How many times do you find yourself looking back on the paper work or series of events in your own planner or phone and think, “Why did I ever try to plan out my day this way?!” Your calendar may be an important content medium, but it can feel like an outdated one. There’s a reason free smartphone apps such as Google Calendar are growing in popularity. It’s about time we treated them like what they are; some of the best productivity tools out there, not just phone apps.
1Do More with That Super Charged-Up iPhone Credit: HubertB/iStock/Getty Images Do more with that super charged-up iPhone. Two powerhouse planners and schedulers again enter stage right: Apple’s productivity for iOS app Time Scout and Wunderlist for Android. These two apps are different both in terms of their looks and companies
How to set up and use google calendar
If you’re anything like me, you rely on Google Calendar to keep track of your commitments – both official and unofficial. But is using Google Calendar as your sole planning tool really the best way to go? Here are a few tips on how to set up and use Google Calendar effectively:
First and foremost, make sure that you have a Gmail account. This is where all of your calendar content will live. If you don’t already have a Gmail account, sign up for free at gmail.com.
No matter which device you’re using to access your Google Calendar, make sure you have the latest version installed. This software is constantly changing and improving, so it’s worth upgrading if you can.
Secondly, familiarize yourself with the different types of calendars available in Google Calendar. You have a standard daily agenda calendar as well as yearly calendars, work/life calendars and task/to-do calendars. It can be tough to figure out which type of calendar will work best for your specific needs, so it’s helpful to experiment with different types of calendars until you find one that works best for you.
Once you’ve got your personal settings figured out, it’s time to get creative and schedule
Why you should not use it as your stand in for your real, actual schedule
Google Calendar is a great resource… if you use it to plan your day-to-day activities, but it’s not the best tool for planning your entire week. You should use a real, actual schedule to plan your week and stick to it as closely as possible. As I mentioned, Gorpol doesn’t do exactly that – it’s still a week planner (albeit one that has a lot more bells and whistles than most folks really need) which I actually think makes the app even better. You can see how messy my weeks were before the weekly sheet was created. Google Calendar really is meant for daily planning, at least initially. The good part of using a real notebook or calendar to organize your tasks you want to get done over the upcoming week
The cost of using google calendar
Google Calendar is a great tool for keeping track of your schedule, but there are a few drawbacks that should be considered before using it as your only planner. First, it’s not as reliable as a traditional calendar. For example, if you have a meeting scheduled for 9am, but the time slips and it actually starts at 10am, Google Calendar will show the 10am session as being scheduled. This can be confusing and disruptive if you’re trying to follow through with your plans. Additionally, Google Calendar isn’t always up-to-date – for example, if a new event has been added to your calendar after you’ve already scheduled something else, Google Calendar may not reflect that change. If you rely heavily on Google Calendar for your day-to-day schedule, be sure to check it often to make sure everything is still on track. Advertisement
To use Google Calendar as more of a personalized calendar, though, you can go in and put each event into the default calendar, under “Scheduled”. You have to have your account set up so that it’ll pull from other calendars as well (more on this below), but that should at least ensure that no duplicates or inaccurate information ends up appearing on your calendar.
If you would rather be able to place events directly on
Alternatives to Using Google Calendar as Your Stand in for Actual Schedule
Google Calendar is great for keeping track of what you plan to do for the day, week, or month… but it’s not always the most accurate representation of your current schedule. Alternatives to using Google Calendar as your stand in for your actual schedule include using an online calendar service like Outlook or Calendar, using an app like Sunrise or Tasker, or writing out your schedule in a planner. whichever way you choose to manage your calendar, be sure to keep track of any changes so that you’re always on track! Then There’s the Basics of Handling Meetings. If you work for an organization that requires you to keep track of your meetings, there’ll be a really simple way of handling them using Google Calendar. If not, however, it pays to thoroughly account for the various events in your life! Of course, this means outsourcing the scheduling part of your life to the tools we list above. Get a hold of What Time Do I Go-See?, and learn about some whole new methods for making