Organize the schedule

After you get the basic parts of the schedule blocked out, you can add more details as you go along and send updates to keep everyone in the loop.

In this event, I added a contact name and some other details. Let’s send the update and click Yes to close the message.

Next, to make sure everyone gets the new information, select Send updates to all attendees.

As we add more information, we can switch from Month view to a view that shows more detail. Click Week.

To view the personal calendar, check it in the folder list. With both selected, you get a side-by-side view.

There are a couple of other ways to view multiple calendars. Go to the VIEW tab and click Overlay.

This superimposes the calendars, so you can quickly see where you have conflicts.

You may also want to click Schedule View, which moves the week to a horizontal timeline.

Click Working Hours until it is not highlighted to view events that occur outside normal working hours.

Let’s click Week to go back to week view and add another layer of detail to the calendar.

On the VIEW tab, click Daily Task List and Normal.

And this section at the bottom of the calendar opens, where we can insert daily tasks.

As with appointments and meetings, a task doesn’t have to be a task; it can be any kind of reminder, or to-do item connected to a time.

Click below a day and start typing.

Tasks are very similar to appointments.

In fact, if you find that a task is easier to visualize as a block of time, you can quickly convert it.

For example, we can take this Reminder to drive to Santa Fe and drag it to the calendar.

And adjust the handle at the bottom of the Appointment to cover the time it will take for the drive.

To see all the things you can do with a task, double-click it.

As you can see, instead of Start and End times, tasks have Start and Due dates.

Since we are just using a task as a reminder, the two dates are the same.

But you could create a task for writing a novel, for example, with a due date two years in the future.

Then, as you worked on the task, you could update the Status, Priority, and Percent Complete options, and add details, even attachments.

Here is something we can use for our tour planning.

When you add a task or to-do item, you become the owner of it by default.

But you can assign that task to another person by clicking Assign Task.

Just enter a name on the To line.

Even though you are delegating the item to an associate, you can keep an updated copy in your task list and receive a status report when it is completed.

Add a message if you want and click Send to send the task.

The recipient of the task opens the email. If they Accept the task, it is added to their task list.

They can click to Send the response right away or Edit the response first. And click OK.

When you finish a task, you can mark the task as complete by clicking the flag icon.

The task is cleared from the daily task list in the calendar, but you can view it and all your tasks, by clicking Tasks in the navigation bar and To-Do List in the folder list.

Completed tasks have a line through them.

Here are a few more things you may find useful: Creating your own to-do list and categorizing personal tasks.

Right-click To-Do List, and click New Folder.

You could create a Tour folder to keep tour-related tasks separate from your personal tasks.

We don’t need to do this because we’ll be using the Daily Task list in the calendar.

However, I’ll use categories. Select a task, click Categorize, and choose a color.

Now, I can quickly locate my personal tasks.

We have used the calendar and task tools to set up a promotional tour.

But the tour will only be a success, if everyone on the tour team is on the same page. Up next, we’ll share the calendar.