Sunday, January 04, 2009

Ask the organiser - tell me your favourite online calendar?



I still haven't got myself a planner and I am still in the process of organising my stuff (schedules, tasks etc) but since i can't seem to find a decent planner I'm opting to go electronic. I can't use my outlook cause it's very slow and i use just my gmail for the emails.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can organise my schedules electronically other than outlook?

Thanks!

--
Ella Pelayo
Virtual Assistant
www.epvirtualassistant.wordpress.com

Here's my answer:


Hi Ella

I am no good with electronic tools because I’m a paper gal ;) but I do use Outlook for my time-based appointments.

I would say gmail because I’ve heard such a lot of good things about it.

For tasks, there are a number of things I’ve played around with like http://simplegtd.com http://tadalist.com and http://rememberthemilk.com

For scheduling I still recommend Outlook but sync it to your phone too so it reminds you of appointments and then, I like to also print out the page for very busy days so I don’t forget anything.

Please help Ella and share your favourite online calendar.

(I'm particularly interested in hearing from Janet, Suzanne and Beth.)

9 comments:

Beth Dargis said...

Online calendar - I used to have a paper calendar hanging up in my office, but this year I didn't even buy a new one. I've been using Google calendar which I love. There are programs to sync it to Outlook or to ical if you need to. Plus you can create several calendars and see all of them or just one. You can also get public calendars like when is a full moon, local events, holidays and the weather.

One of my weekly groups has a calendar we share so we know what study we are on. Plus Remember the Milk, my fav to do list manager has a plug in that goes with Google Calendar and/or gmail.

Unknown said...

I will have to agree with Beth on the Google Calendar as far as the ease of use, but there is also a new site that is completely free that allows you to track not only your appointments, but that of your families as well. AND it syncs with Outlook. PLUS it has a task list, family journal, photo library, shopping lists, menu planning feature, AND you can send text messages to your family from the site. It's http://www.cozi.com and I LOVE IT!

Marcia Francois said...

Beth, that's right - I learnt about RTM from you!

Suzanne, that sounds great! I’m going to play around now – of course, I only use electronic things for about a week or two until I go back to my default setting, my paper planner.

Forgetfulone said...

Outlook is the calendar of choice at most businesses. For personal use, most of the people I know use Google and gmail and love it. Since I've had my yahoo email for so long, I use yahoo calendar since it's on a tab right there with my email. I can set it up to send me reminders, add tasks, add notes. It's pretty good and has served me well.

epvirtualassistants said...

Thanks for sharing all of these useful calendars. Ive been using outlook last year and tried to use google calendar as well. I will play around with both and see which one will work best.

Please keep the ideas and suggestions coming :)

Anonymous said...

Always happy to help another VA!

I use the Outlook calendar, but I know how frustrating it can be if your system can't really handle it. There are loads of online calendars out there, but since you're already using Gmail, why not use the Google calendar? It's got lots of great features, and I described some of them in my blog post Get Organized in 2008 with Google Calendar. For more tips, read my article, Your First Electronic Calendar.

Let us know how you make out!

Anonymous said...

Ok, this is where I really need help. Luckily this new lap top came with a calendar with reminders that will pop up even when I’m offline. The only problem is a user malfunction =) me. I actually need to write things down. I also have a fridge calendar for when the computer is off and to jot stuff down as I find out about them.

Melissa Miller said...

Hi Marcia,
I'll be back to read more about your blog.
I love this kind of thing!

Come by my new blog if you have time.
You're always welcome!
~Warmly, Melissa :)

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love everything about gmail. I read your blog in Google Reader, plan my wedding in Google Documents and do everything else in Google Calendar. They all sync up where you can see them all on the gmail page, which is perfect for me!

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