To many calendars - I'm confused

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ulrica
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Ulrica

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I have used GTD pretty sucessfully last 6 months, or so I think. I have used Outlook, synked things to my phone and that worked great. Then I changed jobs... and now I'm lost.

I work as a conultant and att the conultant company we use Outlook. BUT I have an assigment at at place (full time, rest of the year) that uses Lotus Notes. And as a conultant I can only use the web-interface, so I can't sync to anything. I also, perodically use Google calendar for private matters, we have a family calendar.

At my old job I used the calendar for planning actions, puting in remiders and so on,... Now I'm just confused.

Is there any bright person who has an idea how I can join these calendars into one place.
 
I can't offer a solution, only understanding. The world is electronic and we can't always stick to a single platform, or choose which to use where. I'm having the same struggle.
Can you separate work and personal systems? At least then you could stabilize your personal system and isolate the work system to what ever is mandated.

Check out my thread, http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8095. I'm having the same conversation - with some great feedback.
 
I know this sounds crazy, but you might actually benefit by ADDING a calendar to your system -- a central "hub" calendar.

Mine is in my pocket pc, but you could easily use Mozilla Sunbird, MS Outlook, Google Calendar, or a Paper-based system just as easily.

In this system, all of your other calendars act as input to the "hub" calendar. Someone sends you an appointment in Lotus Notes? Write it in your "hub calendar". Someone puts something on your family calendar? Write it in your "hub calendar". Some concert you want to go to? Put it in the "hub".

The only trick to this is that your "Hub calendar" needs to be with you all the time, so if you opt for a software solution, make sure it can run over the web or off a USB drive. Also, get in the habit of checking in your "hub" before you accept an appointment.
 
As a consultant, I think you should have your own calendar and not rely on your customer's system. This may cause you to do some double-entry, but that is better in my opinion than trying to change your system every time you work on a new project. It gives you more control. And you just need to find a calendar that plays nicely with most other systems and for systems that don't sync up, enter it yourself.
 
I'd agree with the idea of creating a central hub calendar, although I'd use paper rather than an electronic calendar. Go with a weekly planner, pocket calendar, whatever. In my opinion, without sync capabilities, it's a pain to copy every appointment from one electronic calendar into another electronic calendar.

A paper calendar can go with you everywhere, there are no compatibility problems, and it's really easy to transfer stuff from screen to paper.
 
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