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June 22, 2006

tips

Give me your poor, your tired, your iCal tips

Posted Jun. 22, ’06, 8:25 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips

iCalReaders, I come to you on bended knee, looking for some advice. I’ve never been much of a calendar user, trusting instead to keep the various tasks I need to accomplish safely inside my head or in a small list somewhere. I had a Visor handheld several years ago, but it always seemed as though the time it took to put things in was way out of proportion with the frequency with which I used it.

But I’ve found myself at a point where it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of all my tasks, so I’ve started trying to use iCal. So far it’s going pretty well, but I have to say that at times it’s kind of overwhelming to see your whole month laid out before you. I do like the ability to import the birthday field from the Address Book; I ended up spending a while looking up and filling in birthdays for people I know. But in general, I’m looking for any tips on how you manage time with iCal, especially any must-do’s or no-no’s. How can I ensure that my usage of iCal isn’t some mere fad that I’ll discard next week, alongside the Atkins diet and skateboarding? Where’s the killer feature that’ll keep me hooked? Fire away!


6 Comments

Scott said:

My advice:
- Use many different calendars -- work and home are great, but consider also adding project-related calendars, a calendar for travel arrangements, etc.
- Notes for an event are a great place to store confirmation numbers, location addresses, and phone numbers to get directions -- if you sync with your iPod, then these notes will be right there with you
- Consider an 'Alarm Only' calendar -- put events with alarms, like 'change the litterbox' in this calendar, and then un-check the calendar to hide it (the alarms will still go off!)
- Subscribe to calendars from the net to add the schedules for favorite sports teams, US Holidays, etc. (you can always toggle them on and off!)
- You can group calendars into related folders and turn them all on and off at once (say, 'my stuff' and 'subscribed stuff')
- If the month view is overwhelming, try living out of the week view or day view. Pressing Command-Option-2, Command-Option-3, and Command-Option-4 will give you a secret 2-day, 3-day, or 4-day view, if you like.
- Download the iCal Events widget at: http://www.benkazez.com/icalevents.php?checkVersion
-- it allows you to see today's events and tomorrow's (or more) at a glance!

- Have fun!

June 22, 2006 9:52 AM
Jason said:

One thing gets me about iCal...the lack of sharing. I know you can publish calendars and subscribe using .Mac or a private server, but I want the ease of ITunes sharing and iPhoto sharing added straight to Address Book and iCalendar. I would love for my employees in the office and elsewhere to easily see my calendar (after logging in) and view whats going on.

I wish that same functunality existed in AddressBook allowing me to subscribe to an address feed or list of addresses shared from a central location. It would also make it easier for someone in my office (with permission) to get an address or number for someone out my address book.

Besides that its a sweet little app. I use basecamp to manage projects in my office and with ease can subscribe to those calendars and see whats going on.

June 22, 2006 11:49 AM
Scott Silverman Author Profile Page said:

My advice would be to take advantage of iSync. If I remember correctly, you have a E815 phone which will work with iSync. You can use Bluetooth to sync all your calendars, to-dos, and notes with your phone. That way, you can always be tracking your schedule and things to do, no matter where you happen to be.

June 22, 2006 2:39 PM
Scott Hastings said:

Dan,

I use address book and iCal every day, espeically the "ToDos" (tasks) in iCal. Even though I have my frustrations with both programs, I use them because of their ability to sync with other programs and devices almost seamlessly.

I pulled a page from David Allen (of GTD fame) and have a developed a set of calendars for the different "contexts" I might find myself in. That way, if I am at home, I can review the tasks in my @home calendar. At work, I do the same with my @Office calendar. When I am out and about, I have my @Car/Errand calendar. I wind up with about 10 "@" calendars for my ToDos. Works great (mostly)!

June 22, 2006 2:42 PM
Preyesh said:

You can export your calendar to Google Calendar and be able to access it on the move!!!

June 22, 2006 6:59 PM
F said:

MailTags lets you create to dos for emails in Mail that show up in iCal. With alarms if you wish. (and add spotlightable keywords to the usually uneditable items in your inbox)

One feature people often miss is the ability to add multiple alarms to an entry. Click on the "alarm" text next to your first alarm and you can add another, as many as you like. For important events far in the future I might add an alarm the week before, the day before and an hour before.

And keep the info and to do windows open at all times!

http://indev.ca/MailTags.html

June 23, 2006 2:15 AM

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