It only takes a second to say planning leads to success. In reality, that’s easier said than done. The first step is understanding the importance of planning and adopting a plan that suits you. Most of the time a task management app will help you get started. The secret lies in sticking to your tasks and staying the course.
While task managements apps assist in micro managing your life, a digital calendar is the right tool for all the macro stuff. UPlanMe is a smart calendar that provides you with personalized event suggestions, specials, activities and incentives based on your specific interests in sports, music, restaurants, nightlife, shopping and television. Interested yet?
Overview
UPlanMe finds your favorite events, TV shows, sales & specials and lets you add them to your calendar in just one click. This means no more scouring the web for ideas to spend for you. UPlanMe is the first and last place you need to go to find events worthy of your calendar. Are you someone who already uses Outlook, iCal or Google Calendar to keep track of your busy week? Great! UPlanMe syncs seamlessly with your existing calendars too.
Signing Up
Sign Up Promise
UPlanMe offers and promotes signing up using your Facebook account. They promise not misuse the details they collect, but for those not willing to share their social account information, there is a standard sign up form as well. I would suggest you take the standard sign up form route because even after allowing them unfettered access to my Facebook account, I was forced to fill up a full blown sign up form.
Discovering Events
UPlanMe will take you through three steps to better understand you. In the first step you will be asked to select the events that your are interested to attend. Events from a variety of categories are listed and you can cycle through the categories by clicking on the neatly labelled tabs. Use the drop down at the top right corner to filter events by location.
Discovering Events
Choose only those events that align with your interests, because based on your selections, the app will suggest similar ones in the future. In the second step, the app will try to analyze your Facebook account to find your friends and what they are up to in UPlanMe. If none of your friends are available in UPlanMe, you can invite them from this page.
Matching Your Interests
Matching Your Interests
Import your likes from Facebook and select or unlock your favorite restaurants, bars, shops, musicians, sports teams, and television shows on the Interests page so UPlanMe can identify those things you like most. The more you like stuff on Facebook, the better UPlanMe’s algorithm becomes in finding relevant interests for you.
Interests – Categories
The interests database is much more comprehensive than the events DB and you can search it for activities, special events, sales, TV premieres, sporting matches, upcoming concert dates and more to personalize your My Events page.
My Events
My Events Page
My Events page is home to all the events UPlanMe has selected for you based on your interests. From here, you can choose those events and activities you plan to attend. The web app also makes it easier for you to invite friends to join you for a good time by sharing events on Facebook and Twitter or email.
Auto Sync Options
Use the auto sync options drop down menu to automatically sync the UPlanMe calendar with your Outlook, iCal or Google Calendar. Kudos to the developers for ensuring that the calendar is available to users of all OS platforms.
Searching for Events
Search Results
If discovery isn’t for you and are looking for something very specific, try searching for it. Choose the appropriate category that your search belongs to get better results. I searched for Happy Endings under the TV category and got the perfect result. The same keyword yielded a bunch of random results when I didn’t select a category.
Final Thoughts
I didn’t like the way UPlanMe tricks users into signing up using their Facebook accounts, claiming that it is simpler (and to get better recommendations) than the conventional sign up form. That wasn’t true at all and you are asked to fill up the same form no matter what (I checked). The form contains some unusual fields like industry type and income information and they are mandatory requirements too.
As an app reviewer, I see developers resorting to such tactics time and again and I always point it out in the review so that our readers can make an informed decision. This probably is the first time, where the copy promises something that the app clearly fails to deliver. Not the best way to make a first impression and might cast a shadow on an otherwise neatly designed app.
Share Your Thoughts!
How do you organize your life? Are you convinced that apps like UPlanMe can help you plan better?