THE WEEKLY PAGE 📝 No. 183

My favorite Google Calendar upgrades + this week's picks for work, wellness, and wonder.

Digital calendars have revolutionized the way we organize our time, and although many of us seem to be constantly at war with the dreaded “wall of meetings,” there’s no doubt that tools like iCal or Google Calendar make it easy to schedule events and keep everything straight.

I’m a longtime Google Calendar gal, and this week I thought it would be fun to share a couple of the “upgrades” I’ve made so mine feels like a clean, welcoming, organized place for me to plan my days.

Upgrade #1: Customized Colors

To add custom colors to your various calendar “layers,” hover over the calendar name > click on the three dots to the right > choose one of the available colors or click the + to add your own Hex Code. I like to use my brand colors so that my calendar feels more cohesive and organized.

Upgrade #2: Add Emojis to Events

I like to keep my calendar pretty clean, but I do love adding a little pizzazz 💃🏻 to fun recurring events or holidays with Emojis. The screenshot above shows a few events where I’ve added emojis to help them stand out on my calendar. To do this, edit the event title, then use one of the following actions to add an emoji on desktop:

On Windows: Press the Windows key and . key to access the emoji menu.

On Mac: Press Control, Command, and Spacebar to access the emoji menu.

On Web: Or try visiting Emojikeyboard.io to copy and paste the emojis you need.

Upgrade #3: Add A World Clock

If your work (or life!) requires you to be aware of multiple time zones, it can be really helpful to have them displayed in Google Calendar. Even if you don’t live internationally, just being aware of the time zones your customers or audience reside in can be handy. You can add various time zones under Settings > World Clock, and these will display on the left side panel when you are in your Calendar. This is great for seeing the time(s) at a glance throughout the day.

If you also nerd out about Google Calendar and would like four more of my favorite upgrades, head over to this old blog post to read ‘em all.

🎉 Quick note: My first year-long group Work & Wellness program will be launching this fall. Make sure you join the launch list to learn more!

🍲 EAT: We have a local friend with a garden plot who brought us an entire bag of potatoes last week. They’re lovely — all different shapes, sizes, and colors! So I’ve been busy exploring new recipes featuring potatoes and absolutely loved these Pecorino Garlic Potatoes over Harissa Mayo! Grab the recipe here.

📚 READ: And this, my friends, is why women have trust issues! This week we learned that up until recently, menstrual products had never had their absorbency tested using actual menstrual blood. They have always been tested using saline (a simple solution of salt and water) — which, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, does not behave or absorb the same as menstrual blood. And so, in the year 2023, menstruating people finally have the first study showing product absorbency using human blood. Here’s a great article about it from Glamour.

📺 WATCH: As we continue to watch the tragedy in Maui unfold, it’s important that we learn and recognize the real history of Hawai’i. Many of us were taught an inaccurate and white-washed history about Hawai’i becoming a state. This 5-minute video, The Dark History of the Overthrow of Hawaii by Sydney Laukea, will teach you about the history of the indigenous people who inhabit the islands, how their Queen, Liliʻuokalani, was overthrown and jailed, and how their history has been erased. Along with climate change, colonialization was one of the major contributors to the conditions that allowed for last week’s tragedy, and it’s important we recognize the role it played. Watch the video here.

📚 READ: Trigger Warning: for rape, child pregnancy. ⚠ It was recently revealed that a 13-year-old child in Mississippi was raped in her yard and then forced to carry the baby to term due to living 9 hours away from the nearest abortion clinic. The case serves as a great example that providing “exceptions for rape” rarely holds true — because how do you prove that your unwanted pregnancy is the product of rape in a country where rapists are rarely held accountable? Even when the case involves a 13-year-old child, it’s not proving to be simple. TIME did a wonderful — although tragic and enraging — profile on the child and her family following the birth of the baby. Read it here.

💬 Commment & chat! Anything in this week’s newsletter spark your curiosity? Have questions? Got a recommendation of your own?