Drivin' Me Crazy, Keepin' Me Sane

I’ve never been a very organized person. When external pressures ramp up, internal defenses activate. Lots of “I put that there for a reason” and “I have a system” and “well, I know where things are” start flying and anyone slightly less messy starts to realize there might really be something wrong with me… All this to say that I’d lose my head were it not attached by my neck and the only reason I can remember that I’m supposed to be doing something is because Google has made it easier to add a calendar reminder than it is to be annoyed that I was supposed to be doing something.

A great companion that came along far later than Google Calendar but is just as (if not, more) useful is Google Keep. It’s a very basic note taking app, but if I ever just need to jot something down or make a grocery list, it’s perfect. Being a Google app, it has built in share functionality so the ball and chain doesn’t even have to be bothered with me to let me know their preferred pickup items.

Being able to schedule appointments, create notes, and set reminders on the go has almost become a necessity in most people’s lives and they’re like to forget something important such as paying the utility baby or picking up the bill from daycare. Most people could manage with a native, offline scheduling app or a normal cloud offering (like iCalendar or Google Calendar) and simply use it offline. Unfortunately, we run into a few problems here. First and foremost, just because a program says it’s in “offline mode” desn’t mean it’s offline. It also doesn’t mean the creator doesn’t intend to exfiltrate data once it’s back “online”. Another problem lies in the fact that we actually do want this data to sync somewhere (in the case our device is broken or lost), just not to thirst parties like Apple or Google.

To accomplish this seemingly monumental feat actually only took an afternoon.