Google Calendar is one of the most popular online scheduling systems out right now. With Google Calendar you can add events, share events with friends and set up reminders for yourself about future events! One of my favorite options is the option to have a reminder sent to you phone via an SMS text message!
Here are some personal ways that I use my calendar to stay up to date with everything in my life:
Check your calendar every morning!
I have my calendar linked to my iGoogle, a dashboard that allows you to view several applications such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, Google Reader, top news headlines, etc. That way I can see what I have coming up in a glance at my agenda. It makes it so nice to have everything in one place instead of having to sort through all those tabs and windows!
Set up “to-do” tasks and have them repeat every day!
I used to work at a leading clothing retailer as a Loss Prevention Supervisor and between running and tackling people I was in charge of the Test and Checks! The Test and Checks were a series of duties that needed to be accomplished either daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. I LOVED this system so I started implementing it into my personal organization and scheduling routine. I have a document set up with columns labeled Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly. I then decided what needed to be done when; Check Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are Daily Tasks for me while checking Feedburner and Google Anylitics are Weekly Tasks. You may have completely different time tables for your tasks and that’s ok! This is supposed to help you and if you don’t feel the need to check LinkinIn everyday maybe set up a column for Bi-Weekly or Twice a Week, whatever works for you!
After creating your document and deciding on your task list, go to your Google Calendar and create additional calendars for each of your columns. To do this, look at your main calendar page and locate the box on the left hand side that is titled simply “Calendars”. There will be small text links on the bottom of the box labeled “Settings” and “Create”, click on “Create”. On this screen you can create a new calendar with a name of one of your columns, lets use “Daily” for this example. After you have created your new Daily calender return to your main calender page and create a new event.
Let’s say we wanted to create an event to remind us to check our email. Be sure to click the box that states this is an “all day event” and create this event in your Daily Calender by using the drop down box called “Calender”. Also, be sure to make this an everyday repeatable event by using the “Repeats” drop down box. Include any description or reminders you would like and save the event. Now when you return to your main calendar view you will have an event everyday that reminds you to check your email. Continue to do this for every event in your column and then create new calenders for your additional columns and add events! So easy!
I also like to check off my activities throughout the day and you can do this by clicking on the event you have accomplished and choosing to delete the event. A box will pop up asking if you would like to delete just this occurrence or the entire series and choose to only delete this occurrence. Now you have checked off your task and can see what still needs to be done that day!
I think this is a a great way to organize my tasks and remind myself to do all of the simple tasks that I sometimes forget to do when we get busy. I encourage you to try this out!
Do you have a scheduling system that you use that you’d like to share?
Did you try this system out? How did you like it?
Have a Great Day!
