My Addiction to Google Calendar

Happy Tipsy Tuesday!  Ok, so MAYBE I like electronic calendaring too much...  I admit that I am a teensy bit of a geek and as such really like electronic gadgetry.  And I am the complete polar opposite of go-with-the-flow.  I've been a scheduler for as long as I can remember (really, I am a geek) but writing in a planner didn't allow me to categorize without either highlighting or writing in different colors.  It also prevented me from really focusing on one category at a time.  Just like everyone else I have about 20 different schedules to keep track of and it was all starting to become a jumbled to-do list.  Then a few years ago, I found my calendar soul mate - Google Calendar.  Soooo, what makes it so awesome?

• You can create as many seperate calendars as you need (I have 15 right now...I know, control issues)
• You can pull in common calendars like US Holidays (there are 38 different holiday calendars), Day of the Year, Phases of the Moon, professional sport team schedules, Sunrise & Suset times, etc  (sadly, there is not a Candy of the Day Calendar)
• You could pull in (with permissions) the calendars of friends & family
• Everything is color coded (oh how I love color coding), although there are currently only 21 different colors)
• You can look at any single calendar (or combination of calendars) at a time...you could also look at all calendars at once if you want to feel overwhelmed ;)
• You can set it to email your daily agenda (note: I do not do this, I am not this obsessive)
• You can sync it with your phone (ok, maybe I do this...fine, I am obsessive)
• You can copy a single event to multiple calendars and set up repeating entries (like linky party reminders, for example)
• As with most all things Google, it's FREE :)

And what, you ask, do I schedule?  Apart from the obvious work meetings/reminders, family events and doctor visits, I also set reminders for everything from requesting library books to taking my vitamin...plans for blog entries & reminders for link parties...meal plans for the month...activity plans for the snuggle bug...sale reminders...and practically every other possible thing under the sun.  I realize that I might take it to the extreme (extreme calendaring, lol!) but it really is a super helpful tool to have in the Mommy toolbox.

Here's a shot of my calendar for next week with most of my categories selected for viewing. The burgundish-pink is my general calendar that I want to sync with my BlackBerry. It's hard to tell, but there are two shades of purple, one is blog related stuff and the other is cleaning stuff (seriously, if I don't remind myself it really won't get done). The blue calendar and orange calendars are two of the common holiday calendars that I've pulled in. And pink is for birthdays and anniversaries (hmmm, looks like I have some shopping to do)

And, just for fun (because really, who doesn't love a serious little fella shuffling papers)...

I'm pretty sure munchkin butt is working on his next week's schedule ;)

Ok, I'm done rambling.  Sure, I might have a slight calendar addiction, but man-oh-man it makes my life (and my family's life) so much more organized. 

And, I am in no way paid to spread love for Google Calendar, I just really really love it.