5 ways Google Calendar is turning into my ultimate productivity system.
I still write to-do lists, but I no longer use Remember The Milk nor have I ever used any kind of GTD system. At work I’ve been using TeuxDeux to make sure I get certain things done on specific days, but increasingly Google Calendar does everything I need it to. 🙂
Let’s examine the evidence:
1. Natural language recognition
I can type in Phone David at 1pm on Thursday and Google Calendar will do something sensible with it. Being able to add and delete quickly is really important to a lightweight, yet effective productivity system.
2. Mobile access
Now that I’ve got a Google Android phone it’s easy to access and add things to my Google Calendar. It was a bit of a bind to do so previously as the iPhone required 3rd party apps to synchronize.
3. Reminders
I’m not always in front of a computer, but I pretty much always have my mobile phone with me. Setting SMS reminders as well as pop-ups covers all the bases.
4. Google Tasks integration
If I really need to write a to-do list relating to a project, a Google Tasks widget can be added to the sidebar. The genius, but very simple, thing about this is that items on the list can have ‘parents’ and ‘children’ (i.e. dependencies).
5. See at a glance what other people are doing
It’s trivial to share your Google calendar (either all details or free/busy) with other people. And you can then ask them to do likewise with you. If they only use Microsoft Outlook’s calendar then suggest they use Google Calendar Sync!
I have long been suspicious that an Android phone would improve how I work because of the reasons you state here Doug. Direct access to the GApps functionality would be good for my productivity. Like you I do not use a fancy GTD system. I like GTasks and Calendar but the iPhone has hindered my use because the 3G web interface is not fast enough. Looking forward to reading your dell streak review – you use it as a phone… is it too big to hold to your ear when required?
Oh, I’ve got the Dell Streak review pretty much ready to go. I’ll post it tomorrow then if people are still interested! 🙂
Also a big Google Calendar fan here! I had no idea you could quick add items like that, thanks! Can you do anything similar on the phone? I find my iPhone’s event adding to be quite slow and cumbersome sometimes…
Don’t think you can on the iPhone, but on Android there’s an app called
‘Quick Addroid’ 🙂
Thanks, that might actually sway me to an android upgrade quite a lot!
I’m still using remember the milk for tasks because I’m only working from an iTouch plus a cheap Nokia. The big plus for me for RTM in an iTouch is that you can access tasks offline. I’m using google calendar, but for appointments rather than taks – I found the default calendar really limited so bought the SaiSuke ap http://goo.gl/Th14 which is brilliant! Even let’s you add SMS reminders – on or offline
Nice! May well give SaiSuke a try. 🙂
I think it cost £5.99 – the most expensive app I’ve ever bought. But it’s been worth it 🙂