I used to keep everything on a calendar at home…when I stayed at home. It had big spaces, lots of room to write, I had it colour coded and kept a pen pinned up next to it for quick additions. It was a thing of beauty and everyone knew where to look when they wanted to see if we could squeeze in one more thing. It took me a solid 8 months of working full time to realize that my calendar situation wasn’t working anymore. I hadn’t even given a thought to changing that when just about everything else had changed.
Cue: iPhone.
Cue: Many thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple.
I have everything in my phone. Everything. My whole life is in there, one swipe away. Our own Resident Nerd, Brandy, talked about apps you can use to simplify and amplify your life, I’m going to tell you that my finger pad touches one little icon over and over and over in a week and I’d be lost without it. The Calendar. It’s no new fangled invention, it’s not flashy, it does not contain a thousand bells & whistles and I did not have to go searching for it. It came on my iPhone when I powered it up that first precious time and it has saved my butt a million times since.
Text from Husband: Hey uhh…we got plans on Sunday? Maybe I can go golfing?
*sidebar: the answer to this question should always be no. I really can’t understand the appeal of spending 4 hours wandering after a white ball that goes missing in water and sand. Drive, sit, stand, follow through, search, curse, repeat. Dumb. But I digress.
Text from Me: lemme check the calendar…brb
…
…
Text from Me: k, we’ve got dinner with my parents at 5, and the Market starts at 9, but other than that we’re good.
That exchange would have normally taken me a phone call to home, a pause while whomever answered stopped what they were doing, traveled the short or long distance to the fridge, scanned the calendar and read off the list of chicken scratch, while I hoped against hope I remembered to put everything on there. Now it’s all at my fingertips. Handily arranged in order and colour coded again to my liking. (I didn’t put the golf game in there. Maybe that’s subliminal.)
It reminds me of my events at whatever frequency I pick- I have it remind me of our trip to the market (we’re into buying local!) at “one day before” and also “one hour before.”.Both because I’m a visual learner and because I lack the brain capacity to remember things…and also a little because I procrastinate. It pings or vibrates my phone, and pops up a little rectangular message right on the home screen. No taps required. If I want a little more information, or want to see when that event might be happening again, or when I can push it back if needed, I can tap the little rectangular reminder and up pops this:
oh there'll be a post on THAT reminder, trust me:)
I find it incredibly handy. Everything is listed there. I put doctor’s appointments, TV shows I want to watch, trips we’re taking, play dates, dinners, even a reminder to check on my friend who’s putting up a toddler bed this weekend:) It helps to take my mind of remembering when my phone can do it for me. I feel organized and on top of things at home, even from my desk. Annika only goes to school every other Friday. Since I can never remember when she went last, my phone does that. I have a few bills that don’t autopay from my account, I put a reminder in my calendar to login to my online banking quick before lunch and get them paid on time. Last week I put a reminder in to remind Ryan to turn the crock pot on at noon before he left for work!
I can’t always be around the things I need at home…but I still have to run my home, even when I’m at work. Life doesn’t stop there when I close the door, and part of my Hear Me Roar! plan is to keep the homefront running at an even keel while I financially provide to keep us there. My iPhone calendar is a great ally. And I can make it curse at me, which makes me giggle. I’m a fan of using your resources, and this is one of my favourites.
Do you have any tried & true tips for keeping yourself in the know while you’re working? Have you discovered a never-fail way to keep organized…preferably one that doesn’t require me to carry around a pen because my kids steal mine all.the.time.
I still use a paper plan book. It’s the last of my “old school” techniques that I haven’t converted to the iPhone. However, I’m seriously considering giving the calendar on the phone a chance when my book runs out in August (yes, I still run on a school calendar too!). Thanks for the ideas and the reminder alerts would probably be great for me.
Jamie recently posted..Zoo
My work gives me a free paper planner every calendar year. It sits 100% empty and I never open it. I can’t remember to grab it- EVER! But my phone? Sucker’s attached to my hip anyway, I might as well make it work for me:)
I tone down the alerts, because too many would just make me ignore those too! But important reminders- buzz twice:)
mrshiggison recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- I think it’s fly…
Twitter: mrshiggison
If you haven’t done it already, you can sync your husband’s calendar with yours (via Google calendar) – then he won’t have to text you to ask if you have anything scheduled – he can just look it up himself on either the phone or computer. Our lives are on that little iphone calendar too – would be lost without it!
We also use Wunderlist to keep track of shopping lists, to do items, and weekly meals – it’s super simple and easy to use. And if I’m out and my husband adds something to the list, it pops up on my phone too. We too, are Apple lovers
.
Now wait one hot second- I CAN?!! So like whatever’s on my iPhone calendar goes into Google calendars & vice versa? And then I can sync it to do the same to my husband’s? Is this what you’re saying?! IS IT?!!?
How do I do this? I must do this immediately.
I need to sit down with Wunderlist again. Went right over my head the first few times I tried it after Brandy suggested it.
mrshiggison recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- I think it’s fly…
Twitter: mrshiggison
You got it! My husband set ours up – see, I don’t really care to know about setting it up, I just know what I want and then to be able to use it
– my husband is a computer guy, so he’s good like that. Let me ask him how to do it and I’ll try to get him to write it out tonight or this weekend. If you can see my email address, feel free to send me an email and I’ll respond there – if not, I can throw it all up here.
SENT!
mrshiggison recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- I think it’s fly…
Twitter: mrshiggison
To share a Google Calendar go to the gear icon in the upper right of the calendar screen and go to settings>calendar. There is a column to share this calendar. Enter your husband’s gmail address and choose his level of access. He’ll need to do the same with his calendar for him to see yours.
Your shared calendars show up on the left side of your calendar screen, so you can choose to view them or not at any given time.
My husband and I each have a calendar that we share, then I also set up an “important events” calendar that just has recurring reminders for birthdays and anniversaries. I could have done those in my master calendar, but I like having it separate because then those events appear in a different color.
Twitter: observacious
I use a combination of a calendar on the refrigerator and a shared electronic calendar with my husband. I like the paper calendar for the large life-at-a-glance view it gives me. I also put notes on it that I wouldn’t put in an e-calendar like what I plan to make for dinner each night. (This works well since dinners can be impacted by evening plans.)
My husband is more of an electronic calendar person, so I started duplicating things on his electronic calendar in order to avoid having to answer questions about scheduling all the time. I like it too because the e-calendar entries can contain all the details about an event.
Twitter: observacious
It goes without saying I do this too. I put everything in my outlook for work and it syncs to my phone. We are trying to do a shared family calendar with google but we can’t get the hang of it. Much easier to just make K an invited party on my things I need to.
Brandy recently posted..50 Shades Ain’t Got Nothing On Me
Twitter: mannlymama
O and don’t forget the alarm clock. i have all kinds set. Dog to take his meds, get food from the freezer, do 10 push ups. Doesn’t matter what it is. Just works!
Brandy recently posted..50 Shades Ain’t Got Nothing On Me
Twitter: mannlymama
My family would be lost without our “google calendar” being synced together. My DH and Son are REQUIRED to update their calendars because if it does not come to mine it may NOT happen. Event entered 1st on the list normally gets priority. SInce my son can’t yet drive it became a priority for him to put all of his events in as soon as he found out about them. I am the ONLY Aunt that remembers every Bday in the family. My nieces and nephews know they will always get something from me and it will be on time. I set bday, anniversaries and any other event that requires a mailing or gift to alert me 7 days in advance and then again 5 days in advance. So I am everyone favorite aunt thanks to Google Calendar.
Donna recently posted..Are you a selfish parent?
I feel like such a Luddite because I still have my calendar on the fridge and my to-do notebook that lives in my briefcase. I feel more organized when I can check what needs doing at a glance instead of needing to log in or find my phone. I need to know what is coming up and I need it in my face, all the time.
Christa the BabbyMama recently posted..Growing Scallions (Green Onions) in Water
Twitter: mommeetmom
Since I have a work, Outlook calendar and then our personal/family calendar I have 2. For family things, we use a google calendar that both me and hubby have access to and I use a igoogle type app so that the calendar is on my iphone. It syncs automatically so it’s always reflective of any additions and edits that I or hubby makes on the laptop or iphone..syncs both ways. I have my work Outlook calendar and email loaded so that it syncs with the iphone standard calendar.(does this through the Add Email Account feature in email set up)..lots of people at work place things on my calendar so I have to have both. I get appt reminders for both calendars on my iphone. I keep them side by side on my home page. I live and die by automatic reminders for every tiny little thing.
Wait, you can set 1 calendar instance to remind you twice? Teach me the ways Alicia, TEACH ME, b/c like you? I need to be reminded a day before, and right before, or no way will it be done.
OH OH OH and that friend was me….or Brandy?
Brandee recently posted..Sex, Love & Bonding {Leave Your Comfort Zone}
Twitter: Babe_Chilla