I use Outlook sometimes synchronized with Google -- but I turn off the reminder feature unless it's something super important because I can't stand something coming up on my screen when I am trying to concentrate on something else.

No matter how clean my house is, I still feel that way about people coming over. When I was a kid, my parents were sort of like this - we had to hide if someone knocked at the door, in case it was a bill collector or the house was messy.