This allows you to reschedule meetings with more than a few hours’ (or a few minutes’) notice. It also reminds you of anything you need to do to prepare for a meeting (including allowing enough time to get there!), and it especially helps if you have a hybrid work schedule and you’re always forgetting to bring something home from the office that you’ll need the next day.
To make this technique more effective:
Create the appointment as a calendar event instead of a task to increase the likelihood that you’ll get it done.
Use your judgment about setting the time to show as “Free” or “Busy” on your calendar, and experiment with different times of day. For a long time I had my “daily review meeting” set to 4:30. When a meeting landed on my calendar at 4:30, I’d often skip my daily review. This almost always had a negative impact on the next day.
Schedule the meeting during working hours to make certain you get it done without compromising your work-life balance.