Getting Organized With An Online Calendar
A great start to the New Year is to get your scheduling under control.
Although many people still prefer a paper calendar or day planner to an electronic calendar, it can be hard to share your paper calendar and keep it updated if you need to coordinate your activities with others. For a single independent individual, it makes little difference whether your calendar is paper or electronic, but for a busy couple or family, a shared electronic calendar can mean more efficient planning—and you can also avoid those awkward “but honey, I told you I was going out that night” moments.
Personally, my favourite calendar program is Microsoft Outlook, which I also use for email. I can share my calendar three ways: on my network, by email, and online (click here for some instructions on how to do this). Many other email programs have calendar software as well, and it is often shareable—if you don’t use Outlook, check your email program to see if it does offer shareable calendar software.
If you don’t already have a calendar as part of your email program, or if the one you have doesn’t meet your needs, there are some great online calendar options available:
For a family-specific choice, try Cozi. It’s completely free, and designed specifically to simplify family life. In addition to a family calendar, it has functions for lists, reminders and messages, and a journal. It also syncs with Outlook, so if you’re already an Outlook user this may still be an option for you, and mobile phone access is a feature as well.
Another option is Airset, which is oriented toward busy people of any sort, so it’s a bit more general as opposed to family-focused. The basic features are free, but they have premium services as well (you’d have to pay to sync with Outlook or Palm). One nice facet of Airset is that you can have multiple shared “web computers” for the separate areas of your life.
Both BlueTie and WebOffice are more targeted to professionals and small businesses, so both of these have monthly fees and wouldn’t make sense for more family-oriented needs, but they are worth considering if you’re a self-employed professional or operate a small business.
Finally, if you’re a Google user, you might find the Google Calendar easy to use and compatible with other Google applications. It integrates nicely with the iGoogle homepage.
The two key points here are to choose a calendar program that everyone necessary can access, and then to make a commitment to refer to it and keep it updated. If you’re choosing a program that you intend to use with your partner or family, I recommend that you make the decision on what calendar to use together, so that you’re both (or all) happy with the program that you’ll be using.
