What calendar are you using, and how?

[zaqq]

Title: What calendar are you using, and how?

After 13 years of being married to a paper Franklin Planner, and a few attempts at moving to a digital calendar/reminding system, I visited a friend this past weekend, and saw him work iCal like a Command Center For Life. I was blown away how he used it to brainstorm his week, set reminders/timers, look over his whole year as a perspective, etc. I was green with envy!

I'd always thought that if I did eventually move to a software day planner system, I'd use the one in Entourage. There's something about "seamless integration" that is like a holy grail of computing to me. But I have to admit, my few feeble attempts at working with it never felt easy. It didn't feel like a program to use for seeing the big picture.

So now I want to ask you eRage experts: to those who fully use a software day planner in OS X, what program are you using? Even more, can you give me a sense of how you are using it? For instance, if a friend calls you and tells you to call him at 2:30pm, what keyboard/mouse actions do you do that quickly set up a timer/reminder? Or, at the beginning of the month (or week), how to you view "your life" via your calendar system? Also, if you have switched to iCal, is there any 'seamlessness' that you left behind by having your Address book/email program on one app, and your calendar/life planner on another?

When I was on top of my Franklin day planner, it felt as if, every time I was using it, it was the Command Center of my goals and dreams. After seeing my friend work iCal, I want to get back to that feeling again. Thanks for any input.

Scott