hi this is gary with macmost.com let's
take a look at how i use the calendar
app on my mac
[Music]
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so here's another video in my
productivity series where i show you how
i use various parts of mac os
to be more productive so today let's
look at the calendar app now i probably
don't use the calendar app as much as
many of you do i don't really have that
many scheduled events but i do have some
unique ways of using it and maybe you
can use these ideas as well so first of
all i only have two main calendars and
that's personal and family so why don't
i have one for work and personal or
maybe several different aspects of work
well the way i look at it there's only
one of me if i have a lunch scheduled it
doesn't really matter if it's a personal
friendly lunch or a business lunch
there's only one of me i can only be at
one lunch at a time so i put anything
that pertains to just me in my personal
calendar it's personal and work is what
i could really call it but probably my
most important calendar is the family
calendar so the family calendar is a
shared calendar that i set up with the
members of my household and we put
shared events in there anything that
could affect anybody else
so for instance i will put something
like a dentist appointment in the family
calendar so everybody else knows that
i've got to do something that morning
i've got to go to the dentist for me it
really doesn't matter whether it's in
personal or family i always have those
turned on so i can always see those
so we all put events in there and it's
really great because instead of having
to tell everybody else all the little
things that we do we just put it in the
calendar you get an alert when somebody
adds something to the calendar and you
can also look at a day when you're
trying to schedule something and see
what other people are up to plus the
notes and information is really useful
as well if we're taking a trip somewhere
i could put all the flight information
in the calendar event so instead of
somebody asking me you know when's our
flight what airline are we flying that
kind of thing it's always there in the
calendar they can just go and look at it
now sometimes i have to put things in
both calendars and that's okay i'd love
to have a better way to do it but here's
an example of a speaking engagement that
i have and of course it's on my personal
calendar this is very important to me
but i've also duplicated it and added to
the family calendar because everybody
else has to know that i have this time
blocked off and i can't be disturbed
then and they can't schedule anything
else before that time in the family
calendar i just have the event in time
in the personal calendar i would perhaps
have more things say in notes like the
zoom information and links and what
topic i'm discussing all sorts of things
like that and i do like to make use of
the notes and urls and locations when i
can
so i'll put a url if there's a link to
something like it's an online meeting
i would put all sorts of other
information in the notes so i don't have
emails or text files or other things
lying around that it needs to find as
the event approaches it's all just there
in the calendar it also makes it really
easy to access that information on my
iphone if i'm somewhere else and i want
to think about what i'm doing tomorrow i
can look at my notes for an event
happening tomorrow also notice here how
i'm using an emoji character
in the title for this event i've got the
megaphone emoji that i use whenever i'm
speaking to somebody and i'll use emoji
from time to time to help make things
stand out otherwise it's just kind of a
sea of text and colors on the calendar
now i do schedule some special events
for instance i've got on the 20th of
every month a monthly payments event
and this is when i want to check to make
sure all the auto payments for credit
cards and mortgage and things like that
are
okay and going through originally years
ago this would be the event that
triggered an alert and i would go in and
pay all my bills everything's auto pay
now so i just use it to kind of check to
make sure everything is set for auto pay
so this is just something happens on the
20th of every month it's set to repeat
monthly so it will just repeat every
month on the 20th and also note that
instead of just having a regular alert
that i could easily miss this is a
really important event or at least it
used to be before auto pay so i've set
up an email alert so i've gone in to the
alerts instead of using one of these i
said custom and i said it to be an email
sent to myself at the time of the event
since i always clear on my inbox i'm
never going to miss an email about this
event even though i might miss the
notification so i recommend doing this
for any event that's of the utmost
importance and you just can't miss the
alert i also have a similar one for
quarterly taxes i need to pay quarterly
taxes and see i've got a event right
here it's even got an emoji for it and
since these are quarterly and i like to
schedule them for you know
late in the week before it's due i
basically make it my task that at the
beginning of every year i set them up
for every quarter for that year now i
also subscribe to a couple calendars so
these are kind of simple but really
useful
my local trash service in the city here
if you go to the site for the city they
actually have a calendar you can
subscribe to and it's got different
systems you can do it with google as
well but i subscribe to the one that's
compatible with calendar and you can see
i've got a trash service subscription so
i can see when trash is going to be
picked up if it's going to be picked up
on a different day in a certain week and
also if there are some weeks that are
special like for instance this one here
is extra trash day it's kind of hard to
find this information by looking on the
website so it's just nice to have this
in the calendar and if it gets in the
way i can just turn it off if i'm not
looking for that information right now
likewise i'm also a baseball fan so i
subscribe to a calendar that shows me
the colorado rockies schedule and i
could see that here and i could see
every game because it's kind of a pain
to go onto a website and try to look up
when the game starts tonight make sure
it's the right time zone and all of that
i just have this calendar i subscribe to
and most of the time it's turned off so
it's not cluttering the calendar but i
simply turn it on i could glance at it
to see when the game starts and i can
turn it off again so think of other
things where there might be calendars
you can subscribe to and look for online
subscriptions that you can add to your
calendar app so if you like share your
productivity tips for using the calendar
app in the comments and let me know what
calendars you subscribe to maybe what
different calendars you create and wait
that you use calendar that are a little
different than how i use it
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