Going back before moving forward

I am motivated, I have the time now, so I am going to finish the 23 Things for Professional Development programme! Before moving on to Thing 13, however, I decided to actually do everyThing properly. Therefore, I am going back to the one Thing I skipped: Thing 8 - Google Calendar.

As I mentioned in my post on Thing 9, I have no need for a Google Calendar. As a humble Library and Information Assistant, I do not need something to organise my time at work: I can be found on whichever floor my managers have decided to put me on, and this can be viewed by anyone on the library's daily timetable. I am rarely invited to meetings, and when I am my attendance is decided less by myself than by the timetablers, depending on the level of staffing at that time. As a result, no one will purposefully look up my calendar, if I had one! And if no one wants to see it, no need to share it...
If, however, I was in that position that requires me to use a calendar for others to see, I would be using the one linked to Outlook, as it is the one everybody uses at my workplace. As far as I could judge, it is similar to Google Calendar. The only Google Calendar in use at the Library is the one on our blog, which shows our customers upcoming events across the library service.

Just to give it a go, I have created myself a Google Calendar which I have filled with details of my social life over the next three weeks. This period includes my holidays, and I have shared my calendar with friends I am planning to see during those holidays. The results are... mixed. Yes it seems easy to use and I agree it must be great when you actually need to share your calendar with others. Also, since I use an Android smartphone, I can see the appeal of going all-Google to have everything at the ready on my phone. But apart from that, I'd still rather use my paper diary... My diary may be old-fashioned, but it does its job, it doesn't need its battery charged and I can even hold several pages open at the same time and still see each of them properly! Maybe for me - a girl who does like a bit of nice stationery - Google Calendar's great downside is that it will never have a cover sporting a witty phrase by Ben or a beautiful illustration by Gaëlle Boissonnard!!