This post is the result of reading a bit of advice in one of my RSS feeds today from one of the leading and most respected blogs on the Internet. In itself the information could be considered trivial but the potential for career disaster or personal embarrassment for anyone suffering from email overload ( and that must be many of us) was immense. It got me quite incensed, maybe this is the engineer/researcher in my makeup, but everything needs to be considered in the cold light of day for its real worth.

The post in question was quite simply about prioritising email using rules, whether this is an Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or your favorite email program. In this particular instance the advice was that emails sent directly to you are more important than emails sent to a group.

My instant response is why!

The suggestion is that an email sent to you rather than a group can only be answered by you and is therefore more important. That seems to be a blindingly narrow and wrong view of emails in general.

Let me a give a simple example:

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News

Today I receive a notification box for Google Calendar Sync on my main PC so I duly said yes to the update offer and it installed flawlessly.

I have previously posted Google Calendar Sync Test - Very Good But Not Perfect which gave a review of version 0.9.2.8 which gives details of some of the problems I found. (See the post for details )

A quick visit to the Google Calendar FAQ site didn’t reveal any details of what has been changed but a visit to the Google Calendar Forum resulted in finding a post that listed current issues:

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What Is It?

Google Calendar Sync provides the functionality that I have wanted for sometime in being able to synchronise a web based calendar with MS Outlook and synchronising Outlook over different computers and hand held devices. Sure there are commercial "paid for" products on the market for synchronising Outlook and some freeware products that will partially do what is required or just import from Outlook but nothing that could synchronise both ways or optionally in only one direction. (i.e. either from Outlook or to Outlook).  The testing I have carried out so far has shown a couple of problems that I have not been able to resolve which may be the Google Calendar Sync program or Outlook. At work we have had some problems with the the corporate Outlook/Exchange Server setup which has resulted in appointments disappearing among other things, so I may have some "corrupted" appointments sitting in my Outlook installations. This post is not intended to be a full review but an explanation of my finding through the installation and initial testing process. I will, however, use the basic review layout and headings that you will be familiar with.

Why Would You Want It?

Having a single master calendar makes sense  and one that you can access from anywhere you have a web connection is ideal for people who need to use a single appointment system system for home and work. The ability to synchronise the master calendar with appointment systems used at home and work as well as mobile devices such a phones and PDAs really is essential for many of us. The icing on the cake is two way synchronisation so you can update the master calendar with appointments entered on one of your other devices.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Synchronises Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook
• Options for two way or one way Synchronisation

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Firstly Apologies

Apologies to my regular readers who visited the site in the last couple of days, particularly those of you expecting the report on my testing of Google Calendar Sync. Those of you who visited may have noticed some problems with the page layout and missing icons or pictures. What turned out to be a relatively small file in one of the server directories caused me huge problems.

The Problem

I could not access the blog through the Admin interface which is used to manage the blog in all sorts of ways. Posting, managing comments, setting options, adding and removing plugins which provide additional functions, etc. So although readers were seeing minor problems their were major ones behind the scenes. As I though it was a plugin that I had recently added that streamlined the use of the admin interface I started there but had to work through the server file interface rather than the blog admin interface. Anyway, having moved files to temporary folders, deleted files, checked file permissions and done all sorts of other things one of my Google searches turned up an obscure solution. Which pointed me in the right direction. To cut a long story short there was an .htaccess file in the plugins directory with 4 lines in it that was the cause of the problem. I renamed this and hey-presto I had access to the admin panel again .

All then I had to do then was put back together everything as it was before, one step at a time and checking each step in case on of the plugins was creating the rogue file. This took a very long time

In retrospect I should have resorted to installing the last site backup but hey you live and learn .

The Happy Event

My first grandson was born yesterday (I already have two granddaughters). They light up my life.

Other Relevant Posts

GTD - Getting Things Done

News - Google Calendar Sync Released - Sync with Outlook & More

10 Ways to Save & Protect Your Data - Even files You Just Saved or Text You Just Typed

Technorati Tags: Freeware, Getting Things Done, Google, GTD, Impartial Review, Independent Review, Outlook, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP, Backup

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OK it makes for a good headline but the lack of posting is not entirely due to testing Google Calendar Sync (See News - Google Calendar Sync Released - Sync with Outlook & More). Small events have conspired to eat up the small amount of time I have free in the working week for blogging.

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Google have released a new free PC based utility to synchronize your Google Calendar with MS Outlook and vice versa if you wish.

I wrote in a recent post - GTD - Getting Things Done

At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.

This seems to be a very significant step in the right direction but is not a complete solution as yet.

I picked up on this at the Downloadsquad blog in the post - Synchronize Google Calendar and Outlook with Google Calendar Sync so I followed the link over to Google Calendar Help where the download link is, grabbed the file and installed it.

All went smoothly and up popped the options screen which I duly filled in. Then disappointment, it only works with Outlook 2003 and 2007.

So I left the following comment at Downloadsquad and will follow up with testing on my home PC later.

3-06-2008 @ 8:01AM

Barry Cleave said…

Great step forward!
In a post on my blog on 5 Feb 08 (GTD - Getting Things Done) I said:

“At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.” I am sure this applies to lots of other people.

Unfortunately we are still using Outlook 2000 at work and the Google Sync utility only works with 2003 and 2007. We also sit behind a firewall and proxy so I wonder if this will also be an issue (Anyone know the answer to that?) Anyway I shall certainly use it at home but will still have to rely on Activesync and my mobile phone to sync my work calendar

Regards

Barry
http://proreviewer.com

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What’s the Problem?

Delaying the tedious, the boring and tasks with unwelcome consequences seems to be part of the normal human condition. It has certainly produced numerous academic studies and research projects into the syndrome. Procrastination is just part of life and yet we mostly feel guilty about it and look for ways to help us "Get Things Done". You only have to look around the web and you will find thousands of resources devoted to advising you on what to do, lots of software that is meant to help you and all sorts of systems based around forms or methods to help identify the tasks and keep you on track. It seems that many of us are looking for a solution for a problem that we are really not facing up to. A reality check may well suggest that the issue is a reluctance to do many things that need to be done but that we have no interest in even starting let alone finishing . In the end mostly we are looking for a crutch to support us, something that will help us overcome our natural tendencies.

I am among the world’s worst at GTD. I am not writing as some guru with the answers, but as someone who struggles on a daily basis to complete tasks, particularly at home. Work is a bit different, I struggle to complete tasks at work as well, but this is a factor of insufficient time. Thinking about these different situations makes me realise that there are at least two different factors in Getting Things Done, depending on the circumstances.

What Am I Doing?

I wrote briefly in this post - GTD - Getting Things Done - as an introduction to some of thoughts and issues. In the post I mention some of the software and tools I am currently using which include:

• MS Outlook - because I have to use this for work and it syncs to my work mobile and to my home PC
• Stickies - because this is an excellent freeware virtual sticky note program
• AAA - because this provides a multi-tab notepad with alarms and recurring event reminders
• Essential PIM (freeware version) - I would use this a lot more if I could easily sync with Outlook for free.

I have also tried gadgets like the AceCad DigiMemo (AceCad DigiMemo - Save Your Handwritten Notes and Convert to Images, Doc or PDF) to help me.

So what have I tried to do to help with completing tasks at work has been quite useful. I believe this is because at work the issues are to do with time management far more than reluctance to carry out the task. Various GTD sites on the web suggest that people often are afraid to start a task because of the fear of failure. This can be either in completing the work or in not meeting the expected standard. I like to think that most of the time this does not apply to my work tasks, although I can see that occasionally there may be a problem with a particularly difficult or unusual task. However, I never seem to be reluctant to start but may have some delay in the middle while I reflect on whether things are going well or if I have covered all the angles. Therefore, using tools that help identify what I need to do i.e my "To Do" list combined with time management and prioritisation through tabbed notes, alarms and reminders, keeps me on track.

What Am I Not Doing?

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I am constantly fascinated and frustrated at the same time by GTD or “Getting Things Done” hints, tips, lifestyle choices and changes etc. Probably this is because like many of you I am living a life of information overload, too many things to do in not enough time and a job with a workload that always seems to grow and never diminish. So ‘I constantly look for better, quicker, more efficient ways to do things. I think that maybe part of my fascination with computers and programming is that they (or really the people involved in computing) have always promised that computers would reduce our workload, give us freedom and time to do the things we want. My experience is that Parkinson’s Law always prevails and that work always increases to fill the available time. This just means more pressure to “GET THINGS DONE”. So I continue to search for the holy grail, or at least something that might just give me a little more time to find it!!! In fact the more you get into GTD the more you realise that the biggest obstacle to success isn’t tools (software or good old fashioned pen and paper systems) that are ineffective but the processes and determination of the person using them. (more…)

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