Organizing Life

When I (Steph) was 13 years old my parents enrolled me and my older sister in a class to learn how to use the Franklin Day Planner.  I used the system for a while, but ended up just using the calendars and not much else.  Since then, I have used various calendars and systems to try and make sure I know where I am supposed to be and when.  Some worked better than others.  Some I loved and others I hated.  But I have not used any calendar as consistently as the one I will share today.

A couple years ago, I was searching for a calendar that my husband could access as well as me (I could enter things, but he would be able to see it real-time on the calendar too), would sync with my phone, could be printed if I needed, and could be color coded based on the person the event is for.  I researched and found some paid calendars and found a few posts in various forums about Google Calendar.  It took a while for me to decide that a FREE calendar could really provide everything I was looking for.   I decided to give it a go and quickly fell in love.

Google calendar is a web-based calendar system that can be synced with any other calendar and almost any device.  You can set up a different calendar for each person in your family (or church group, school groups, etc.), assign them a color and mange them on the left side.  You can make the calendar private and invite people to view them or help you manage them, you decide how much control to give.  You can also view other public calendars (I have one for U.S. Holidays and the weather for my area) or private calendars you have been invited to view.  You can easily toggle through daily, weekly, or monthly views.  I have most of  my calendars set up to give me an onscreen reminder 20 minutes before the event.  One of my favorite calendars is one I set up for my husband’s family and his mom went through and entered all of the birthdays and anniversaries.  This event calendar sends me an email reminder two days before the event.  You can set the calendar up to send you test reminds as well if you want.

Google just recently added tasks to the calendars, which I have not yet tried, but intend to very soon (as in today…haha).

Just like all Google products, Google Calendar is definitely intuitive and easy to use, no need for a user manual!  If you would like to read some reviews though, I dug some up for you here and here.  I also found a great resource for more information on all of the cool things you can do with your Google Calendar here.  If you are looking for a way to help you organize your life then go ahead and give it a try, I know you will LOVE it too!