Social Coordinator

I think my new job title should be household social coordinator. This duty has always been part of my job description, but with the first weeks of (unofficial) summer upon us I feel as though it has suddenly become my primary responsibility. Between scheduling playdates for my kids, girls nights out for myself, family excursions, and summertime appointments, I feel like my head is spinning with dates, times, and places.

Flickr Creative Commons, H. Michael Karshis

Can anyone else relate? Am I the only one whose groups of friends all seem to require 57 emails back and forth on any topic before any decisions are made?

So how do I keep track of it all? 2 things: Gmail and a readily available calendar.

I have tried lots of different calendar systems, and I change my calendar preferences on a fairly regular basis, but the one thing that helps me the most is Gmail. I make almost all plans via email- if someone asks me about something while I'm out and about I ask them to email me with details. That way I can check my calendar before committing. It's also nice for reference- dates and addresses are in writing in a reliable location instead of scribbled onto a scrap of paper lost in the bottom of my purse.

But the reason Gmail specifically works so well for me is the way it organizes messages into conversations. It's something I never knew that I wanted or needed until I switched, and now I can't live without it.  My experience with other email providers is that when a group of people are emailing back and forth on a topic it can easily turn into one big hot mess. Whenever someone hits reply or reply all to an email, Gmail will group them together and allow you to easily read all incoming messages, from all sources, in the order that they were sent. It takes up 1 line in your inbox instead of 57.

The number in parenthesis is the total number of emails in that conversation so you can see how these particular messages were much easier to keep track of all in one place instead of scattered throughout 2 pages of emails. Unread emails in a conversation appear in bold and when you open up a conversation, only the unread emails will appear in full form unless you click to display them.

I do have a non-gmail email account as well, and whenever I use it, it drives me crazy, so I think before too long I'm going to have to create myself yet another google account. (I already have two!)
Is anyone else as much of a google addict as I am?