Scheduling Snafu

By Anita Hamilton

I've always been suspicious of filofax fanatics. After all, do you really need to schedule an appointment to pick up your dry cleaning? And if you can't remember whom you're having dinner with on Friday night, was the date really worth making in the first place? I like to keep things simple. But not everyone appreciates my footloose approach to life. My roommate gives me the evil eye when I forget to call the cleaning lady, and I just got slapped with a $30 fee for paying my Visa bill a few days late.

Feeling guilty, I decided to put my life in order using one of those free calendars on the Web that have been getting so much press on the business pages lately. I looked at jump.com (which Microsoft purchased last week) and the calendar on yahoo. com, but all those blank spaces made me feel like a scheduling failure. How could I ever fill them with enough meetings, deadlines and appointments to do them justice? But when.com (which was purchased a couple of weeks ago by America Online) was different. In addition to a generic calendar, it offers an events directory that lists upcoming TV shows, movies, book releases, sporting events, live Web chats, even quarterly earnings updates for my investments. Hmmm, if I could schedule a reminder to buy that new Tom Petty CD, maybe I'd notice that my rent check was due the same day. It might even be fun.

Getting started was relatively painless. I logged on to the when.com website, set up a secure ID and password and was ready to start entering appointments. Since the first day of my newly organized life was a Friday, the first order of business was, um, pleasure. I found the movie listings easily enough, but had to drill down several levels for the reviews, and unfortunately there was no way to scan recommended films or buy tickets online. I could see which books were just released and read reviews from a link to barnesandnoble.com but couldn't get a list of upcoming titles. On the other hand, I was able to send a note to my mother reminding her that a new Sarah Brightman CD was in stores. And the daily horoscope was pleasantly flattering. It predicted compatibility with my boss and potential mates; it even used my birth date, time and city to give a detailed, personal reading.

Sounds silly, but it was enough to get me to check my calendar each day. Once I'd had my fun, I started entering real appointments. I signed up for weekly classes at the gym for the next year. I scheduled the cleaning lady to come every two weeks. I even astonished my roommate by firing off an e-mail reminder to clean up for the cleaning lady. But then I had trouble. For two days, the website wouldn't come up on my Mac at work. One day my horoscope didn't show up, and another day the local weather report (usually in the screen's upper right corner) was missing. The novelty was wearing thin, and I was back to Post-it notes for writing down appointments.

I really wanted to like when.com because someone there seemed to understand that people's lives are about much more than deadlines and dentist appointments. But I can't spend endless hours futzing with a finicky website. And my local entertainment magazine beats the Web hands down for event listings. As for the horoscope--well, I'll miss that.

Questions for Anita? Send her e-mail at [email protected] She'll give answers to selected questions in an upcoming issue