Despite what my wife may tell you, I consider myself to be a very organized individual. I have all of my important papers filed into folders, know where all of my clothes are (most of the time), and keep a meticulous desktop on my MacBook Pro. As long as it makes sense, I’ll make every opportunity to stay organized.
For this reason, it always drove me crazy to be tied down to my terrible exchange-based calendar at work. Due to the propriatary technologies used by Microsoft, I’m severely limited in the ways I can access and update my calendar (which in turn makes me not want to bother using it). Instead, I always resort to my trusty Google Calendar for all of my scheduling needs. Its powerful, free to use, and built entirely on top of open standards that are gaining popularity every year.
Although Google Calendar is a great tool, it always bothered me that I couldn’t make and view updates to the calendar on the go without having to open Mobile Safari on my phone. What’s the use of keeping a calendar if you have to go to such great lengths to make updates and keep up with multiple versions of the same information?
Everything changed for the better when Google recently added CalDAV support to Google Calendars, enabling syncing between the browser and programs like iCal and Thunderbird. Taking it a step further, Apple recently added CalDAV support to the iPhone, making over the air syncing to your Google Calendar a walk in the park.
What does all of this geek speak boil down to? Keeping a calendar (or several!) through Google Calendars is now extremely useful because you can view and update the same calendar, no matter where you are or how you want to access it!
Are you ready to be super-organized? Here’s how to get started.
Start Using Google Calendar
It’s free and easy; sign up here. Once you’ve created your account, go ahead and make a few calendars according to your needs (I have one for personal stuff, one for my freelance work schedule, one for work, etc).
Set Up Syncing with iCal/Thunderbird
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I really enjoy using a well-made app for certain things rather than having to log on to a website. All Macs have an excellent calendering solution built-in in the form of iCal. It’s based on open standards, so don’t be afraid of building your life inside the program and being locked down if you ever want to use something different in the future.
If you’re on a Windows machine, Mozilla provides a great calendaring tool in the form of Sunbird. It’s a free download, and functions similarly to iCal.
Whichever you choose to use, you can find detailed instructions on how to subscribe to your Google calendars here.
Syncing to the iPhone, Over-the-Air
Here’s where things get fun. First, open your calendar settings in Google Calendar and find the sharing address for your calendar as seen in the example below.
Next, open the settings app in your iPhone/iPod Touch (firmware 3.0 required!) and tap “Mail, Contacts and Calendars.” Tap “Add Account” and then “Other.”
From the Other screen, tap “Add CalDAV Account” and enter the information as listed below. Be sure to type in your own google account email address and password. Once the account is verified, select the account from the list and tap “Advanced Settings.”
Paste the address featured in the calendar settings page on Google into the “Account URL” field. You’re all set! Your synced calendar should now show up in the iPhone’s Calendar app (If things aren’t working, you may need to replace the @ symbol in the address with “%40″). You can now view and update the same information however you like without having to worry about manually keeping things in sync.
Repeat the process above as many times as you like to sync multiple calendars to your heart’s content. Changes between the calendars generally show up pretty quickly, but sometimes it can take a few minutes if you’re on a rough data connection on the road.
Using a centrally hosted calendar solution like this can keep you and your ministry on top of the ball, and hopefully even save you some cash over using the pay-to-play solutions available on the market out there. Give it a shot!
What tools help you stay productive? Let us know in the comments below.
These are great tips. I’ve always just had trouble actually USING my calendar.
That was my issue… It’s hard to use it when you have to go to such great lengths to sync it up in so many locations.
Now that everything syncs without me thinking about it, it’s awesome. I can hop in the car and put something on my schedule without thinking twice of what calendar I have to look at to remind me about it.
[...] Google Calendar. Take a day to set up some calendars for home and work, and figure out how to get everything synced up between your phone and all of your PCs. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve ever [...]