How To Subscribe To Google Calendars To Save Time

By: Lori Thayer

Find yourself busy with events, webinars, play dates and more? If can be difficult to keep the calendar straight for all these events, especially when you are creating calendar entries for someone else's events. In this article I'll show you how to subscribe to google calendars to save time and know all the details.

I've recently renewed my love for subscribing to other people's calendars. I am attending a lot of webinars lately to further my education regarding my online business. There are often multiple webinars available each day and they are hard to keep track of.

The company I work with, the Daily Marketing Coach, "DMC", allows members to subscribe to their calendar of events via iCal and Google Calendars.

This is a huge time saver for me and I bet for you as well. Let me show you why and how to set it up.

How To Save Time When You Subscribe To Google Calendars

• No need to create calendar entries for each event you want to attend
  
• No need to create reminders – in google calendar you can set default reminder and notification setting for each calendar you subscribe to. This is very convenient when you subscribe to several calendars but don't only want event notifications for one.
  
• Get event updates automatically. If the event is cancelled or the time is changed your calendar entry will automatically reflect this change. No need for you to do anything. (YES!)

How To Subscribe To Google Calendars

Set up a google calendar. If you've already done this, skip to the next step. Otherwise visit my article, "How To Set Up A Shared Online Family Calendar On Google" for step by step directions on setting up your google calendar.

Find Calendars To Subscribe To

You may already have seem some calendars you can subscribe to. If they have a link next to the calendar like the one shown here you simply need to click the button. On the google calendar page, confirm that you want to subscribe.

Alternately you can add calendars via the Google Calendar interface. Simple click the arrow to the right of "Other calendars", shown below.

The first option is "Add a friend's calendar". If a friend is sharing their calendar publicly you can subscribe to it.

The second option is to "Browse Interesting Calendars". Under this option you can subscribe to holidays for different countries, the schedule of your favorite sports team or other items like the phases of the moon.

You may find you most often use the Add by URL option. Any calendar that can be subscribed to in another application (like iCal) can be subscribed to with Google Calendars. Visit this google help page to find instructions on how to find the URL to subscribe to.

Share your comments on how this article, How To Subscribe To Google Calendars To Save Time, will help you save time.

Holiday Tips: Your Christmas Preparation Cheats

By: Lori Thayer

The holidays are a lot more fun when you leave your stress behind. In this article we'll cover holiday tips to help with your Christmas preparation.

Preparing For Christmas – Holiday tips to guide you through your Christmas prep, starting mid-November.

Your Holiday Planning Budget for Gifts and Celebrations – Spend a few minutes making a plan for your Christmas spending and avoid the January debt woes. Decide ahead of time who you will purchase gifts for, who you will make gifts for and how much you will spend. If you are planning a holiday feast or some special events include those in your budget too.

A Family Holiday With More Fun And Less Stress – Preparation is the key to a stress-free holiday. This article will give you tips to enjoy the time you spend with your family more by being prepared.

Ideas for Homemade Christmas Gifts – Homemade gifts are a great option for those you love as well as co-workers and neighbors. So many of us have more stuff than we need. Consumable items made with your own hands show extra thought and care and are something that can be used and enjoyed.

Christmas Gift Ideas – More holiday tips for gift buying. Throughout the year as you learn of things your friends and family would enjoy as a gift write them down. I keep my notes of this nature in Evernote.

Share your best holiday tips in the comments below. Looking for more tips, watch for our next article on planning for the holiday including decorations, food, guest lists and more.

Interested in more ways to optimize your life? Receive regular tips to be more efficient, save time, enrich your life, and connect with others here: optimize your life.

Lori Thayer is passionate about finding ways to optimize your life so you can live your best life. Don't miss a tip, optimize your life by signing up today.

How To Set Up A Shared Online Family Calendar On Google

By: Lori Thayer

A shared online family calendar will help everyone know what is going on and where people are. We recently discussed how to use and share a family calendar electronically. Today we'll focus on the how to of setting up a shared online family calendar in google.

The first step is to log into your google account. It isn't necessary to have a gmail account to create a google calendar, but gmail is so fabulous you might as well. To go directly to calendars visit http://calendar.google.com.

If you went to the calendar url listed above you will land on the calendar page. To get there from your gmail account simply click on Calendar in the google bar at the top of your page.

Once you are on the Calendar page you will want to create a new calendar that will be the shared online family calendar.

Clicking on create new calendar brings up the screen below.

Enter in the information needed to create your new calendar. Calendar name, timezone and the emails of your family members are the most important items here.

If you have multiple google calendars select a color for the online family calendar to distinguish it from your personal appointments

How could shared online calendars make like easier for your family? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Interested in more ways to optimize your life? Receive regular tips to be more efficient, save time, enrich your life, and connect with others here: optimize your life 

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons 2.0, Images_of_Money

5 Tips To Cut Monthly Bills

By: Lori Thayer

Stop hating to open your mail, cut monthly bills. There are many ways to decrease your monthly bills. Today we'll detail 5 tips to cut monthly bills: pay on time, shop around, decrease waste, cut out the unnecessary and reduce fees.

Always Pay On Time

Pay your bills on or ahead of time to avoid late charges. Paying bills late often become a slippery slope and the fees begin to mount up quickly.

The easiest way to do this is to schedule the payment online immediately upon receiving the bill. Alternately schedule the payments automatically through the service provider or with your bank. In this instance be sure you continue to check the bill each month for any unexpected charges.

Shop around at least once a year

Shop around for better rates on car, home and life insurance. Don't be afraid to shop for a better deal for your mortgage, car loan and banking services as well. These can be more of a hassle to change but the savings might be worth it.

Decrease waste

Wasting less results in saving more.

• Use low flow shower heads to save gallons during a 5 minute shower.
  
• Turn off lights when leaving a room.
• Turn off and unplug electronics that don't need to be left plugged in (most of them).
• Reduce your trash by buying items with less packaging and recycling. If you have to pay for trash pickups or trash overflow this can save a lot.

Cut out the unnecessary

What monthly bills are you paying for but not using. Consider these areas:

• Movie Services 
• Gyms
• Satellite or Cable TV Service
• Newspaper or magazine subscriptions

Reduce Fees

Fees can be sneaky. Check each bill carefully so you are aware of new or changing fees. The biggest fee offenders are credit cards and banks. 

What are the biggest changes you've ever made that has cut monthly bills? Share your ideas with us in the comments below.

Interested in more ways to optimize your life? Receive regular tips to be more efficient, save time, enrich your life, and connect with others here: optimize your life