Paper Diary vs Online Calendar

[Sarah Goss]

I’m just wondering whether other gigging harpists favor a paper planner or an online calendar (google calendar or similar)? I’ve always used a paper diary because I find it easier to check when I’m talking to a client on the phone but am I being terribly old fashioned? Also I worry about losing it – at least a digital one would be backed up right? I would love to know what works for everyone else. Thanks!

• This topic was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Sarah Goss.

[catherine-rogers]

I have a large, 5-year calendar but also keep a calendar on my phone. The paper calendar has my husband’s jobs and mine, so we know who is busy and when, and it has other things like birthdays, vacation, etc. The phone calendar is mainly my jobs with contact information and other things I personally have to do. I keep the paper calendar forever in case I need to look back to see when something was done. It’s a useful resource.

[Alyson Webber]

For a calendar, my husband and I have linked our Google calendars so that we always know if one of us is busy. No paper.

I’ve recently been struggling with related problem. Up until this year, I have always had a full time job and just did harp work through word-of-mouth and wasn’t very busy. Now that I’m a stay at home mom, I’m actively pursuing work and getting it. Not super busy yet, but I want to have a good system in place to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. From keeping track of who hasn’t sent in their contact to what songs the bride wants and what they prefer I wear, there is a lot of information that each event needs that I don’t want to mess up.

A simple spreadsheet seems ungainly, I’d love a database or something that works on Android systems. If not, I’d love to hear how other busy freelance harpists keep it all together.

[Elettaria]

I really like the DigiCal app, which hooks up with your Google Calendar but gives you extra functionality. I’m not a professional harpist, just for regular use. I know a lot of people with very complicated schedules who swear by Google Calendar.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Having experienced internet outages, and not to mention power outages, of course you need to keep your calendar on paper.

[Sarah Goss]

Thanks all for your comments – it seems that everyone has their own way of doing things. Saul Davis Zlatkovski – I suppose the techies amongst us could counter that a paper diary is just one copy that could get lost or destroyed whereas online info is backed up. I felt the same way about switching from gig books to iPad and now I’m very happy I made the change. For what it’s worth I’m sticking to a paper diary for now because I find it too annoying to enter info on google calendar and retrieve it when I’m on the phone, plus the diary never gets a flat battery! As for booking management Alyson Webber, I keep my signed contracts in a ring binder and write related info on them then I have something to take to the gig with me and then keep on file afterwards. I keep a list contracts pending return although I don’t often use it, usually there is another enquiry for the date that prompts me to chase and to be honest almost everyone returns them promptly (no contract = no booking!).

[Alyson Webber]

I just stared trying Evernote to keep track of my gigs. I make a “notebook” for each gig and have notes inside about date, location, music, contacts, etc. It syncs between all of the devices I have Evernote installed, so I have access to it on multiple platforms. It even has the ability to handwrite notes. Since I usually handwrite things while talking with clients, I hope this feature will be useful. We’ll see how it goes!

[Sarah Goss]

Sounds great Alyson – will you let me know how you get on with it? Don’t suppose it syncs to ForScore setlists?

[healthyharp]

I have a day job and am not super busy with gigs, but I’ve been using Google Calendar and Google drive.

Here’s how I handle this:

In Google drive, I keep a document for each gig.
In Google calendar, I have two sub-calendars, one private and one public.I have a copy of the public calendar embedded in my webpage/blog, and on the private calendar, I can actually attach the google drive document with all the details about the gig.

This means that on my phone, each gig shows up twice, but I can live with that. The public event lists the actual times of the gig, and has a little bit of description for anyone interested in the event. The private calendar includes the link to my google docs page, the actual call time I have to be there, and anything else that the public shouldn’t know, like contact names and numbers.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I use both Google Calendar and a big paper calendar. The main thing is to write your events and appointments into both, so there is no confusion! I like being able to see the paper one at a glance, and in case my files somehow crash.

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