Quick Introduction
This starter kit is an introduction to how digital technology can support you to organise common everyday tasks with calendar apps. It does not go into detail about how to use the technology, but is primarily designed to point you towards the affordable tools that you can use from day to day and give you a better idea of how these might fit into your life.
Follow on kits will provide more instruction on how to get up and running with this technology, as well as ideas on activities to take your enjoyment further.
What we suggest here is just that, a suggestion. There are many other apps and services that you may choose to use, so don’t be put off if you don’t find something that suits you. In fact, let us know and we can look at adding it to future versions of the kit.
Why use digital calendars?
Calendar apps are no different to the calendar you might have on your kitchen wall. They are there for one purpose and that is to take away some of the pain of staying organised.
As with their paper cousins, digital calendars let you make a note of appointments, anniversaries or other important things. However, where they differ is that you can set reminders with digital calendars so that the app will notify you when something important is upcoming so there is even less chance of you forgetting an important event.
What is more, for anniversaries or other events that are recurring you can enter the details into your calendar once and the app will take care of creating all future instances. No more adding everyone’s birthdays to the calendar each year.
Outlook
Apple Calendar
Google CalendarHow do these services work?
- When you sign up for an email account with either Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Outlook) or Apple (Apple Mail) you will automatically get an associated calendar account with that service. If you try and sign up for a calendar account before you have an email account, you will be asked to create an email account as part of the process.
- To get the most out of your chosen calendar service, download the corresponding app to the device you use most frequently. The calendar apps from Google and Microsoft (Outlook) are available on Android phones and tablets, as well as iPhones, iPads and computers using a standard web browser. The Apple Calendar app is limited to iPhones and iPads, as well as via a standard web browser.
- With most digital calendar services you can create more than one calendar if you wish to keep some events separate from others. This can be useful if you have family events that you would like to keep on their own calendar and so be able t just share these with family members.
Next Steps
This is just a taster of how calendar apps can be useful in day-to-day life. We are in the process of compiling follow-on guides for using individual services which will take you through set-up and use step-by-step.