One calendar for EVERYTHING - yeah right?! what tech solution is available?

[chris6h]

Here is my dilemna (and I can't possible be the only one in this spot). Have a home computer and a computer at work. Husband makes plans for Saturday night and puts them on the computer at home so I know what is happening. Then someone at work calls me and says what am doing Saturday night?, I don't have anything on my handy-dandy Time Design calendar for that Saturday that "mostly (okay I'll be honest I don't always transfer stuff as I should too much of a pain and you're only supposed to have ONE calendar right?) travels along with me so I book it. Now I'm double booked. I hate having to transfer stuff from my home computer to my Time Design calendar and also transferring stuff from my work computer to my Time Design calendar. Also I REALLY like Outlook's task features. I rarely forget to do things this way especially if they're reoccuring tasks. Writing things down to do each week that re-occur is not fun.

I'm thinking about getting us two PDA's, but which computer would I sync up at? Does it matter? Would this solve my problem? What other solutions are out there? Can I selectively sync work items from personal items? What about if we beam one another can I choose what to beam as well (after all my husband doesn't need my work stuff)?

What tools have you used for this problem? Or have you just resigned yourself to having two calendars (one for the house and one personal/business) - this just can't be efficient!! :roll:

THANKS,
Christine

 

[kewms]

A PDA can sync to both your home and work computers, and can talk to Outlook. You can beam individual items or categories, no problem.

A web-based calendar would be accessible from any computer with Internet access, and would allow either of you to edit it at will.

Or he could just email you at work whenever he puts anything on the home calendar, and let you figure out what to do with the item from there.

Email is probably the simplest if the number of items is small, say less than five a week. Web-based is probably the easiest if the number of items is large, provided that you have more or less continual access.

A PDA is what I use. It's the most versatile, but also the most expensive. Don't bother unless you have other uses for one.

Katherine

 

[TesTeq]

Less technological relationship.

What tools have you used for this problem?

Christine,
Maybe you should make your relationship with husband less technological. Maybe you should discuss with him the plans for Saturday. I mean analogue discussion, not via e-mail or beaming events between PDAs.
I also do not think that there are so many items to synchronize that it is such pain to do it manually.
TesTeq

 

[tanous]

This is what we do....

Chris

I had exactly the same issue. I got myself an exchange service (hosted) and so both my wife and I can view each others calendars side by side in a live realtime environment from whereever we are. I can add events to my wifes diary and she can add events to mine. In addition both of us can send invites to each other or to friends, family etc which when accepted aotomatically populate the diary. With the hosted service we can both check our emal, diary, todo's etc from any public computer over a SSL session. I also am able to synchronise all of this data into my phone/PDA

 

[TesTeq]

Feel so old-fashioned.

Chris

I had exactly the same issue. I got myself an exchange service (hosted) and so both my wife and I can view each others calendars side by side in a live realtime environment from whereever we are. I can add events to my wifes diary and she can add events to mine. In addition both of us can send invites to each other or to friends, family etc which when accepted aotomatically populate the diary. With the hosted service we can both check our emal, diary, todo's etc from any public computer over a SSL session. I also am able to synchronise all of this data into my phone/PDA

Oh my God!
I feel so old-fashioned. My life was never meant to be like this.
Except for surprises I always do have time to talk to my wife about our plans.
And we both can put the information in our calendars in real-time.
TesTeq

 

[ceehjay]

Old-fashioned men

Oh my God!
I feel so old-fashioned. My life was never meant to be like this.
Except for surprises I always do have time to talk to my wife about our plans.
And we both can put the information in our calendars in real-time.
TesTeq

TesTeq, I think I love you!

Carolyn, who is hoping your wife won't mind

 

[apinaud]

I depend in outlook like crazy, but I have never involve my wife in my outlook, as David can said, human contact is a pain sometime, but the reality is I create a category in Outlook called Wife and Other call US. Anything I put on us that is informative I send and email to my wife, no problem... For Example, app to change oil to the car saturday, that I will send to her by email, if somebody askme for plans I always ask what it is and told the person I will consult with my wife (she do the same), then I write a tentative calendar app (no category, thats how I know is tentative, I also use colors therefore blank means tentative) and write in my wife agenda memo to talk about this' the next opportunity in the phone we decided.

I understand we need to avoid to try mechanical things in non mechanical ways, but also we cannot put our family in the level of confort GTD creates for some of us. We trust our systems, our systems work, in many cases so fast that is overwelming for a lot of people, therefore we need to understand that our system is the best for us, but we need to respect others systems in the same way we ask them to respect ours.

I do not know were I am going with this, the point I want to make is create the appoiment tentative, add the information to your wife agenda and next time talking make a decision.

 

[greyman]

I also use TesTeq's method.
Moreover, I would feel a little bit awkward to insert stuff into each other calendar without talking about it beforehand.

greyman.

 

[golpira]

The real problem is having two calendars (with or without shared events) maintained in separate places. When I had a need to manage this situation, I set up PhpGroupWare (http://www.phpgroupware.org/) on a host that could be accessed from the internet. You can demo the webapp online at http://us2.tryphpgroupware.org/phpgroupware/login.php

It actually worked out pretty well. It may be worth investigating.

As for me right now, I'm entirely paper-based. But that may change in the future.

 

[kewms]

I think all the people who are so horrified by this thread just don't get it.

My husband and I are planning a vacation. We agree on where and roughly when we want to go, then he asks me to work out the details and send him email. He really doesn't need to be involved in every single hotel reservation. An email is much less likely to get lost than a paper note (you should see his desk).

I ask him to schedule a vet appointment for our cats. He does so, and sends me a Calendar item that I can import directly to Outlook. No interruption of my work day, no confusion over his handwriting.

And then, when we're actually together, the vacation is taken care of, the vet appointment is taken care of, and we can focus on each other instead of household administration.

The point is not to use technology to replace human interaction. The point is that the time available for human interaction is too valuable to waste on things that technology can handle just as easily.

Katherine

 

[randystokes]

I second Katherine's response above. I still haven't gotten my wife to send me messages through e-mail the way Katherine does, but I have convinced her that the best way to get my attention on anything is to throw it in my inbox at home. It's clear plastic, it sits on the end of my desk right next to the door from the hallway into the study -- and everyone in the familly knows that I clear it regularly, so it's the best way to get me to do something.

My 18-year-old daughter is a different story. Very high tech, loves her computer. She and I exchange e-mails all the time with questions, to-do'sm requests, etc. And until she leaves for college in August, we live in the same house. I send her e-mails from work, or from the next room. Does that mean we don't interact? No, we have a very good relationship, and have fun interacting. But then when we're face to face we're not bothering with the "Oh, yeah, I need you to do X" kinds of things.

David talks a lot about this in his GTD Fast CDs (i.e., in the Managing Workflow seminar).

Randy

 

[Ryan Ridnour]

Potential Solution

I agree with Katherine...the point isn't to avoid interaction, it's to maximize the experience when we do interact.

I've used a freeware application for Palm called DualDate:

(http://www.palmone.com/us/support/dualdate/)

Very handy if you've both got a palm. It does not help, however, with scheduling on the fly...for example, if you and your husband are both trying to schedule different plans for Saturday night, and you are in separate places. The beauty of that scenario, however, is to accept the most exciting plans and decline the one you really don't want to do. Options are a good thing!

Ryan

 

[CKH]

My DH and I have ONE calendar EACH. But we make sure to coordinate with each other in a number of ways: telephone, email, or face-to-face "calendar checking." Our calendars are on paper and we carry them w/us all the time.

And when we do the face-to-face calendar check, we go over EVERYTHING in the calendar, so that (if I need to know) he knows when I see the dentist and vice versa, even if there won't be any real effect on the other's timing, just to be sure nothing was overlooked.

Yeah, he's high tech and I'm only sorta tech, but the calendar is NOT subject to power outages, hacking, etc.

Cynthia

 

[chris6h]

We do talk - honest.

Well we do talk, but then I forget. I know it's on one calendar but then I forget to put things on my personal calendar. Also we are starting a business and I want to make sure I'm not double booking myself. I also want to get out of keeping two calendars.

Husband is also keeping two calendars one at work and then the home one (for business and personal). So we basically have four calendars going on (my work one, my paper based one for when I'm out and about (thankfully hubby doesn't want one of these), the home one and hubby's work one)

Any other suggestions are MUCH appreciated. Thanks to all. This board is AWESOME and I love GTD.

 

[PsychTau]

I'm looking at this from a different angle. My husband isn't as "high tech" as I am, nor does he schedule things as much as I. Plus, my job working in student affairs means that there are times where I have to attend an event after hours...which affects what we might do during the evening (he pretty much has no scheduling issues after 5pm).

I'm trying to figure out a solution to combine my Outlook calendar at work (which I'm required to keep updated so others can look at it) and my personal calendar that includes social activities, volunteer activities, and a possible business in the future...without keeping all of the personal stuff on my Outlook calendar at work (that students can see).

I'd like to be able to sync all of it to my Palm so that wherever I am I can look at my schedule without having to log onto the web. I'm a little frightened of syncing the two computers...I'm not sure if I'll kill something or not!

I have a Palm m500 using Datebk5, a Windows machine at work (with outlook), and a Mac at home (Palm Desktop). What's the easiest way for all of these to talk to each other? Someone mentioned syncing only certain categories...can you give me some guidance on this?

Chris, the answer to my above question may help you out as well. We'll see!

Thanks!
PsychTau

 

[emkay]

another way to look at calendar problem

The best thing I've gotten from GTD is the new understanding that it doesn't have to be ONE calendar! You don't worry about getting things into one place, but one SYSTEM.

The system as a whole is trusted, but it doesn't matter how many collection points you have as long as you do the weekly review of them all.

Make a checklist (yes, I do this) of all the possible places you have stuff, be it in the bottom of the purse (very common for me) or wherever. This is my checklist to go through before I even get to my inbox. It sounds obsessive, but I do tend to accumulate scraps of paper during my travels.
purse
totebag
red folder in car (where I stuff things generated on the road)
little notebook in purse
wallet
Palm calendar
planning calendar
household calendar
check husband's calendar
everyday file - work (tickler)
everyday file - home (tickler)

Then I can consolidate dates into one calendar if necessary. The more often I review, the easier this all is and the less mistakes.

It is so stressful trying to have ONE perfect place for everything and ONE perfect capture tool when things come from so many places, times and people.

Same with having ONE perfect, all-encompassing calendar. Have lots if you want to- just check them all regularly. Anything really important can get copied to as many places as it needs to, but you won't have to copy every single little thing. For example, only household appointments that I need to be involved in show up on my work calendar. Only appointments that affect both of us show up on the home calendar. I also keep a paper calendar at work that I use for visualizing thngs - I found that putting long-term project timelines into the Palm was too hard to keep sight of, so I have a bound paper calendar that just use to keep deadlines, etc. in. It sits on my desk or goes in my tote as needed.

Your mileage may vary, but it is something to consider.
emkay

 

[Tspall]

Depends on some details...

A good solution for you will depend on several things.

If you're looking for an easy, relatively low-tech way to keep coordinated, then you might want to consider a web-based calendar. Even a Yahoo or Hotmail calendar will suffice for that. The only problem would be if both want to update at the same time.

More high-tech solutions involve emailing appointment files, instant messagers, beaming PDAs, etc.

If you want to get even more low-tech, then maybe you could just do a "daily review" where you coordinate a paper (or PDA) planner/calendar each evening. Maybe it takes 10 minutes or so.

I'd suggest the easiest, least complicated possibility for your situation. It's great that you two are communicating so well. Sounds like it just needs tweaked a bit.

 

[severance1970]

Here is my dilemna (and I can't possible be the only one in this spot). Have a home computer and a computer at work. Husband makes plans for Saturday night and puts them on the computer at home so I know what is happening. Then someone at work calls me and says what am doing Saturday night?, I don't have anything on my handy-dandy Time Design calendar for that Saturday that "mostly (okay I'll be honest I don't always transfer stuff as I should too much of a pain and you're only supposed to have ONE calendar right?) travels along with me so I book it. Now I'm double booked. I hate having to transfer stuff from my home computer to my Time Design calendar and also transferring stuff from my work computer to my Time Design calendar. Also I REALLY like Outlook's task features. I rarely forget to do things this way especially if they're reoccuring tasks. Writing things down to do each week that re-occur is not fun.

I'll play the bad cop here. This is really a leak caused by not taking the discipline to enter the appointment where it needs to be seen: in the Time Design system (if this was one of the times it was "mostly" at hand). So it's not a system. I second Tspall's recommendation of doing a daily review to synchronize your paper and electronic calendars.

Web-based calendars and email are good approaches, but if you want something that's ubiquitously available, like a PDA or a cell phone with a calendar, it's hard to avoid at least some manual duplication of entries.

If you and your husband use the same calendar program, like Outlook, may be able to synch with a flash drive like the Migo thumb drive, which specifically synchs Windows files.

 

[jazzsyx]

I just recently signed up with www.airset.com. It's in beta and free (though I'm sure at some point that may change). It can sync with Outlook. I have one calendar for work, one for a volunteer group I'm in & one for persona. Click on the all groups tab and you see all calendars combined. You can share calendars with others. It's pretty cool.

HTH,
Jessica - no way related to airset

 

[brijesh_popat]

Digital Calendar

hello,

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When ever you dock the pen, it will store all your information on the PC.so you have to copy of the calendar one with you as hard copy and other which you stored in your system as soft copy for reference at home or for somebody else.

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Thank you,

Brijesh