows you to use colours to highlight different productions and members of your team so it's easier to read.
You can give a VA access to your diary by sharing your calendar or your login details. Some of our clients like to forward dates straight to us so we can check them and make sure there are no clashes. This is particularly useful for tours or long production periods as we can let them know all of their NAs during that time.
4. Manage meetings
If you’ve given a VA access to your calendar, they can also arrange meetings for you. This can be helpful if you’re meeting a group of people as we can check everyone’s availability and take the stress out of planning it for you.
Alternatively, Calendly is great as people can check your availability and Doodle is also a useful tool for arranging events. If you use Zoom, link it to your calendar and it will automatically show any meetings you’ve arranged or been invited to.
5. Schedule invoices
Keep on top of your payments by setting reminders about your invoices. This may be useful if your fee is being paid in instalments as you could add in the dates you need to invoice. For more finance tips, check out our accounts blog.
The Arts News
The Young Vic is hiring! They are looking for a Social Media and Digital Content Manager to join their marketing and press team. The closing date is Monday 31st January.
To mark the Association for Lighting Production and Design’s 60th anniversary, 11 lifelong fellows have been announced, including lighting designer Paule Constable and White Light managing director Bryan Raven. The lighting fellowships will be presented at an event next month.
We'd Love to Hear From You!
If you need help managing your diary or you want to know how you can work with The Arts VA, head to our contact us page to arrange a chat with Charlie.