The Calendar is Dead

… long live the Google Calendar.

tl;dr: FollowUp.cc’s Google Calendar integration is my biggest time saver and the reason I’m using a Calendar at all. If you haven’t integrated your calendar with FollowUp.cc yet, you’re missing out.

I’ve never used a calendar until I started using FollowUp.cc. There, I said it. When I say calendar, I mean any type of calendar… whether it be online, native to my OS, or physical. Well… I did buy physical calendars at one point, but just for the pictures.

Why FollowUp.cc? Why do you use one now?

Entering items into your calendar is SLOW

I spend most of my time in my inbox, and when I want to schedule a meeting, I have to leave my inbox and create a calendar entry. That takes a lot of time. Double click, un-select “All day”, choose a time, add a description, etc. Those are enough steps to turn me off to using it completely.

With FollowUp.cc’s Google Calendar integration, it’s as easy as sending an email. I can just compose a new email, put the date in the TO field, the event name in the subject, send, and… DONE. I forward existing emails to dates at followup.cc almost as often as I compose new ones.

Content is King, but CONTEXT is Queen

In the past, I’ve created calendar entries manually and named the event something like “Call with John”. Come time for the call… wait. Which John? What are we talking about? I have absolutely NO context unless I take the time to enter in a lengthy event name and description. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

When I forward an email to 2weeks@followup.cc for example, the “subject” of the email is the event name, and the “body” of the email is the event description. DONE. Now when I open the calendar entry, I know exactly which John I’ve been emailing back and forth with and exactly “what” we’ve been discussing. Instant context.

Happily Synced

If you cancel a reminder, it gets deleted from your calendar. If you edit the body of your reminder, it updates on the calendar. If you update the item on your calendar, it updates the reminder on FollowUp.cc. No matter how you edit the reminder or calendar entry, everything is always in sync.

I almost missed a Sale

I was sending an email from a train, and we just pulled into the station. I knew I had to follow up with the lead, but I didn’t have time to enter the calendar entry. Instead, I put “1month@followup.cc” in the BCC field, shot the email out, and forgot about it. One month later, the entire conversation comes back to me, and a huge wave of relief came over me. Sure enough, I followed up and I ended up closing the deal. After I got off the train, I spent a week with my kids, and there was absolutely no way I would have remembered to follow up with that lead. FollowUp.cc to the rescue.

I hope those examples help illustrate why this is one of my favorite features. Are there reasons, other than those I listed, that make you love the integration as well? Are there features you like more? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.