A couple months ago, I ran into a friend of mine at Hillside. I hadn’t seen her in a while, so I proposed dinner plans at some point that week.
“I’d love to,” she responded. “But let me check my GCal …”
In seconds, her computer was open, and Google Calendar (colloquially referred to as GCal) was pulled up. From a distance, her screen could be mistaken for a losing game of Tetris, numerous colors and shapes flowing into another with little space between them.
I was in shock. How could it be possible to have that many classes and meetings? My eyes couldn’t help but snoop to a few of the scheduled events’ titles.
“Nap.” “Call Grandma.” “Dinner with Lulu.”
I rarely use GCal, but when I do, it’s to remind myself of an out of the ordinary event, like meeting with my advisor or an interview for a club. The concept of blocking out an entire day, down to napping and calling mom, blew my mind.
As I walked out of Hillside, my phone buzzed with an email from Google Calendar. “Invitation: Dinner with Elizabeth @ Lower. 7-8 p.m.” Accompanying it was a question with three options: “Attending? Yes. No. Maybe.”
I was inclined to hit no, solely because of how outlandish I felt it was to send such a formal invite. But I begrudgingly accepted, then showed up to Lower at 7 p.m.—in business casual for my meeting.
Since that interaction, I have noticed how deep GCal culture runs at Boston College. Everywhere I look, students are adding, removing, and rescheduling mundane tasks in their GCal. More and more, young people are relying on Google Calendar to bring structure to their days. I admire the dedication it takes and the effectiveness it might promote in getting things done, but I can’t help but feel sad at the lack of free will I’m observing.
It seems that once an event is in the GCal, it is happening. When I compel my more organized friends to impulsively join me for an activity, they longingly stare at their GCal with guilt in moving “gym” from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
I can admire the pros of GCaling your day down to the minute, but does it not remove the joy of making spontaneous decisions? I approach most of my days with a skeleton of a schedule. I have a rough idea of what work I have to do, maybe some tentative lunch plans, and I’ll go to the gym if I feel like it.
As the day goes on, I revel in my unplanned encounters, like bumping into professors at the Rat for an impromptu lunch, or spotting an old friend across the quad and yelling, “MEET ME AT THE CHOCOLATE BAR AFTER CLASS!”
I find that these moments are the highlights of my day. Keeping my schedule clear keeps things exciting. It allows me to see how I’m feeling, then make a decision based on that. Who am I in the mood to see right now? What am I craving? Am I tired? It feels healthy to have the freedom of decision, especially in college where freedom is one of our most important assets. I still subscribe to the lost art of going off of vibes.
Before I wrote this piece, I attempted to embrace GCal culture to see if it fostered productivity and truly did make life easier, like the loyal users claim. I wanted so badly to have my life changed, where I was suddenly a machine capable of anything my GCal commanded me, but alas.
By the third day, I had already rescheduled “laundry” six times and was ridden with nothing but guilt in doing so. I also felt constricted—I missed the art of spontaneity that I love so much. I realized that I will never be capable of the level of pre-planning that goes into obsessively GCal-ing, because I get so much joy from impromptu plans.
During this experiment, I even sent a friend of mine a GCal invite for dinner, six days in advance. I received back a concise and powerful email consisting of “Wtf” and a notification from Google Calendar that the invitation had been declined. And we did not end up having dinner.
Deep down, I think I’m writing this out of envy. I have no doubt I would be a lot more productive if I was cut out to be a subscriber of GCal culture. You guys are the ones that keep the world turning. You exist to keep us Type-B amateurs in line. Still, though—chill out a bit. Throw “do nothing” on the GCal if you must, but I’d hate to see the art of spontaneity get lost. In the meantime, I’ll try to meet in the middle. An occasional GCal isn’t too bad. I really can’t afford to reschedule laundry again, and I’m sure the reminder to call my grandmother wouldn’t hurt.
Leave a Reply