Making things simpler

So this week I had an experience online on facebook on one of the communities were we were discussing organisation, home routines and how we all cope with the pressures that we face. During the discussion it was revealed how hard it is for us all to cope and how much we need to take a handle on our lives to make things easier, less stressful and much easier to run. One of my weird passions is organisation, not in the sense that I have my house clean or that everything is run perfectly. But in the sense of my life I try to keep things under control by using the tools that we have online and using our technology such as our phones and iPad

Being a technology nerd I thought I would share some of the systems that are online, how we can use them, how I use them and how you can simplify your life! So this will be an introduction and some short tips on how to use them and what you need to do.

Google

Google is not just a search engine, there is a calendar function within Google that can be useful to just about everyone. You can schedule events such as therapy or a birthday. As well as write up to do lists. The good thing about google it can also be used on your phone. Once you sign up for an email account you have access to a calendar. Any member of the family can have a calendar either as a separate email or within the one. So as an example in my setup I have a few things:

My personal Calendar (email based)

My husbands (email based)

My son's (email based)

Bills within mine.

The reason for separate emails is that it makes it simple to add events into the iphone or another device. For example on the iPhone I can from when I am out add an event to my son's calendar and invite myself or my husband. I know it all sounds a bit crazy doesn't it!!! The advantage of sitting in with the therapist and adding the appointment right there and then means that I don't have to do it when I get home, hence it has less chance of being forgotten.

To use Google you need to do the following things:

I have linked to the help pages in Google to get you started

1. Sign up, if you don't have a gmail account already
2. Open up your calendar, usually by clicking on the calendar link at the topic of the page.
3. Get Started, pick the colour of your calendar add new calendars
4. Enter events on the calendar
5. Sync your calendar with other software and devices such as outlook and your iPhone or other phone. This process can be quite confusing :)
6. Next share your calendar between calendars and learn how to invite others such as family, therapists to future events.

This takes a little getting used to and some frustrating moments but once you get things set up it does actually make a real difference. You can make it as simple or as difficult as you like it is up to you. If you have any questions at all, please write me an email and I will try and put you on the right track.

Next post I will look at a few tools online and using technology that interact with Google or are stand alone such as the iPad and iPhone apps.