Organizing with Google Calendars: Part VI – Dealing with Time Zones

Welcome to Part VI of You’re So Organized, my continuing series of how I use Google Calendars to digitally organize just about everything.

In Part I, I gave an explanation of the basic tools in G:Cal, including new appointments, repeating appointments, and scheduling reminders in advance.

In Part II, I covered color coding calendars with different purposes to make separate tasks and schedules easier and more distinct from one another. 

In Part III, I talked about sharing calendars and sharing calendar appointments to make managing common schedules a lot easier.

In Part IV, I covered importing calendars, including sports calendars for different professional teams, including rugby playing dragons.

In Part V, I covered daily agendas by email, and a mistake I made that everyone can avoid.

Today we’re talking about time zones, which honest to heaven drive me bonkers. I’ve traveled halfway around the earth and back, and when I did, I had TWO time zone monitors on my phone that would show me what time it was where I was going, and what time it was at home, and any points I needed to know about in the middle, and I checked both of them constantly because I was convinced I was doing it wrong.

I’m probably not alone in finding time zone changes a little stressful, so I wanted to share what I do to make sure I reassure future Sarah that past Sarah has double-checked all appointments. This may be particularly helpful for those of you traveling to RT next week (!!!!!) and are jumping one, two, or maybe 12 (Hi Australians!) time zones. 

So, first: new appointments! There are many, many appointments at RT. Some of them look like this:

 

SRS BSNS AMIRITE?! 

But hold up – that’s 3pm where I am now, in the Eastern time zone of the US (the one time zone that bugs the rest of them).

So let’s fix that, eh? (Hi Canada! I think you might have more time zones than we do. High fives!)

Click “Time zone” to help your future self get to the bar on time!

 

This lovely menu will pop up:

Hey, Arizona!

Let’s pick the time zone we need – in this example, it’s Pacific.

Ah, the Pacific time zone, where Fridays at about 2 or 2:30pm, everyone’s like, Hey, New York went home, so it’s party time! 

But don’t click DONE because you’re not DONE yet!

We need to reassure future you that past you was on the ball. I am certain that you always are on top of things calendar-wise, but alas, for me that’s not so true. Future Sarah will 220% be SURE that past Sarah didn’t log the appointment correctly because time zones involve two things All Sarahs are bad at: math, calculating time, and remembering numbers.

So here’s my simple backup method to reassure myself: 

 

The description field! Oh, how I love this field. This is where I write down the correct time so Future Sarah can double check it, along with info on with whom the appointment was confirmed and what method.

I also include cell phone numbers here and in the appointment title should I need to text someone and say, “THERE ARE FOUR BARS IN THIS HOTEL. OMG I’m at the one with the line that’s six miles long and the green tables, and I’m wearing blue!”

Now, the magic of many calendar programs, including Google Calendars, is that once you land in a different time zone, it asks if you want to update your calendar to the local time zone. I always click “yes” because asking my brain to do math and remember numbers every time I look at my appointments is akin to asking for schedule disaster.

So even though right now, my appointment shows up in the late afternoon:

When I update, once I’m in Vegas, it’ll show up at 3pm, the correct time.

And I’ll have the description field to remind me that yes, the correct time is 3pm, and I can confirm via email or text or whatever, so future Sarah isn’t spinning in place in one of four bars at 6pm having missed her appointment by 3 hours.

And hey! Look! I scheduled my drinking at the same time as my 2:45pm workshop on Virtual Assistants! OOPS.

So clearly I’m not drinking all the things at 3pm. I’ll be drinking all the things some other time. Or all the other times. It is RT, after all, right?

I also want to share a really spiffy external calendar that Ulrike found via the local library:

Today, I noticed that my library website has a button that says, “Add your checkouts to your calendar.” I clicked it, then selected “Google” for the format, and now “My Checkouts at the Public Library” shows up as one of my Other Calendars! I wish the other two libraries I use offered the same feature.

DUDE. THAT IS RAD. High fives to libraries! I definitely need that calendar – I usually enter the due date on my calendar right after I check books out, but one-clicking my checkouts into an additional calendar is awesome!

There are other applications and websites that track different things like travel or medical appointments, and many offer an “Add to your calendar” option. For example, TripIt, which I use for travel itineraries and tracking flight info, provides a URL that you can add to your Other Calendars – which I covered in Part IV, should you need a refresh on the steps to make that happen.

Next week, I’ll be talking about my favorite calendar that I’ve created in the hopes that it’ll save you some time, too. And if you’re headed to RT and jumping many time zones, safe travels, and see you there!

If you’ve got questions or suggestions, feel free to email me!

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