Outlook 365 HELP! Calendar Craziness!

[CWM330]

I was using Fastmail, but getting that " International fee" tacked on to my bill every month made it more expensive, so I moved both accounts to Exchange.

I need help understanding the calendar.

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong? Why is it creating TEAMS CALLS for all of our appointments?

I just need a basic calendar that will remind BOTH OF US 2 hours before an appointment and then remind us again 1 hour before by email.

But instead, my calendar is doing THIS:

https://imgur.com/a/irE63y2

The BLUE entries are right... That's the actual shared calendar
But if you click on the yellow, it's a total different calendar that says teams call, and gives you a user name and password
Then I have grey entries on some that says CANCELED?

HELP!!!!!!!

Thanks!

PS... I manually retyped all of our calendar entries from Fastmail to OWA Calendar. If that helps any?

 

[John Ismyname]

(Note: this is for desktop outlook - not O365 nor OWA Calendar)
Hi Chris; In Outlook you can have multiple calendars (and multiple task folders, multiple contact lists). Outlook has "views" that allow you to display composites of these. The view in your screenshot is a composite of two (or more) calendars. To change this, click the View menu tab and then click the Overlay button (in the Arrangement grouping). This should cause both calendars to display side by side.

To delete a duplicate calendar, select the checkbox beside it, right click and click "Delete Calendar". (see pic).

I do not like shared calendars as they are more trouble than they are worth. If there is a "mutual event" I want someone to attend and/or know about, I use email to convey it to them. Conversely, if someone invites me to an event, I ask for an email from them. In Outlook, you can drag-and-drop this into your Outlook calendar.

I applaud your level of personal organization to put "change toothbrushes" into Outlook. Here is how I do such things;
In Outlook-Contacts, I have GTD "Context Lists" all start with "@" @Monthly, @Quarterly @ Yearly. I'm going to put "change toothbrushes" on my @Quarterly list. I also note how long it takes to do this list. It doesn't take long to chage toothbrushes It doesn;t take long to chnage the furnace filters but these things add up. Also, I make need to add the consumables to my shopping list (@supermarket or @hardware-store)

In my Outlook-Calendar, I schedule a reoccurring appointment to execute this list on the first Saturday of every quarter. This event is an all-day event. The time usage is "Free". However you may want to change the particular occurrence to a scheduled time as you execute it. My quarterly list takes me an estimated 30 minutes to execute. Not a lot of time on a Saturday but - these things add up!

Another method is to have a separate Outlook-task list called "Admin-tasks". This task list is for mundane, reoccurring tasks I don't want to waste time thinking about. Your Outlook "TO DO List" is a composite of all your task lists. The advantage of this is such tasks do not clutter your calendar view. For example, an admin-task for me today is to run my water-softner. This will take less than a minute normally and up to three minutes if I have to add a bag of softner salt. I do not want my calendar clutetred with this.

 

[CWM330]

I applaud your level of personal organization to put "change toothbrushes" into Outlook. Here is how I do such things;
In Outlook-Contacts, I have GTD "Context Lists" all start with "@" @Monthly, @Quarterly @ Yearly. I'm going to put "change toothbrushes" on my @Quarterly list. I also note how long it takes to do this list. It doesn't take long to chage toothbrushes It doesn;t take long to chnage the furnace filters but these things add up. Also, I make need to add the consumables to my shopping list (@supermarket or @hardware-store)

@John Ismyname :

Lol.. Thank you... But I don't understand what you're saying I should do?

Our Shared Calendar is 100 % Drs Appointments since I don't drive.. We share a calendar to where we dont accidently book an appointment on the same day someone else has an appointment.

 

[CWM330]

Another method is to have a separate Outlook-task list called "Admin-tasks". This task list is for mundane, reoccurring tasks I don't want to waste time thinking about. Your Outlook "TO DO List" is a composite of all your task lists. The advantage of this is such tasks do not clutter your calendar view. For example, an admin-task for me today is to run my water-softner. This will take less than a minute normally and up to three minutes if I have to add a bag of softner salt. I do not want my calendar clutetred with this.

@John Ismyname :

So I should create a separate calendar for Household chores and then leave the shared calendar for Dr's appointments?

If I was to do it this way, is there a way to send my mom a reminder email since that " HOUSEHOLD" calendar wouldn't be shared?

Thanks!

 

[John Ismyname]

@John Ismyname :

Lol.. Thank you... But I don't understand what you're saying I should do?

Our Shared Calendar is 100 % Drs Appointments since I don't drive.. We share a calendar to where we dont accidently book an appointment on the same day someone else has an appointment.

Hi Chris; If your shared-calendar system with your spouse works for you, that is great! if it ain't broke, don't fix it

There is probably a way in Outlook to auto-send an email reminder on a scheduled basis (through a macro). I'd set up a re-ocurring Outlook task for the day before to email my Mom.

"So I should create a separate calendar for Household chores and then leave the shared calendar for Dr's appointments?"
Yes, I do! Your doctor appointments are 'hard-scheduled' - you are committed to being there and there are consequences if you are not there. Conversely, if you don't so your household chores on your scheduled time, there are theoretically no consequences.

However, you still gotta do your household chores.

That's why I use a separate calendar for 'soft-scheduled' appointments that are all set to reoccur infinitely. My "household chores" appointment is every Saturday 9am - noon. I could copy this over to my 'hard appointment' calendar anytime from Friday night to Sunday night depending on what "social offers" present themselves. Basically, the latest I can start this is Sunday at 7pm.

 

[CWM330]

Hi Chris; If your shared-calendar system with your spouse works for you, that is great! if it ain't broke, don't fix it

@John Ismyname My Mother, not spouse. lol