Useful Little Things

A while back I set up rules in Gmail to apply the label Bill to any email notifying me I have a bill due.  I try to do most everything paperless, so I don’t usually get a bill in the regular mail.  The Bill label helped reminder me not to archive it and forget to pay.

I prefer not to pay something the moment it comes in, since it might not be due for another two or three weeks.  In fact, I prefer to maximize the interest my money can earn and paying a bill way early goes against that.  Recently, however, I’ve found myself repeatedly logging into my online accounts to see when something is due.  I may prefer to keep my money as long as possible, but I also prefer not to pay late fees.

This morning, I hit upon a way to “store” the due date of a bill right in Gmail using labels.  I simply create a new label with the month and day the bill is due and assign it to the email.  Google makes this really simple and it requires only a few clicks.  If you’ve never done this before, I’ve given you instructions just below this screenshot.

To create a label in Gmail:
1) Open the email message in Gmail.
2) Click the Labels button to open the Labels drop-down list.
3) Click Create New at the bottom of the list.
4) Enter the due date for the bill (i.e. – Mar 31) and click Ok.