Some belongings you suppose can be easy truly find yourself getting actually complicated. Google is aware of this all too effectively, which is why Google Calendar has loads of nifty options to simplify scheduling.
Your Google Calendar comes together with your private Gmail tackle, and you will not imagine how easy it’s to make use of and arrange. Nonetheless, when working at an organization with a company Google account you instantly must learn how finest to combine your private calendar together with your weekly assembly schedule.
Under are a few of our favourite suggestions, tips, and options obtainable in Google Calendar.
Skip to:
21 Google Calendar Options That’ll Make You Extra Productive
1. Create new calendars for various elements of your life.
If you first begin out on Google Calendar, you are given one calendar to start out with — it is the one together with your identify beneath “My calendars,” as proven within the screenshot under.
So, if you wish to use your calendar for a number of functions — like managing your precise schedule, planning durations of centered work time, and scheduling repeating reminders — you solely have one place to do it. However while you’re solely working with one calendar, all of these issues get handled equally — that means you may’t shortly and simply pull up the non-repetitive, necessary duties you have got for the day.
To fight this, simply create a brand new calendar for every a part of your life you’d wish to maintain observe of in your Google Calendar.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To create a brand new calendar, click on the little plus signal (+) subsequent to “My calendars,” and you may see the choice, “New calendar.” Choose this feature, identify your new calendar, give it an outline and time zone, and voilà — you’ve got bought your self one other calendar.
Professional Tip: You possibly can even color-code every calendar to make it straightforward so that you can pick what you have to do every day.
2. Schedule conferences with teams utilizing “Discover a time” or “Urged occasions.”
Do you ever want to rearrange a gathering with a number of individuals who have busy schedules? It may be actually annoying to attempt to determine while you’re all free. Fortunately, Google Calendar truly has two options that may do the heavy lifting for you: “Urged occasions” or “Discover a time.”
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To make use of both of those two choices, first be sure you’ve added everybody to the occasion who must attend. Then, if you would like Google to recommend a time so that you can meet, merely choose the “Urged occasions” hyperlink under your friends’ names. A dropdown window will seem with a listing of occasions when each assembly visitor, together with you, is out there with no conflicts.
“Discover a time” is the opposite method to shortly discover a time that works for each visitor included on the assembly invitation. To make use of this characteristic, select the tab subsequent to “Occasion particulars” referred to as “Discover a time,” and you may see everybody’s schedules side-by-side for the day of your meant assembly. If you see a time when none of your friends have conflicts, click on this line of the calendar to focus on the time and press “Save” on the high of your Calendar.
Professional tip: it’s also possible to use a free product like HubSpot Conferences to simply schedule conferences with out back-and-forth emails. With HubSpot’s Conferences instrument, you may ship a generic hyperlink and ask clients or prospects to decide on a time in your calendar that works for them, or select the gross sales rep who has the soonest availability.
3. Sync conferences together with your CRM.
Use a CRM day by day? It may be annoying to backwards and forwards between your Google Calendar and your CRM. As an alternative, dive into your CRM settings to see if there’s an current integration with Google Calendar.
HubSpot CRM customers, you are in luck — it is fast and straightforward to arrange this integration. Discover ways to do that right here.
4. Sync your calendar together with your advertising and marketing software program.
If you wish to make your Google Calendar align much more together with your advertising and marketing actions, you may combine it together with your advertising and marketing software program.
For HubSpot clients, you need to use Zapier to arrange some fairly nifty workflows, reminiscent of making a social media message each time an occasion begins. Try this web page for extra on how one can arrange that integration, in addition to some concepts for tactics you may combine the 2.
5. Disguise your occasion particulars.
Generally, the conferences you host or attend are delicate in nature. Consider, nonetheless, {that a} closed door is not the one method for others to know what is going on on inside. The occasion’s particulars in Google Calendar can even reveal extra to the remainder of the workplace than you need.
To make sure you have as a lot privateness as you want throughout extra delicate conferences, set your occasion to “Personal.” This makes it so no person viewing your weekly schedule sees the small print of the occasion — assembly identify, attendees, attachments, and so forth. By default, the general public label on the occasion block will merely be, “Busy.”
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To denationalise the small print of sure occasions in your calendar, click on the occasion out of your calendar view and choose the pencil icon to edit the occasion’s particulars. Within the window that seems, discover the briefcase icon simply above the occasion description area.
With the primary area set to “Busy,” click on into the second area and choose “Personal” from the dropdown, as proven under. Hit the blue “Save” button on the high of your display and you will be all set.
6. Add a Google Meet to your occasion.
Want to simply arrange a face-to-face distant assembly? Simply click on the hyperlink to “Add Google Meet,” and Google will arrange a video name to your occasion attendees to make use of. (Be taught extra about Google Meet right here)
7. Add attachments.
I do not learn about you, however I typically discover myself attending conferences that require me to reference a related doc. Perhaps we’re all working off one Google Doc, or maybe we’re pouring over an intricate spreadsheet.
Regardless, it is best to ensure all assembly attendees have the supplies they want earlier than the assembly begins so they do not must go looking of their inboxes for it. Google Calendar can assist you do that, permitting you to connect paperwork on to the occasion for friends to open and evaluation.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To connect a doc to your occasion, click on in your occasion block from the calendar view and choose the pencil icon to edit the occasion, as proven under.
When you’re within the occasion’s edit display, search for a paper clip icon proper above the outline part, as proven within the screenshot under. Click on this icon and a big window will seem the place you may add information to connect immediately out of your Google Drive.
Professional tip: If you attain the add window, you may toggle to the “My Drive” tab to connect Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that exist already in your Google Drive. Or, you may click on the “Add” tab on the far left of the window to connect offline information out of your pc.
8. Allow your world clock.
Do you’re employed with teammates who reside around the globe? You would possibly discover it is tough to determine what time is acceptable to schedule conferences with them. Luckily, you may — by enabling “World Clock” in your Google Calendar settings.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To shortly examine a number of time zones when arranging conferences, click on the gear icon on the top-righthand nook of your calendar view. These are your settings. Then, navigate to the “World clock” part, examine the primary blue field, and choose the time zones you need to see out of your calendar view.
As soon as you’ve got chosen the time zones you need, return to your calendar view and you may see the next in your Google Calendar’s lefthand sidebar:
9. Allow working hours.
Not everyone seems to be a 9-to-5 employee, however they could work fairly a bit with those that are. When you have an unconventional work schedule that none of your colleagues appear to recollect, this characteristic is for you.
“Working Hours” is a setting that alerts folks in the event that they attempt to add you to a gathering that lies outdoors a spread of hours set by you in Google Calendar. Hey, it beats having to hit “Decline” after which comply with up with the assembly organizer to remind them you are unavailable throughout that point.
A Google Calendar tipthat John Corridor, Co-founder of Calendar, advises folks to make use of is speedy conferences. “Beneath the default conferences period settings is the choice to create Speedy Conferences. Examine the field and 30-minute conferences will routinely be scheduled to final 25 minutes whereas longer conferences can be reduce by ten minutes. That method your working hours grow to be extra productive because you finish conferences sooner and have time to atone for todos that do not maintain you past working hours.”
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To allow particular working hours in your Google Calendar, click on the gear icon out of your calendar view to entry your settings. Navigate to the “Working Hours” part, as proven under. Right here, you’ll specify while you’re out and in of labor every day of the week.
10. Electronic mail occasion friends.
Keep in mind the time you tried to e-mail a big group of individuals about an occasion? Perhaps you have been making an attempt to coordinate a staff outing — or simply let everybody know they need to convey their laptops to the all-hands assembly. Regardless, I will wager it was annoying to determine who was truly going to the occasion and make sure you did not neglect anybody.
Effectively, this Google Calendar characteristic will come in useful subsequent time.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
So long as you’ve got added everybody to the occasion that should go, you may simply e-mail everybody within the group by clicking on the occasion block out of your calendar view and clicking the envelope icon.
When you click on on the envelope icon contained in the occasion block, an e-mail compose field will seem. Merely sort in your message, sort within the e-mail addresses of the folks you need to obtain it, and hit ship.
11. Add particular assembly places.
I want I would identified about this characteristic the final time I bought espresso with somebody in downtown Boston. We agreed to satisfy at Starbucks … however because of the multitude of Starbucks places in Boston, our dialog went one thing like this:
“Okay, so let’s meet on the one on State Avenue,” I mentioned.
“Oh, the one by the Court docket Home?” he requested.
“Effectively, it is kinda by the Court docket Home, however additional down State Avenue,” I replied.
“Oh, you imply the one by Downtown Crossing?” he clarified.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
The logistics of a gathering can get fuzzy with no particular tackle or convention room. Fortunately, Google Calendar has a characteristic that’ll repair all that. As an alternative of getting the back-and-forth, I might’ve simply despatched my pal a calendar invitation with the precise tackle within the “The place” field. It integrates with Google Maps so it is tremendous straightforward to determine the place you are assembly and find out how to get there.
12. Use desktop notifications.
As you most likely can inform by now, I like Google Calendar … however there’s one characteristic of which I’m not a fan.
When you have your Google Calendar open as a tab in your browser when it is 10 minutes earlier than your subsequent occasion, the 10-minute warning interrupts all the things you are doing and takes over your display. Neglect about what you have been engaged on — Google Calendar will instantly floor its tab with a giant pop-up alert coupled with an annoying sound. It is the worst.
Fortunately, there is a setting in Google Calendar that you need to use to make notifications a lot much less annoying: “Desktop notifications.” Moderately than interrupting your work, you may see a a lot gentler field slide in from the top-righthand nook of your pc display, displaying the identify of the occasion that is 10 minutes away.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To allow “Desktop notifications” in Google Calendar, click on into your settings utilizing the gear icon on the top-righthand nook in your calendar view. Scroll all the way down to “Occasion settings” and click on the “Notifications” field, as proven under.
By default, your notifications is perhaps set as “Alerts,” inflicting every occasion’s 10-minute warning to hijack your pc display. As an alternative, choose “Desktop notifications,” return to your calendar view, and you’ll have efficiently enabled gentler assembly notifications.
13. Change the occasion notification time.
Within the earlier tip, you discovered find out how to soften the notifications you obtain upfront of a gathering. However did you additionally know you may change the variety of minutes earlier than the occasion you need to be notified?
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
By default, Google will notify you 10 minutes earlier than the occasion’s begin time. To vary this warning time for a specific occasion, click on on the occasion out of your calendar view, and choose the pencil icon to edit the occasion’s settings.
Within the occasion particulars, discover the bell icon just under the video conferencing line. Hover your cursor over the field listed “10” and toggle up and down utilizing the small arrow keys that seem to the best to vary the variety of minutes upfront you need to be notified. As you may see under, you may inform Google to inform you hours, days, or weeks upfront, too.
Professional tip: To the left of the “10,” you may change “Notification” to “Electronic mail” should you’d slightly be informed about upcoming conferences by way of e-mail as a substitute of a desktop notification.
14. Organize appointment schedules.
Ever thought of incorporating “workplace hours” so people in your organization can e book time with you? Perhaps you are a part-time marketing consultant with restricted hours to e book conferences, or need to restrict the occasions your staff can e book time with you to sure occasions of day.
If any of the above situations resonate with you, consider using Google’s Appointment schedules.
Google’s Appointment schedules permit you carve out particular occasions of day in your calendar after which share these occasions with choose folks by way of a non-public calendar hyperlink. When these folks click on the hyperlink, they’ll schedule conferences with you at any of the occasions you carved out for them.
In case your hyperlink recipients discover a time they like, all they must do is choose it to e book a non-public occasion with you, together with all the data they’d want for the assembly.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To arrange your individual Appointment slots, begin by clicking anyplace in your calendar view to create an occasion. When the occasion choices seem, click on “Appointment schedules,” as proven under on the very high of the window. Set the date vary of the slots you’d wish to open up for appointments, in addition to how lengthy every appointment ought to be by default subsequent to “Slots with period.”
If you would like extra management over your Appointments, click on “Extra Choices,” and you will be taken to the window proven under. Click on “This calendar’s appointment web page” for the hyperlink you may then share with these whom you are keen to rearrange appointments.
15. Browse calendars of curiosity.
Need to be sure you’re holding observe of holidays in different nations, your favourite sports activities staff’s schedule, or simply the time the solar rises and units every day? You may discover these calendars (and extra) in your Google Calendar’s lefthand sidebar.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To browse and add attention-grabbing calendars, click on the plus signal (+) subsequent to “Add a coworker’s calendar.” Then, select “Browse calendars of curiosity.” From there, select the calendars you’d wish to subscribe to.
.webp?width=450&height=223&name=calendartips_26%20(1).webp)
16. Implement a customized view.
If you first arrange your calendar, you may have the choice to view it as per week, month, the following 4 days, or as an agenda. That “4 days” possibility? You possibly can swap that out with a special interval in your “Customized view” choices.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To regulate the variety of days you see in your calendar view, click on into your settings utilizing the gear icon on the top-righthand nook of your display. Scroll all the way down to “View choices.” Click on “Set customized view” and choose what number of days you need to see at one time out of your calendar view, as proven under.
You too can make faster, extra common changes to your person interface proper out of your calendar view. Subsequent to your settings’ gear icon, you may see a field that, by default, would possibly say “Week.” Click on it to disclose a dropdown menu the place you may customise your view additional, as proven under.
17. Share your calendars with others.
Should you’re utilizing Google Apps to your firm, it’s also possible to management who sees your calendar, what they see, and whether or not they have permissions to edit it. (When you have an assistant, this tip can be crucial to recollect.) You too can make your calendar public, if you want.
Tips on how to Use This Characteristic
To vary your sharing settings, click on on the plus signal (+) subsequent to the popular calendar and select “Settings and sharing,” as proven under.
Then, you may be taken to the web page proven under. Right here, you may select to do any of the next:
- Make the calendar public.
- Select to indicate occasion particulars to everybody in your organization, or simply free/busy info.
- Add somebody to your calendar and select their particular person permissions (see all particulars, make adjustments to occasions, cover all particulars, and many others).
If you’re finished, click on the again arrow on the top-lefthand nook of your display to return to your calendar view. Google will routinely save your new calendar settings.
18. Use keyboard shortcuts.
Are you seeking to actually streamline your Google Calendar efforts? Google Calendar’s bought a ton of keyboard shortcuts to make use of, reminiscent of:
- t = Transfer your calendar view to at present
- c = Create an occasion
- q = Fast Add an occasion
Try the complete checklist right here.
19. Use fast shortcuts to discover a time or soar again to your present time.
Moderately than manually scrolling by every month to discover a time far sooner or later, you may sort the letter “G” while you’re in your Google Calendar to shortly discover a date sooner or later.
Alternatively, should you’ve scrolled toofar and need to discover your method again to the present time with manually scrolling, sort the letter “T” to return to the present date/time.
20. Electronic mail all invited friends.
I will admit — I have been responsible of making occasions after which lacking a recipient or two after I’ve tried to e-mail your complete group a pleasant reminder, or mandatory info to peruse previous to the assembly.
Luckily, with Google Calendar you do not have to manually type-in each identify on the invite. As an alternative, go to the highest of your occasion and click on the Electronic mail icon, which lets you e-mail all of your friends from throughout the calendar itself:
21. Set a “Default Period” to make shorter conferences, or a “Default Time” to get rid of weekends out of your Calendar overview.
Should you’re feeling overwhelmed by the 30-minute or hour-long conferences that persistently deprive you of your means to get different work completed, think about setting a “Default Period” of 15 or 20-minutes for conferences in order that, while you’re planning fast check-ins on auto-pilot, you may make sure you’ve deliberate your time effectively.
In fact, for sure assembly subjects, 30-minutes to an hour is important. But when nearly all of your conferences are “catch ups” or transient 1:1’s with colleagues, think about whether or not you may talk the most important factors in 20 minutes or much less, and save the extra minor particulars for a follow-up e-mail.
Alternatively, should you’re like me, you solely use your Google Calendar for the workweek — why, then, do you want the added area of Saturday and Sunday?
Some time in the past, I clicked the “Week” toggle on the high of my calendar and de-selected “Present weekends” to make sure I felt I might visualize precisely how my workweek was going to look — and saved my weekends for rest and extra informal plans I might save in my telephone if mandatory.
Streamline Your Schedule
Google Calendar can begin to really feel quite a bit much less easy the extra occasions you have got in your agenda. Fortunately, these hacks and under-the-radar options make your life in Google Calendar a lot simpler to arrange.
Ideally, you may use one (or a couple of) of those options to make sure you’re utilizing Google Calendar to yourdistinctiveprofit and to suit your personal life-style and work preferences, slightly than accepting the default settings.
Editor’s be aware: This text was initially printed in March 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
Â
Â
