I would really really really like to be better at organising our family life. The Vicar has a real problem with organisation. In fact, he always prays for the spiritual gift of administration, valuing it very highly, but so far the Lord has not blessed him in that department. And he has just appointed an administrator, but she’s not fulltime. Yet. And I’m not sure it’s her job to organise the family as well as the parish.
One of the things I have been looking for is a calendar system that both the Vicar and I could access from our individual (but networked) computers and also (in the future, when we upgrade our rather primitive devices) mobile phones. The Vicar currently has a Palm Pilot, but obviously this technology is now rather retro.
One friend has recently recommended cozi.com to us, which looks fantastic. However, I notice that it’s only really good with the iPhone, (that’s the only one where you’re able to edit as well as read the calendar) not other smartphones, and she uses it with Outlook and we use Mozilla Firefox. So I’m not sure about it, tho’ her local computer expert tells us it should be fine. How do you organise your family/parish lives? What is the solution, and if there isn’t one, can someone please design it? Thanking you all for your kind attention in this matter…
The Vicar's Wife 
Google calendar?
Also, glad to hear the Vicar has found an administrator!
I’ve tried all the electronic diaries I could lay my hands on, admittedly some time ago. I ended up returning to paper…
I was also going to say Google Calendar. Our Diocesan children’s & youth team (3 people) use it to log our appointments, meetings, etc. We have four “users”: each of us personally and then a team one, where all three are going to be at the same meeting.
As long as you can access the internet from your mobile, you can use it and it’s free!
Good luck. I too wasn’t blessed with the spiritual gift of administration, and it seems to get worse as I get older…
I’d say google calendar too, the ability to have multiple calendars which overlay each other and share different bits with various people is really useful.
It syncs with Outlook, and with most mobile phones, I’ve yet to make it work with the device which hangs on our dining room wall.
Can I add to the google calendar list of recommender’s as well.
Android phones link in well with this, as android is made by google too. (There aren’t many cheap phones….yet, unless you’re on contract)
You can get to it anywhere where there is internet, and chose how much sharing/ editing you can do of multiple calendars etc.
Looks like Google Calendar – Thunderbird works:
http://lifehacker.com/251729/view-and-update-google-calendar-with-thunderbird
…old link though.
Google calendar works for us too. We have one each, and one for both of us and each of us can read and edit all 3 so its easy to see (colour coded) what’s happening each day and which of us is involved in each event. We don’t have a parish to organise though – just 2 people is enough!
We use Microsoft outlook and synchronise them between two computers and a blackberry. It means that you can keep the calendars separate, and just drag and drop anything that you needs to be on both calendars.
It sounds a bit of a hassle, but it saves clogging up my calendar with all of my hubby’s appointments, and syncing via outlook to most non android phones is incredibly easy
Thanks for the ideas everyone. A special Vicarage welcome to new posters Ed and Ceri. We are currently looking at the Google calendar/android phone option, although we’ll need to go to contract phones. Might just try it for the Vicar for starters. Anyone got a phone recommendation? We would prefer to stay with Vodafone as a provider.
HTC Wildfire or HTC Legend are the lower end of the cost scale, but still good:
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/03/23/review_phone_htc_legend/
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/07/20/review_smartphone_android_htc_wildfire/
Just got a HTC Wildfire, seems enjoyable. Trying not to envy those who have the HTC Desire. Mine was an upgrade but in the past I’ve found the best deals at e2save.com (e.g. HTC Wildfire, 300min, unlimited texts and unlimited [well, 500MB ‘fair use’] internet for £20/month).
I tried to use Google Calendar in the past, but I was always annoyed that I couldn’t put in rough times, e.g. ‘evening’ (when I didn’t yet know a start time). At the Vicarage here we have a planning calendar, with a line for each day and columns for each person. It works fairly well, as long as we frequently have a ‘compare diaries’ session.
Husband recommends google calendar too. In fact he says most free email providers like yahoo all have reasonable calendars. Some slightly limited ie can’t do recurring events. You don’t need a contract for getting these on a smart phone you just need data allowance on pay as you go. Be careful with vodafone for data though as there are lots of hidden terms and conditions and their coverage is most temperamental. HTC are ok though his personal choice would be Samsung Galaxy S (in fact he’s still thinking of changing his iphone for this). He’s happy to help if you want to drop him an email.
We’re still using paper diaries … but we ‘rub diaries’ at least once a week … it rarely goes wrong, means we talk to each other regularly and isn’t affected by the internet going down or a power cut!
I’ve been without my computer for a couple of weeks – thank God for Filofax!