by Bill Caswell

What does it mean to “Socialize Your Calendar”?

I am willing to bet that by posing this question to five different people, you will get five different answers. Fair enough, and in the world of Internet-hype where everything is labeled with the word, “social” this or “socialize” that, dare we use the word at all without incurring someone’s wrath? Let’s try and see what happens.

I use my calendar as an itinerary of how I plan to spend my time. From the simple haircut to the complex party planning which is a social gathering, I use my calendar to track nearly everything that I do. I must admit to being a bit of a scatterbrain with too many things pulling at me, so if I don’t record an event or task somewhere, I’m likely to forget to pick up the dry cleaning or the kids may end up staying the night on a soccer field. Just kidding on picking up the dry cleaning.

My calendar knows what I am doing along with the when, where, how long, who I am doing it with, and even how the event was added to my calendar. So now that I am doing my part by diligently recording my schedule, I want more from my calendar.

I want a smarter calendar. If I show up at a restaurant and my reservations have mysteriously vanished, I want suggestions on alternate eateries with openings. If I am running late for a meeting, I want to let everyone in attendance know my new ETA with just one click from within my calendar. I am attending a concert and the main lot is full or simply overpriced, where is the next closest or cheapest parking lot? I’m standing in the middle of a soccer field in an unfamiliar town with 15 other parents and 20 kids and we have three hours to kill between games, I want my calendar to know that this event involves children and to suggest kid friendly choices for food – hey, I’ll even take some discounts or coupons for said eateries.

I am having some friends over for a potluck next week and I don’t want to use another website to plan the event, I want to use my everyday calendar app. I want to be able to have a conversation from within the event with everyone that is attending so that we can finalize the details such as, who is bringing what? I want the weather forecast to automatically show up in the event details so that I dress properly for the climate.

Since my calendar represents how I am spending my time, which in turns represents how I socialize, I want my calendar to help out a bit more. There is a lot of room for improvement. The Timecrunch team is working hard to close the gap. Check it out at www.timecrunch.me and let us know.