There's certain dates I used to find myself putting into my electronic calendar every year, but set up a few rules and use a few hacks and you won't need to:

1. UK Bank holidays can be added manually from the bank holiday page of the DTI site. For the days off work the following rules can be set up:

   • New year - first weekday in January
   • Easter - based around the lunar calendar, so you'll have to look this up each year
   • May day - first Monday in May
   • Spring (Whitsun) - Last Monday in May
   • Summer - Last Monday in August
   • Christmas and Boxing day - first two weekdays on or after the 25th December

   Additionally there's an Outlook shortcut which automatically populates these dates and more: Tools > Options > Calendar > Add holidays > select your country (and religion if so desired).

   Note also that there are Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish holidays that I haven't included, because I don't get to have them. :-(

2. Clock changes in the UK occur on the last Sundays in March (forward) and October (back).
3. Mother's day - 4th sunday of lent (so no repeating rule for that either), father's day is the third sunday in June.
4. Random days you might want to note: Pancake day (AKA Shrove Tuesday), fireworks night (5th November) & International Talk Like a Pirate Day (19th September). NB: National days (George, Patrick) are included by the Outlook tool above.
5. Lastly, birthdays: Put them in (as recurrances) whenever you find them out, and set reminders depending on how much warning you need (e.g. 4 days if you'll be sending them a card, or just one for an email or text). I'd also make sure you put at least a surname initial in: "Paul" might not be enough in a few years. While you're there, mine's the 14th December. Cheers, mine's a pint.