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Do you think the color coded availability calendar is needed?
Thread poster: jyuan_us
Yasutomo Kanazawa
Yasutomo Kanazawa  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 07:59
Member (2005)
English to Japanese
+ ...
I used to, but not any more. Mar 6, 2013

From my experience, my clients (both potential and regulars) never seem to refer to the calendar and inquire me about my availability even though my calendar is red for the whole month, so I stopped using it. Or is this just me?
 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 19:59
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
A matter of interpreting time management standards Mar 6, 2013

Yasutomo Kanazawa wrote:
From my experience, my clients (both potential and regulars) never seem to refer to the calendar and inquire me about my availability even though my calendar is red for the whole month, so I stopped using it. Or is this just me?


The problem is in interpreting the meaning of the message sent by the translator on the calendar.

Imagine that a translator has been assigned a project with a 4-week deadline. Assume that actually this translator would manage to do it in three weeks. How would they communicate that?
a) Paint the four weeks red? (in compliance to Murphy's Law)
b) Paint the first three weeks red, and the fourth one green?
c) Paint the four weeks orange (75% = 3/4)?
d) Paint the first two weeks red, and the next two weeks yellow?

All four options are valid; the choice depends on that individual's time management system.

For reasons of their own, I've seen some translators who paint red on all Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, leaving all the rest green. This indeed sends a clear and potentially useful message: they don't take weekend work; if that's the prospect's case, they should seek someone else.


I adopt a different "code". My calendar indicates, on any given day, how much of my production capacity is committed to that very day.

So green does not necessarily mean I'm staring at the ceiling. It means that anything that I'm doing can be safely postponed for one or more days, so I can take urgent work.

Conversely red doesn't necessarily mean that I'm burning the midnight oil. It means that all my normal working hours at normal speed are taken. Obviously, I won't be able to take any urgent and large job in this meantime. Any small to mid-size urgent job may entail a rush surcharge.

Another useful piece of information is when my next green will be coming up. If the job is to be assigned at a known later date, the prospect will know that, for the time being, I'll be available then. They can negotiate with me to provisionally block time in advance, to ensure that I will be available exactly when they need. If that project is cancelled or postponed, I'll update my calendar when this happens.


So the calendar may be very useful, however the users on both sides must understand each other.
 
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Do you think the color coded availability calendar is needed?






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