Google Calendar

I have always used a planner that I could stick in my purse or a wall calendar...or both...to keep track of life and everything I have got going on.  Without some sort of calendar or planner I would be a mess and forget everything.  Even with I forget sometimes...

At work (the library) everyone uses Google calendar and we have different calendars linking together.  It makes it easier to keep track of what is going on in the library and who is available and when.  If we have library events it is a quick way to check and see when and where. 

Once our email service switched from Outlook to Gmail, I went ahead and started using the Google Calendar. Plus I didn't get my paper calendar for Christmas  :( 

I am really loving it.  It is so easy to add things to it whether they are events or tasks.  You can color code to make certain things categorized similarly or stick out if need be. It really helps me organize my time better.  Plus I can add a lot more tasks in the Google calendar than I usually could my wall calendar or daily planner.  It blocks out my time and gives me a great visual for my availability.  I even can get reminder notices about events!  The only down side to this is I have to have my email open, though at work I usually keep it open all the time. 

It is really easy to share calendars too!  You just type in an email address for the person you want to share it with and BAM!  You even have options on what the other person can see and if they can edit your calendar.  I like the busy or available option - then I still have a bit of privacy, because I don't want everyone to know everything I do.  I also like that I can invite people just to events I add in my calendar.  When I do that they get a notification in an email and can choose to accept and if they do and they also have a Google account it will be added to their Google Calendar as well.  If an event is cancelled it will notify the invited guests also. 

There really are some cool features to this calendar.  I use one calendar for work, school, and personal use and it is easy to organize and work with.  This calendar is my life and I really have grown to appreciate it.  Plus I can pull it up anywhere I have Internet access which makes it nice if I am not at my desk.

So this is my new favorite technology tool. Out of all the different Web tools I have tried this one I use everyday and really has made a positive impact on my life. 

Too Many Things To Do!!!

Like many people I sometimes have a hard time remembering when things are do or what things I am supposed to be doing when.  I have all sorts of ways I try to use to keep track.  I have always used a day planner and a regular calendar to keep track of things.  I write things in both places so in case I don't have access to one the other.  At work I have an Outlook account and I have recently started using the calender there.  I really like having this calender because it i something I look at everyday to check my emails and it sends me alert notices when things are due or when meetings are scheduled.  This is a great feature because sometimes I sign up for webinars or schedule meetings weeks or months in advance and wouldn't remember otherwise.  The only downside to this is that I only have Outlook on my work computer, not my personal computer. 

Thing 19 is about online productivity tools.  They had a list of several different tools but the one I decided to check out was Remember the Milk, a to-do list manager.  With this I am able to go in and set tasks and due dates.  I can even enter how long a task should take.  One feature I like is that you can set a priority to each task and it is color coordinated.  They also have different category tabs such as personal, study, and work.  Keeping the different category tasks separate is a nice feature and keeps things nice and organized.  It also had an option to add it to a calender, and since I wanted to do something about being able to access my schedule on the computer at home I set up a Google calendar and added the Remember the Milk calendar to that.  Now if I wanted I can keep my Outlook calender restricted to only work tasks and appointments and use Remember the Milk for personal and school tasks.  If I need to access work information from home though I now have a way to do that, I just have to add it to the calender.  It's very simple, and even offers keyboard shortcuts. 

Since libraries are all about organization I think this is a great tool to help people stay organized.  Sticky notes and lists posted all over the place can get messy or lost.  This is something that is neat and can keep you on track.  It also has a feature where you can share your to-do list and calender with others.  If a library wanted to make a public events or meetings calender they could do so and share it with everyone in the library.  That way everyone would be able to easily look up what was going on.  There is always so many things going on, events and meetings, so having a public way to share all that is nice.  It could save time too because you could  just look at the calender instead of trying to track down a person who may not be there.  It is a place you could look up when and where an event is for a patron even.  I think even more than a public sharing tool, if that seems like a big step, using it as a personal professional tool to help stay organized it is a good tool to use.  Outlook has a great system, but if you don't have an Outlook account this is a great alternative I think.