One calendar for EVERYTHING - yeah right?! what tech solution is available?

[randystokes]

I second Katherine's response above. I still haven't gotten my wife to send me messages through e-mail the way Katherine does, but I have convinced her that the best way to get my attention on anything is to throw it in my inbox at home. It's clear plastic, it sits on the end of my desk right next to the door from the hallway into the study -- and everyone in the familly knows that I clear it regularly, so it's the best way to get me to do something.

My 18-year-old daughter is a different story. Very high tech, loves her computer. She and I exchange e-mails all the time with questions, to-do'sm requests, etc. And until she leaves for college in August, we live in the same house. I send her e-mails from work, or from the next room. Does that mean we don't interact? No, we have a very good relationship, and have fun interacting. But then when we're face to face we're not bothering with the "Oh, yeah, I need you to do X" kinds of things.

David talks a lot about this in his GTD Fast CDs (i.e., in the Managing Workflow seminar).

Randy

[Ryan Ridnour]

I agree with Katherine...the point isn't to avoid interaction, it's to maximize the experience when we do interact.

I've used a freeware application for Palm called DualDate:

(http://www.palmone.com/us/support/dualdate/)

Very handy if you've both got a palm. It does not help, however, with scheduling on the fly...for example, if you and your husband are both trying to schedule different plans for Saturday night, and you are in separate places. The beauty of that scenario, however, is to accept the most exciting plans and decline the one you really don't want to do. Options are a good thing!

Ryan

[CKH]

My DH and I have ONE calendar EACH. But we make sure to coordinate with each other in a number of ways: telephone, email, or face-to-face "calendar checking." Our calendars are on paper and we carry them w/us all the time.

And when we do the face-to-face calendar check, we go over EVERYTHING in the calendar, so that (if I need to know) he knows when I see the dentist and vice versa, even if there won't be any real effect on the other's timing, just to be sure nothing was overlooked.

Yeah, he's high tech and I'm only sorta tech, but the calendar is NOT subject to power outages, hacking, etc.

Cynthia

[chris6h]

Well we do talk, but then I forget. I know it's on one calendar but then I forget to put things on my personal calendar. Also we are starting a business and I want to make sure I'm not double booking myself. I also want to get out of keeping two calendars.

Husband is also keeping two calendars one at work and then the home one (for business and personal). So we basically have four calendars going on (my work one, my paper based one for when I'm out and about (thankfully hubby doesn't want one of these), the home one and hubby's work one)

Any other suggestions are MUCH appreciated. Thanks to all. This board is AWESOME and I love GTD.

[PsychTau]

I'm looking at this from a different angle. My husband isn't as "high tech" as I am, nor does he schedule things as much as I. Plus, my job working in student affairs means that there are times where I have to attend an event after hours...which affects what we might do during the evening (he pretty much has no scheduling issues after 5pm).

I'm trying to figure out a solution to combine my Outlook calendar at work (which I'm required to keep updated so others can look at it) and my personal calendar that includes social activities, volunteer activities, and a possible business in the future...without keeping all of the personal stuff on my Outlook calendar at work (that students can see).

I'd like to be able to sync all of it to my Palm so that wherever I am I can look at my schedule without having to log onto the web. I'm a little frightened of syncing the two computers...I'm not sure if I'll kill something or not!

I have a Palm m500 using Datebk5, a Windows machine at work (with outlook), and a Mac at home (Palm Desktop). What's the easiest way for all of these to talk to each other? Someone mentioned syncing only certain categories...can you give me some guidance on this?

Chris, the answer to my above question may help you out as well. We'll see!

Thanks!
PsychTau

[emkay]

The best thing I've gotten from GTD is the new understanding that it doesn't have to be ONE calendar! You don't worry about getting things into one place, but one SYSTEM.

The system as a whole is trusted, but it doesn't matter how many collection points you have as long as you do the weekly review of them all.

Make a checklist (yes, I do this) of all the possible places you have stuff, be it in the bottom of the purse (very common for me) or wherever. This is my checklist to go through before I even get to my inbox. It sounds obsessive, but I do tend to accumulate scraps of paper during my travels.
purse
totebag
red folder in car (where I stuff things generated on the road)
little notebook in purse
wallet
Palm calendar
planning calendar
household calendar
check husband's calendar
everyday file - work (tickler)
everyday file - home (tickler)

Then I can consolidate dates into one calendar if necessary. The more often I review, the easier this all is and the less mistakes.

It is so stressful trying to have ONE perfect place for everything and ONE perfect capture tool when things come from so many places, times and people.

Same with having ONE perfect, all-encompassing calendar. Have lots if you want to- just check them all regularly. Anything really important can get copied to as many places as it needs to, but you won't have to copy every single little thing. For example, only household appointments that I need to be involved in show up on my work calendar. Only appointments that affect both of us show up on the home calendar. I also keep a paper calendar at work that I use for visualizing thngs - I found that putting long-term project timelines into the Palm was too hard to keep sight of, so I have a bound paper calendar that just use to keep deadlines, etc. in. It sits on my desk or goes in my tote as needed.


Your mileage may vary, but it is something to consider.
emkay

[Tspall]

A good solution for you will depend on several things.

If you're looking for an easy, relatively low-tech way to keep coordinated, then you might want to consider a web-based calendar. Even a Yahoo or Hotmail calendar will suffice for that. The only problem would be if both want to update at the same time.

More high-tech solutions involve emailing appointment files, instant messagers, beaming PDAs, etc.

If you want to get even more low-tech, then maybe you could just do a "daily review" where you coordinate a paper (or PDA) planner/calendar each evening. Maybe it takes 10 minutes or so.

I'd suggest the easiest, least complicated possibility for your situation. It's great that you two are communicating so well. Sounds like it just needs tweaked a bit.

[Gameboy70]

Here is my dilemna (and I can't possible be the only one in this spot). Have a home computer and a computer at work. Husband makes plans for Saturday night and puts them on the computer at home so I know what is happening. Then someone at work calls me and says what am doing Saturday night?, I don't have anything on my handy-dandy Time Design calendar for that Saturday that "mostly (okay I'll be honest I don't always transfer stuff as I should too much of a pain and you're only supposed to have ONE calendar right?) travels along with me so I book it. Now I'm double booked. I hate having to transfer stuff from my home computer to my Time Design calendar and also transferring stuff from my work computer to my Time Design calendar. Also I REALLY like Outlook's task features. I rarely forget to do things this way especially if they're reoccuring tasks. Writing things down to do each week that re-occur is not fun.

I'll play the bad cop here. This is really a leak caused by not taking the discipline to enter the appointment where it needs to be seen: in the Time Design system (if this was one of the times it was "mostly" at hand). So it's not a system. I second Tspall's recommendation of doing a daily review to synchronize your paper and electronic calendars.

Web-based calendars and email are good approaches, but if you want something that's ubiquitously available, like a PDA or a cell phone with a calendar, it's hard to avoid at least some manual duplication of entries.

If you and your husband use the same calendar program, like Outlook, may be able to synch with a flash drive like the Migo thumb drive, which specifically synchs Windows files.

[jazzsyx]

I just recently signed up with www.airset.com. It's in beta and free (though I'm sure at some point that may change). It can sync with Outlook. I have one calendar for work, one for a volunteer group I'm in & one for persona. Click on the all groups tab and you see all calendars combined. You can share calendars with others. It's pretty cool.

HTH,
Jessica - no way related to airset

[brijesh_popat]

hello,

I got sloution for you guys, no need to use to calendars for business and personal.

Now there is digital calendar Available (www.elephantcalendar.com) you can use it digital pen(www.logitechio.com) to write.

When ever you dock the pen, it will store all your information on the PC.so you have to copy of the calendar one with you as hard copy and other which you stored in your system as soft copy for reference at home or for somebody else.

Interseted in digital calendar, for more information visit(www.elephantcalendar.com) and for more products using digital pen technology visit( www.living-paper.com).

Thank you,

Brijesh