1 2
mtn
mtn MegaDork
5/16/17 10:32 a.m.

Trying to organize our lives, and I think we need to have a shared calendar on our smartphones. Any suggestions? I'd guess that Google is the best option, but don't know the ins and outs of any of them. I use outlook on my work computer. Thats all I know.

FlightService
FlightService MegaDork
5/16/17 10:47 a.m.

My wife and I use google docs and share a calendar so it auto populates whenever either of us adds something.

You can do the same thing with iCloud.

STM317
STM317 Dork
5/16/17 10:51 a.m.

We must be stuck in the dark ages, because we write things down on an actual calendar

LuxInterior
LuxInterior HalfDork
5/16/17 10:54 a.m.

During the wedding planning, mrs lux and I used google ( a shared email) to share docs and calendar events. It worked well because it was for all stuff related to that event.

I wouldn't want to do that for all things forever... it would get cumbersome.

For now, I'm just sending her meeting requests to get car shows on her calendar. But there has be be a better solution. I just haven't found it.

Edit: I just googled "how to share google calendar". That's how! :)

XLR99
XLR99 GRM+ Memberand Dork
5/16/17 10:55 a.m.

Another vote for Google. I have one for the entire familia that I've linked to all their phones, plus it's web based so you can log in from anything that can get online.

Unfortunately, my daughter and I are the only ones who actually look at the damn thing .

wearymicrobe
wearymicrobe UltraDork
5/16/17 10:58 a.m.

COZI on the apple app store.

It has notifications, it has grocery lists that you can update in real time. All sort of cool stuff. Free vcersion works just fine.

mtn
mtn MegaDork
5/16/17 11:02 a.m.
STM317 wrote: We must be stuck in the dark ages, because we write things down on an actual calendar

This is our current solution. Doesn't help me much when I need to know if I can take an assignment for 2 hours Tuesday night, and I need the answer in ten minutes, and neither of us are at home.

STM317
STM317 Dork
5/16/17 11:06 a.m.

In reply to mtn:

You must be much busier than I am. It's pretty easy for me to remember what I have going on in a single day. If I'm not sure, a call to my better half usually clears it up. If it was insignificant for neither of us to remember, then it doesn't really matter.

NEALSMO
NEALSMO UltraDork
5/16/17 11:09 a.m.

My family uses the iCloud calendar. Works great. You can separate dates by category (bills, family, personal,auto-x events, etc), so you can choose what gets shared between calendars.

Javelin
Javelin GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/16/17 11:13 a.m.

Google calendar works great. You can share it with your wife, her boyfriend, and your girlfriend so everyone gets their dates in. Or you know, just schedule all of the car stuff.

APEowner
APEowner GRM+ Memberand Reader
5/16/17 11:28 a.m.

Are you using iThingys or Androids.

bluej
bluej UltraDork
5/16/17 11:58 a.m.

Another happy Google calendar user here. We each have a personal work calendar, personal calendar, and a "joint" calendar. They're all Google, even though she's a Mac laptop/iPhone. Being able to turn all of them off/on individually is handy, and it's easy to use.

Stefan
Stefan GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/16/17 12:19 p.m.

In reply to APEowner:

Doesn't matter, Google Calendar works on both.

Wife and I share our calendars.

Of course if only works if people actually put stuff in it, but that's another issue.

dculberson
dculberson PowerDork
5/16/17 12:30 p.m.

We use Google Calendar and it updates great on my iPhone. You can have multiple calendars that all sync with your account so you can have a "shared" calendar and a "private" calendar. That way stuff like car shows or whatever doesn't clutter up her calendar. (And vice versa.) When you add something to your calendar there's a drop-down for choosing which calendar you're adding it to.

It's indispensable for keeping track of things like kid's doctors appointments and such.

1988RedT2
1988RedT2 UltimaDork
5/16/17 12:51 p.m.

Fascinating!

mtn
mtn MegaDork
5/16/17 1:12 p.m.
STM317 wrote: In reply to mtn: You must be much busier than I am. It's pretty easy for me to remember what I have going on in a single day. If I'm not sure, a call to my better half usually clears it up. If it was insignificant for neither of us to remember, then it doesn't really matter.

My wife has a job with inconsistent hours. I have 2 jobs--one with very consistent hours, one that is literally all over the place geographically and time-wise. We also have 2 dogs that we need to make sure are walked and let out by either one of us, and someone checks on them during the day.

Combine that with MIL's doctor appointments that my wife likes to go to, our own hobby schedule, birthdays for the family, showers for babies and weddings (seriously, 3 baby showers this year for wifey and 2 weddings) and the paper calendar doesn't work anymore.

failboat
failboat UberDork
5/16/17 7:42 p.m.

Do you need to have a google account to manage the google calendar?

I am using a microsoft sharepoint calendar on our intranet site to plan and manage my field crew schedule but it lacks options on how i can sort and color code different tasks.

I may be interested to try google but i dont want my work E36 M3 associated with my personal email account. Creating a dummy email account is not out of the question. I think.

OHSCrifle
OHSCrifle GRM+ Memberand Dork
5/16/17 9:11 p.m.

Wife and I share a Google email account, thus we have a common Google calendar that we can both keep appointments on.

We share a bank account too, by golly.

wae
wae Dork
5/16/17 9:25 p.m.

We use Google calendars that we share. Car stuff, church stuff, school stuff, kidsports stuff, pole stuff, vacation stuff, whatever stuff all goes in there. If it's red, I put it in. If it's yellow, my wife put it in. You can also put the address in the location bar and get right to the navigation portion of Maps and Waze will remind you when to leave based on traffic.

The only real problem is that I also have Exchange at work and that's a separate calendar. Normally it's not much of a problem, but if I need to schedule a personal appointment I've got to check both calendars and then put a meeting on each calendar to avoid getting double-booked.

At this point, the kids are too young to have their own smart-devices, but once they are old enough I imagine we'll tie them in to that as well.

Stefan
Stefan GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/16/17 10:30 p.m.

There was at one point an add-on for Outlook to connect to a Google Calendar. Of course if you're using Office365 and OWA, that's a bit more tricky.

You could also add your google address as an attendee for the meeting and it should show up in your gmail/calendar.

dj06482
dj06482 GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
5/16/17 11:09 p.m.

Another happy Google Calendar user here. I like the "Tiny Calendar" app that's available for iOS and Android. The month view is helpful, you can see more info than from the Google Calendar App itself. I use the free version of the app.

Wall-e
Wall-e GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/17/17 7:43 a.m.
mtn wrote:
STM317 wrote: We must be stuck in the dark ages, because we write things down on an actual calendar
This is our current solution. Doesn't help me much when I need to know if I can take an assignment for 2 hours Tuesday night, and I need the answer in ten minutes, and neither of us are at home.

Mine's portable. I'm terribly disorganized so I got into the habit of carrying one everywhere and taking notes. I've tried to get into using my phone or iPad but I can't get used to it.

Ian F
Ian F MegaDork
5/17/17 8:08 a.m.

In reply to Wall-e:

How often do you sit down with your wife and populate each other's calendar? The ease of syncing (usually automatic) is what makes electronic calendars so useful.

Jerry
Jerry UltraDork
5/17/17 8:13 a.m.

I'll throw another Google Calendar comment in the ring, pretty easy for myself and SWMBO to add stuff to our phones at any given time and our accounts are shared so we see each other's events.

And my desktop homepage is the calendar, so it's easy to keep up to date. EDIT: reading wae's comment I forgot the color coding is nice too.

Ricky Spanish
Ricky Spanish Reader
5/17/17 12:28 p.m.

Google.

Only retirees use paper.

1 2

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
Q4KfMtwlbQI6rOmSoJHtWRS46VIddhlKtNeE20IrSWLxhEWc6ro4CT0yptWnGIzN