The WISIWYG Blog

To simplify and to organize—that is, according to Google, the very reason why we should use Google Calendar.  It’s schedule organization made easy, and I’m a believer!

I have been tinkering with Google Calendar for quite some time now, using it to remind me of project deadlines, appointments, birthdays and all.  And yes, it made scheduling quite easier and simpler for me.  Scheduling appointments at a mouse click—none could be easier.  Another plus is that the application is web-based.  So wherever I am, as long as I have a computer and an internet connection, I would be reminded that I have a JLPT internal exam this coming Thursday!  Now, that’s the bad part of it. Hehe.

But I have been using Google Calendar in more ways than the people behind the app must have planned me (and you) to use it.  Aside from using it to organize my schedule, I have also been using the web-app to track my schedule.  Here’s how I do it.

 

I am actually using the Google Calendar to organize my project schedule.  So from our project’s WBS, I transfer the schedule of all the work assigned to me into the Google Calendar.  Specifically, I would input the work item for a particular day on one of the calendar’s “column headers”—the “All Day Event” section of the calendar app if viewed by week.  This part of the calendar would then remind me of everything that must be done for a particular day.

So what about those parts of the calendar (in Week view) that are subdivided in 30 minutes interval?  Do I do anything with them?

Of course!  Those will just be wasted space if I don’t use them.  I actually use those spaces for two things.  First, I use them for timed appointments—meetings, reviews, classes and all other items whose specific time of occurrence is already pre-determined.  Then for those spaces not yet occupied by these pre-determined and pre-timed activities, I use them to plot a work item’s implementation outlook. So if I have, say, testing and code revision as work items for the day, I may plot the outlook for testing from 8:00 in the morning until 12 noon, and code revision for the rest of the day.

Now, for the schedule tracking part, here’s how I do it.  At the end of the day, or as soon after a work item has been completed, I would re-plot the position and the span of the work item on the calendar.  This is made easy by Google, since you can re-position an item or lengthen its time span by a simple click and drag action.  And since I can’t explain it well in words, I’ll leave you to experiment with its implementation.  Hehe.  And should there be an additional activity that must be done aside from those listed on my work items, I can simply click on the specified time and input the name of the activity and its span of time.  So if I’ve decided that it’s important for me to go to the CR and stay in there for thirty minutes midway my 8 to 12 testing schedule, I can do so and just add that item on the calendar later. :D

Well, that’s about it for my personalized use of Google Calendar.  Using it for schedule organization helped me a lot in getting the important things done.  Using it for schedule tracking, on the other hand, helped me analyze my work productivity and made SQA reports on Mondays a lot easier to prepare. :D

How about you?  Got some planning and scheduling hack that you may want to share?  Again, the comments section is all yours.