146 million people use Gmail as their source for webmail.
But how many people are familiar with the other features Gmail has to offer, such as Google Calendar and Google Documents? Personally, I’ve been using Gmail as my webmail source for 5 years but I’ve only recently started using it for organizational purposes– mainly because I wasn’t aware of it’s other useful features. Now, I’m keeping everything centralized in one place by taking advantage of what Gmail has to offer.
Class schedules, work schedules, appointments, club meetings, study groups, and social events getting hard to keep track of?
As college students, we have a lot going on all the time– sometimes more than we can remember off the top of our heads. This is why I love Google Calendar. Just log into your Gmail account and click the calendar link in the top left corner and start adding events. You can view your calendar by day, week, month, 4 days, or agenda. You can have more than one calendar, and you can also share your calendars with other people by clicking “settings”, then “share” and adding people’s e-mail addresses. Also, you can have event reminders sent to your e-mail so you don’t forget that counselor meeting you’ve rescheduled two times already.
Wouldn’t it be nice to store all your important files in one place and be able to access them from any computer, without a flash-drive?
It seems like there’s always a million items I have to make sure I have in my bag before I go out the door: dorm key, student ID, textbooks, notebooks, folders, pens, money, snacks… I don’t want to have to worry about how I’m going to access my files on top of everything else. That’s where Google Documents comes in handy. The documents link is right next to the calendar link in the top left corner. Upload any file or create a new document/presentation/spreadsheet/form, and then organize them into folders by class or topic. For every document or folder, there’s a “share” option, which is great for group projects. The people you want to share it with get an e-mail notification and the file automatically goes to their Google Documents. And as long as you have internet access, you have an easy means to all your important documents.
But wait, there’s more!
Google Calendar and Google Documents are just two of the cool features Gmail has to offer. They’re my favorites to use because they keep me organized by keeping everything centralized, but I encourage you to explore the other features and see what’s helpful to you. Also, check out this blog post which teaches you how to use your other e-mail addresses (i.e. your school address) within Gmail. Also, go here for another helpful blog post if you want to learn more about websites/internet programs that will make your college life easier.
