Time management is a useful yet difficult skill to master. However, students can learn to use technology to manage their lives more efficiently. Online calendars are not only simple to use, but can even integrate with a student’s cell phone. Below are some extra features that can enhance time management skills beyond scheduling.
Sharing Your Schedule and Calendar Subscriptions
Most calendar services allow users to send a subscription link to people they know so that they can keep track of their busy and frequently updated schedule. These subscribers can follow events in their personal calendar applications including iCal, Outlook or the many online calendar websites.
The best part about this feature is that when you make a change to your calendar, it automatically updates everyone who is subscribing to it. Calendar subscriptions can also be used to track certain types of events such as a football team’s schedule or popular U.S. holidays.
Calendar Invitations
Calendar invitations help a meeting organizer keep track of how many people plan to attend a specific event. Most online calendar applications offer a feature where users can RSVP in order for the organizer to plan accordingly. This is a great feature for planning a meeting or party without using any third-party service.
Embedding a Calendar
Online calendars can actually be embedded into a web page. Embedding a calendar allows a user to update the content of a web page without actually have to alter the code. Since the web page is drawing the information from the hosted calendar’s site, information only needs to be updated in one place.
This allows users to easily manage identical calendars that are viewed on multiple web pages. This is a handy feature if you have regular meetings such as club events that you want shared on your publicly viewed website.
Smartphone Synchronization
Smart phones and some feature phones, such as BlackBerries and iPhones, have the ability to subscribe, edit and add events to online calendars. Instructions to sync your device to a calendar can be found on the calendar service’s website. This is a perfect solution for a student who is always on the go.
There are many different calendar services on the web. Below are some popular options:
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a free online service that is part of the Google Apps suite. In addition to calendar sharing, embedding and synchronization, Google Calendar offers a notification feature that can send your mobile phone text messages that include event reminders and information regarding invitations. Google Calendar also has a “Daily Agenda” feature that will e-mail you every morning with the day’s events. Google Calendar is free for all users.
MobileMe
MobileMe is Apple’s online services suite. Among the many things that it allows a user to do — including photo sharing, remote server access and push e-mail — calendar synchronization is one thing it does best. MobileMe also allows users to share their calendars with other users around the world through universal iCal formatted subscriptions and a website link. Calendars are also updated automatically and instantaneously whenever an event is added or edited. MobileMe is $99 for a one-year subscription.
Exchange Servers
Microsoft Exchange, a technology used by many major corporations, allows its users to share calendars, synchronize multiple devices, and allow different users who have access to your calendar make appointments using programs such as Outlook, Entourage, iCal (Snow Leopard), and other third-party solutions. Exchange servers are usually the most expensive option in regards to the needs of an individual consumer.
Be the first to comment on this article!