Time Zone Dilemma Revisited

Now that I am back in my own local, I find that a lot of my iCal appointments are incorrect. Scheduled appointments are now on wrong days and at wrong times. It even said that today was Thursday in my iCal calendar, when it is actually is Wednesday. This is not good when you have important engagements or appointments that you need to attend.

I checked out the System timezone settings and such on all my devices, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPhones and iPads when I arrived home to the new time zone. Content that this would fix everything, I started getting reminder calls from my dentist and doctors for upcoming appointments. When I checked my iCal dates and times, they were all wrong.  So it seemed that something else was wrong.

This morning I checked the iCal preferences under "Advanced" tab and unchecked the option to turn on time zone support.  This helped with displaying the correct day of the week for my calendar.

So, I googled "iCal time zone support" and found a link to an excellent article posted online.  I wanted to share this link: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Understanding_iCal_Time_Zones/
with everyone so that they can have a reference that addresses the time zone issues when traveling.

Enjoy! Thanks Jeff Gamet for a well-written article.

Update: You can benefit from  setting up "Time Zone Support" as ON when traveling if you are setting up phone calls from another location for certain times specified in the other person's time zones (i.e. not the current location's time). The burden of having to specify "floating" for all of your other meetings (e.g meetings where you are currently located) shouldn't outweigh the benefits of being able to set up a meeting in another time zone.

If you are traveling a lot, then ...

(1) Make sure you have turned on Time Zone Support on all your devices and laptops and computers.  On an iPad or iPhone, select Settings> Mail: Contacts, Calendars> Time Zone Support

(2) Whenever you create a new event in iCal, you will notice that there is a new pop-up menu to choose from where you can associate a time zone with your events. IMPORTANT:  you will have to manually choose the appropriate time zone for every one of your appointments.

(3) Then, while you're traveling, in the upper right-hand corner of iCal, there is a global pop-up menu that lets you choose which time zone your entire calendar is currently based in. As long as you have manually edited all of your appointments with the appropriate time zone, you will have an accurate calendar. But if you did not manually choose the right time zone for even a single appointment (or if you forget to change the global pop-up menu while you're browsing your calendar), your appointments will jump around and be very confusing.






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Time Zone Dilemma

Found a great article that is important to read if you are traveling in different timezones.  As I travel from timezone to timezone, I have found that my iCal or Mac Calendar app is messing with my appointment times.  Somehow, an appointment I set for 9AM ends up at a different time when I switch timezones.  For instance, if I set an appointment reminder for an event to attend at 9AM while on the East Coast and I fly a couple of timezones away, I might miss my appointment, as the time in the calendar gets changed.

If you have this problem, be sure to check out this well-written article to understand the settings and way to handle this problem.  We don't want to miss any of our appointments! Tweet

An Out of World Experience - Freelancing and Time Management

Imagine you will be launched into space and you have been given an assignment to build a research facility and a place for space scientists to live on the moon.  You would definitely have to manage your time to accomplish this goal. 

First you would have to estimate how long it would take to complete the task.  Realizing that multiple trips to the moon might be necessary in order to haul supplies, you would need to set aside intervals to accomplish various stages of the project.  Just as an astronaut schedules stages of his mission, freelancers must outline and plan intervals of time to complete projects.

There may be unexpected obstacles that might delay launching on time.  One would need flexible hours to accommodate changes that come up.  Just as an astronaut learns to work under different conditions and surroundings, so should freelancers. Freelancers learn that not all jobs come there way on a 9 to 5 - Monday through Friday schedule, so it becomes necessary to have flexible hours.

The astronaut needs nourishment and exercise to keep up his endurance and well being. This is true for the freelancers as well. Scheduling time for meals, rest, family activities, and exercise is a vital importance in completing any mission.

Astronauts certainly work under isolated conditions.  Freelancers must also learn to work without multitasking too much and with as few distractions as possible; devoting time to finishing the project at hand.

Just as it is important for astronauts to maintain communication, it is also true for freelancers. They must schedule time for telephone conferencing with clients and time to send emails and updates for projects. 

If you look at freelancing projects as out of this world adventures, you will understand the importance of time management in completing those projects on time. Key factors for time management would include determining time to allocate for a project, scheduling deadlines, breaking projects into manageable time intervals, allowing for flexibility of hours, time for self, need for concentration, and time for communication.  Freelancing and time management go hand and hand.  Tweet