Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
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Getting more out of iCal
Merlin Mann | Jun 29 2006
Okay, I admit it. I've grumbled about iCal on and off since it came out. It's one of those things in life that makes you nuts with how it almost works. The alarm choices are amazing but there's no way to have them added automatically. The shared calendars are great, but only one person can make changes. The snoozing sucks, notifications magically disappear, and some days, the "moist Jolly Rancher" design motif makes me want to barf pink. Hrmph. But (and it's a big but)... The truth is, iCal works great with kGTD (mostly of course), and once you make your peace with the perplexing stasis of its feature set, there are some not-bad hooks and affordances hiding in its pastel, roundy corners. Here's a few I like. Calendar GroupsYes, I've mentioned these repeatedly, but they're just so great. The killer trick here is the ability to nest contexts/calendars in a way that supports either "Areas of Responsibility" (if you use calendars as projects) or -- my preference -- grouping related contexts into "Super Contexts." So, for example, I've put "email," "web," "design," "print," "google," and "buy online" tasks into a group called "Computer." When I'm planning for a time when I won't be at the computer, I deselect one box, and a couple dozen tasks I can't possibly do anything about just disappear. Print that list, and off I go. Remember: whether or not you're doing GTD, it's valuable to always know what you don't need to be thinking about at a given time. Think about it. Work the notes fieldI use the crap out of iCal's various extra fields -- esp. for appointments.
Print it outAlthough it could benefit from a few more printing options, iCal's current print capabilities are actually pretty smart and can be used to great ends.
Random tips
Got a great iCal tip? What cool stuff are you doing with iCal? 34 Comments
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![]() [...] As I’ve mentioned before,...Submitted by HOWTO: Flag “penciled-in” events in iCal | 43 Fo (not verified) on July 6, 2006 - 7:39am.
[...] As I’ve mentioned before, I like using iCal’s invitations to share appointments with people — especially since this lets them easily respond to let me know whether they 1) will attend, 2) won’t attend, or 3) are just “tentative.” Unfortunately, there’s no analogous tentative flag for the (seemingly endless) number of appointments and events I want to just pencil-in — you know, those times when you want to make sure to block out time for a call or lunch, but are waiting on confirmation from folks who don’t use iCal (or for whom it makes no sense to pester with an invitation). My workaround — yes, like many of these things — is really simple. [...] » POSTED IN:
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