If you're looking for ways to drive yourself insane . . .

. . . I highly recommend trying to figure out the perfect permutation and combination of free online calendaring/reminder services. I thought I had really done something when I combined Jott with Sandy yesterday afternoon. But then Sandy didn't wake me up with a text message this morning like she promised she would. So the search was on again.

I had no idea at all there were so many online things you could use to keep yourself organized. Getting organized is a super tricky balance. You want enough organization so you show up when and where you're supposed to with all your i's dotted and t's crossed, but not so much organization that either you don't show up when you're supposed to because you're futzing with your organizational tools or haven't futzed with them properly (there were the three or four meetings last August that I missed because my computer didn't realize we had crossed time zones to New York) or you don't show up because you're too overwhelmed by your organizational tools to use them (I had a DayTimer in the early '90's. It was a great system, but when I tried to start using the software with the paper system, I ended up in a corner rocking backing forth and humming "Pressure.").

So here's what I looked at today:

Jott in combination with Google Calendar (which I already use quite a bit and love)
This had promise but lacked a to-do list within Google Calendar. I wanted to add things to my to-do list via Jott (which sends you e-mails via a voice mail) without having to actually look at Jott for the online version of the list. I was pretty sure that would send me to the corner to rock.

Cozi
I almost chunked the whole Jott/Google Calendar thing for Cozi. It's meant to be an online calendar for families and includes a shopping list feature that I thought would be incredibly handy. You and whomever else might participate in your household shopping could assemble the list together (but separately) and then you could print the master list for the store. Even better, when you left the printed master list at home, you could call a toll-free number and have the list text-messaged to you on your cell phone. Funny story: My husband was at the store one afternoon grocery shopping (or "food shopping" as it seems to be called in the northeast), and I called him to add a couple of things to the list. His phone rang right next to me at the dining room table. So I drove it to him at the store, found him strolling the the aisles, handed the phone to him, and then called him and said, "we also need pasta." I'm just saying, a smart shopping list catches my attention. Ultimately, the prospect of moving my calendar from Google to Cozi started to overwhelm me (". . . and you cannot deal with PRESSURE . . .").

Jott in combination with Sandy and Google Calendar
Do I even need to describe the tailspin that this combination started to put me in? ("Sandy, can't you see, I'm in misery . . .")

Jott in combination with Google Calendar and Remember the Milk
This was the one that carried the day. Remember the Milk is a to-do list, but it's a really, really smart to-do list. And you can add it to Google Calendar, so I had my calendar/to-do list combo. Then I added in Jott so I could call my calendar/to-do list combo and add things to either one via my cell phone.

One of the other things you can do with Jott is to blog with it. Sometime this week I'm going to Jott a blog entry just to see how it works. I added a lunch appointment to my calendar this morning with mixed results. Jott correctly added an appointment on the right day and time with the right person, but instead of "Lunch with John Smith," it said, "Watch John Smith." It was a little unnerving because I wasn't sure what had just happened. I had an image of someone in the Jott office in India saying to himself, "Oh dear, she's having lunch with John Smith. Better watch that guy."

So what did I learn about teaching today? Well, I learned a lot of things about different calendaring systems, so I can make some informed recommendations to my students. And I remembered that learning a new, complicated skill can push you to the brink. I think that's a good experience for law professors to have periodically. Scares a little empathy into you.