True fact about me: I am terrible about keeping track of work or otherwise reimbursable mileage I drive in my personal vehicle. I am honestly better about keeping track of mileage on my bike. As the end of summer comes and we all have to catch up on paperwork before fall semester… I basically never have what I need written down. When I need to look up mileage for something or write down the date of a trip, I rely on is Google Timeline.
How do you access this magical tool? You log into Google Maps and go to the menu button in the upper left hand corner. From there, the click “Your Timeline,” which is usually near the bottom of the list above the print option. You can look up different weeks or months, search for trips to certain places, and otherwise jog your memory about your travel history. The main page of your timeline will also give you a link to manage what types of location information Google collects about you and describes some of the mobile location privacy settings you might see in the Google Maps app.
Yes, it’s kinda creepy that Google knows where I am most of the time, but that’s my fault for always leaving my location settings on. Google knows basically everything about me anyway (which is a different conversation), so I may as well be able to get some use out of the data they’ve collected. I should probably just get better at recording my whereabouts, but in the meantime, at least I can figure it out this way.
Spatially Challenged 