The Life Changing Google Drive

Dramatic post title I know. But seriously. It's amazing. Single handily is my #1 tip for keeping A Life in Balance. At least in the sense of being organized. It really can be used in so many ways. I literally run my life off it. What I like most is it's cloud based. Meaning I can access it in multiple locations and my documents are "stored" in a secure internet based location. So they are not taking up precious space on my devices. With that being said, I want to share some of the "outside the box" ways of using the drive and it's benefits.


If you have a basic understanding of Word or Excel this will be a breeze. For a more in dept look at the drive and how to use it I recommend this video on YouTube. But in a nut shell you'll have your own "drive" and central location for all your documents. Getting started you'll have to open a google account or if you have one already, you'll just need to log into your account and sign in to the drive. From there you're ready to go. Clicking on the "+" sign will give you the option to start a new document (Word), Spreadsheet (Excel), Presentation (Power point) or New Folder. Like this:

 I have a folder for all "umbrella" topics like Summer Camp, Previous Travel, and Christmas. Here is a snapshot of a portion of my folders:

Inside those folders are my documents. For instance here are the documents housed in my "Xmas" folder: 

I start a spreadsheet for each year with the list of those I buy for, what I bought them, and the cost. In addition to a Word doc with my holiday card address labels.  I also have our household budget on here and share it with my husband so he can add or subtract expenses (sort of like a checkbook register). I do all my client billing and bookkeeping documents on here and can easily access where ever I am. 

It's easy to share these documents with the option to have recipients view, edit or comment which is super helpful. Pretty much it's the best thing in the world if you ask me! 

Thanks again for stopping by and here's to another day closer to a life in balance. 

xo

Sloane