My life is a dang mess. I'm in production for four shows, rehearsing a fifth show, and running the props rental here at the theater. Its actually manageable, but its one of those things where I have 10 very small (but very important) meetings every day. So when someone asks me if we can meet at 4pm, I have to consult five schedules (either paper or find them in my emails) and merge them in my brain.
I put google calendar on my phone, but it takes so long to enter all the data, and then a similar amount of time to retrieve that data.
I want an app that easily lets me add events so I can whip out my phone and look at the next few days in a jiffy. It has to be quick. Maybe even hit a button and use voice commands.
I have an android, but would consider another phone (time to upgrade anyway). I really don't want an iPhone. I've had two and I detest them with a passion. Siri is the dumbest bitch I have ever met. But if a windows phone or google phone is better at this sort of thing I'll consider it. Most of my life is google and windows anyway. I don't mind paying a little for an app if it works well.
If you have your phone set up with a google account, it should sync with your PC, tablet etc. so you can get access to your calendar no matter what device you're using; probably irrelevant if you only use the phone.
I think it's a bit quicker to enter events on a computer than an android, but my Galaxy 4 will remember what you type and give options to autofill, which would speed things up if you're entering the same meeting name or location multiple times.
I'm curious if the user interface changes depending on WHICH android you're using, though - maybe a newer/different phone would help? I've only had Samsung phones for a couple years (mainly Galaxy S4s, and wife has a ridiculously large Note something or other, not the IED model, though)
I don't use it, but you can use voice to enter text. No clue if it's easier/faster or not.
I can use Google Calendar with voice commands on my android phone, you may want to consider an upgrade to a phone running Android 6 (Marshmallow). Also, you can type something along the lines of "remind me to do this at 7pm" in the Google search bar and it will set the reminder correctly.
I hate to admit any affinity for cloud based internet overlords offering free services in return for your internet soul... but Google calendar is hard to beat. Just use odd abbreviations for everything so they can't target you with ads for things you have meetings about unless the idea of getting ads for coffins after scheduling an appt. with a lawyer to swear out a will is your cup of tea.
I did enter some of my appointments on my desktop google calendar last night. One of my five rehearsal schedules took me nearly an hour. That would mean 5 hours for all of them, plus my personal schedule, plus theater meetings.
I will try the voice thing. What I really need is to not have to pause life to enter a calendar event. For instance last night. We were striking the set of our holiday show. I was up on a ladder taking lighting instruments down while talking with the Set Designer on speaker phone with my Lighting Designer on the stage listening and coordinating a meeting for today. All the while I'm directing cast members to help with striking the set in time to be out of the venue by 6pm. If I just hang up the phone, I'll forget about the meeting. My choices are to either pause work and manually open the app, type in the meeting time, description, and all that crap... or what I would LIKE to do is hit a hotkey button and say (for example): "hey [calendar app], schedule 'meeting with Travis' at 5:15 tomorrow." That takes 5 seconds and one finger.
You should be able to do exactly that. I just told my phone "Meeting wednesday at 1:30" and it created the event for me and prompted me for a title. I can just hit accept with no title as well.
'meeting with Travis' at 5:15 tomorrow' should work with zero manual entry. It actually says "do you want to save this" and you can respond "yes" to accept.
Granted, I don't know what happens if you already have something schedule for that time slot. Edit: It will let you create meetings that overlap without warning you. There may be an option for this, but I'm not sure.
Curtis said:
... or what I would LIKE to do is hit a hotkey button and say (for example): "hey [calendar app], schedule 'meeting with Travis' at 5:15 tomorrow." That takes 5 seconds and one finger.
Actually, you can do this with No Fingers if you want.
Activate the "Okay Google..." feature and the whole thing can be voice prompts.
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Ok. Had a friend help me activate that feature and I think it might work. Thanks guys.
These "virtual assistant" functions are the very thing these home based units are designed around.
I find myself using the voice/speaking function more and more for things I do not want to type.
It is easier to just ask, "how many cups are in 2.5 quarts?" than it is to type it.
Often while cooking, I'll just tell the phone to, "set a timer for 18 minutes." etc.
In construction you can just ask it, "how many centimeters are in 8 ft" or whatever.
When you are done with that, ask it to, "play ZZ top" and it will
