Sharing your family calendar.

I often talk here and other places about why most of us wish to be more productive. It is usually a "who" that is part of the answer. I recently had a chance to go to NY and see my family for the first time in almost two years. Not only was it relaxing but recharging. In that visit I met a Sister that I have only had a chance to speak with over the phone or WhatApp. We all need fuel in this life. For many of us, our loved ones can help us fill up the tank. I hope we each get a chance to connect with those that are important to us over the coming weeks. The last almost two years has taught us all one lesson.  Today is real.  The conversation you have with someone today is real. What happened yesterday is a "racket" we create to mask our hurt. Thank you all for being part of TBT. Over the coming days stay tuned for news I have to share with you. I'm excited. 
I was asked recently about setting up a family calendar so everyone could stay in touch with each other. It was so long ago since our family broached this topic, that I had to go back and think about it. My response is focused around those of us that have google emails and calendars. I know there are outlook, yahoo, apple and others out there. but this is strictly gmail users.
 
The responses are in two camps: 

Create a unique email address ( A calendar is created with each gmail account creation.). It could be something like "WilsonFamllyX@gmail.com

Sharing your current calendars with your household.

Some Pros and Cons for each 

Unique One Calendar

Pros:

One unified spot.

Sharing is visible for all.
 
Personal Calendars stay intact.

Cons:

Google's two factor authentication system means someone and someone's account (like a YouTube or device) has to be constantly validate the users and where they wish to view the calendar. 

Creates a new set of tasks for the family members to integrate the calendar into to tools and devices that they use. 

Creates another group of tasks on how often each person accesses the calendar. Some of us use calendars more constantly than others. 

Sharing our current calendar

Pros:

Easy to share (Go to your current calendar on a browser, invite the family member, and give them privileges).

Transparency.
 
Doesn't impact your google set up.

Cons:

Can create redundant entries. If you have a big family it could be weird to see five instances of "date night." 

All may have to be in the same system for full functionality. I'll admit, I haven't tried with someone outside of Google. I know this can be done in each ecosystem. Microsoft and outlook do it quite easily for those on the same platform. 

The frequency of accessing the calendar can still be issue if others look at it more regularly. 

   I've dabbled in some other systems in the way back past. One that we tried was called Cozi Family Organizer. It was cool, but it was trying to replace my entire system and it having my whole family on one productivity system wasn't good for me (nor them). I use a tool called Notion for Content Creation and some database management. You can link your calendar in the views, but to me that defeats the purpose. Notion is great for collaboration. There is a new tool called Craft that purports to be a dashboard of our entire system. I haven't delved deep in that one yet so make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel and I will do a video on that in the future. Have an awesome weekend and take care of you and yours. -WW
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https://www.cozi.com
https://www.notion.so
https://www.craft.do