Ok, I've got a few tricks to share with you about Google's Online Calendar called Gcal that will make you want to switch to online time management. Well, maybe not switch entirely, but at least hybrid yourself into a kind of "switch" even though I know you may not care at this point, maybe are even grumbling at another new Internet innovation "thrust" upon your unwilling soul (I know of a friend like this and feel compassion for it) . I see my job, then, is to convince you, the unwilling. So first...I want to tell you why you should care. Why, if you are not all that thrilled with the Internet in the first place, should you care? (yes, I'm talking to many of you who may be in the English department or such who have relied on what you have in your hand to jot down the reminders of your day and the meeting times of committees and faculty. This also includes any reluctant or dyed-in-the-wool current or former Outlook users. This also includes me, but I don't work for ANY English department ANYWHERE (but I would enjoy it immensely if I did!). So maybe this group, dear possibly reluctant reader, includes you, too) . Anyway, here's why you should care.
You and I both have tried the Steven Covey Journal system. And we've tried just about everything that Staples organizer aisle has had to offer and tempt us with in its rich stack of date-organized, seductive virgin and recycled leaves of lined and unlined blank paper. (drool) We've even given up and given in and used a recycled grocery-sack bonded, ring-bound note book from Target (complete with rubber band divider/book-latch) and 3-tab pocket dividers - which we shamefacedly admit beat out even the sleek line of Day-Timers leather-bound professional time management array. (I'm sorry but I had to tell the truth)
We've turned to this multiplicity of time management solutions for one reason: investing in a hard-bound time management system is like buying a floor mop. Every time you need to replace the mop head, the replacement is either no longer sold, out of stock, or replaced with a newer and (supposedly) better mop. Not mention, that at some point, the idea of the multiplicity of time management choices (like mop heads) gets to be counterproductive. Sometimes you just wish your online (or not so online) stationary store was like "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery". Ralph's sales model went something like this: ( according to his Lake Wobegon "biographer", Garrison Keillor) "if you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it." I'm beginning to find that is true with so many things...except when it comes to time management. I can't get away from it and it is outrunning me relentlessly these days.
So what am I (like you) going to do when everybody seems to be going online and using this new "Web 2.0 stuff"? Can't we just go along with the department flow and use whatever they've got us "on"?
No. (wow! That was blunt, wasn't it. I'm not usually like this but things move fast in the Web 2.0 world. So please accept my apologies.)
And why not? Because sooner or later, the stuff that gets adopted into mainstream (this means users like you and I, although by virtue of my degree background I actually fit into the geek group, too, so I consider myself bi-cultural) is the stuff that is driven by the "early-adopters" on the "net". It filters into our personal world and our academic and business worlds whether we like it or not. So here's the deal: Google web ware is here to stay. More people are adopting the most widely used tool out of that toolbox, Gmail, daily. Google web ware is massive in its product line: Blogger is Google's blog tool and Blogger syncs with Flickr (Yahoo photo-storage tool) and Flickr syncs with Kwout (an online screen-capture and highlighting service). Everybody's happily talking to each other.
That's why you should switch to Gcal for online time management: it's letting a whole lot of people from different "worlds" happily talk to each other through the web and through their mobile devices about their to-do lists, their meetings, their appointments, their agendas, etc. You can create a group for your meeting attenders on Google Groups and store your files and discussions there, lock in the meeting date on Gcal and check for conflicts with other attenders, integrate RTM (Remember the Milk online task manager) for your joint and individual action items, use Gtalk to iron out any difficulties with everybody, and use Blogger to post the meeting minutes and use Kwout and Flickr to grab key points and images to highlight. That's a short list of what you can do with Gcal as the starting point to your day...but I think its enough to get us thinking about the "switch" to online time management, don't you?
So keep dancing, keep clicking. We'll be able to keep staying alive online together.
P.S. Take a look at this sweet keyboard shortcut cheat-sheet for Gcal. Looks like fun, doesn't it?!
©Staying Alive Online, M.S.Reed, 2008
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