Some stuff you assume might be easy really find yourself getting actually advanced. Google is aware of this all too properly, which is why Google Calendar has loads of nifty options to simplify scheduling.
Your Google Calendar comes together with your private Gmail deal with, and you will not consider how easy it’s to make use of and arrange. Nevertheless, when working at an organization with a company Google account you all of a sudden must learn the way finest to combine your private calendar together with your weekly assembly schedule.
Beneath are a few of our favourite suggestions, methods, and options accessible in Google Calendar.
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21 Google Calendar Options That’ll Make You Extra Productive
1. Create new calendars for various components of your life.
Whenever 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 beneath.
So, if you wish to use your calendar for a number of functions — like managing your precise schedule, planning durations of targeted work time, and scheduling repeating reminders — you solely have one place to do it. However once you’re solely working with one calendar, all of these issues get handled equally — which means you’ll be able to’t shortly and simply pull up the non-repetitive, vital 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 prefer to preserve observe of in your Google Calendar.
Methods to Use This Function
To create a brand new calendar, click on the little plus signal (+) subsequent to “My calendars,” and you will see the choice, “New calendar.” Choose this feature, identify your new calendar, give it an outline and time zone, and voilà — you have acquired your self one other calendar.
Professional Tip: You possibly can even color-code every calendar to make it simple so that you can pick what you have to do every day.
2. Schedule conferences with teams utilizing “Discover a time” or “Prompt occasions.”
Do you ever want to rearrange a assembly with a number of individuals who have busy schedules? It may be actually annoying to attempt to determine once you’re all free. Fortunately, Google Calendar really has two options that may do the heavy lifting for you: “Prompt occasions” or “Discover a time.”
Methods to Use This Function
To make use of both of those two choices, first ensure you’ve added everybody to the occasion who must attend. Then, if you would like Google to counsel a time so that you can meet, merely choose the “Prompt occasions” hyperlink beneath your company’ names. A dropdown window will seem with an inventory of occasions when each assembly visitor, together with you, is on the market with no conflicts.
“Discover a time” is the opposite strategy 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 will see everybody’s schedules side-by-side for the day of your supposed assembly. Whenever you see a time when none of your company 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: you too can use a free product like HubSpot Conferences to simply schedule conferences with out back-and-forth emails. With HubSpot’s Conferences instrument, you’ll be able to ship a generic hyperlink and ask prospects 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 forwards and backwards 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 simple 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’ll be able to combine it together with your advertising and marketing software program.
For HubSpot prospects, you should utilize Zapier to arrange some fairly nifty workflows, comparable to 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’ll be able to combine the 2.
5. Conceal your occasion particulars.
Generally, the conferences you host or attend are delicate in nature. Consider, nonetheless, {that a} closed door is not the one approach 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 would like.
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 main points of the occasion — assembly identify, attendees, attachments, and so forth. By default, the general public label on the occasion block will merely be, “Busy.”
Methods to Use This Function
To denationalise the main points 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 beneath. Hit the blue “Save” button on the high of your display screen 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 on your occasion attendees to make use of. (Study extra about Google Meet right here)
7. Add attachments.
I do not find out about you, however I usually 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 searching of their inboxes for it. Google Calendar may also help you do that, permitting you to connect paperwork on to the occasion for company to open and assessment.
Methods to Use This Function
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 beneath.
When you’re within the occasion’s edit display screen, search for a paper clip icon proper above the outline part, as proven within the screenshot beneath. Click on this icon and a big window will seem the place you’ll be able to add recordsdata to connect instantly out of your Google Drive.
Professional tip: Whenever you attain the add window, you’ll be able to toggle to the “My Drive” tab to connect Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that exist already in your Google Drive. Or, you’ll be able to click on the “Add” tab on the far left of the window to connect offline recordsdata out of your laptop.
8. Allow your world clock.
Do you’re employed with teammates who stay world wide? You would possibly discover it is troublesome to determine what time is acceptable to schedule conferences with them. Fortuitously, you’ll be able to — by enabling “World Clock” in your Google Calendar settings.
Methods to Use This Function
To shortly test 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, test the primary blue field, and choose the time zones you wish to see out of your calendar view.
As soon as you have chosen the time zones you need, return to your calendar view and you will 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 individuals in the event that they attempt to add you to a gathering that lies exterior 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 individuals to make use of is speedy conferences. “Beneath the default conferences length settings is the choice to create Speedy Conferences. Examine the field and 30-minute conferences will mechanically be scheduled to final 25 minutes whereas longer conferences might be lower by ten minutes. That approach your working hours develop into extra productive because you finish conferences sooner and have time to compensate for todos that do not preserve you past working hours.”
Methods to Use This Function
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 beneath. Right here, you can specify once you’re out and in of labor every day of the week.
10. E-mail occasion company.
Keep in mind the time you tried to e mail a big group of individuals about an occasion? Perhaps you had been making an attempt to coordinate a staff outing — or simply let everybody know they need to deliver their laptops to the all-hands assembly. Regardless, I am going to wager it was annoying to determine who was really going to the occasion and make sure you did not neglect anybody.
Effectively, this Google Calendar characteristic will come in useful subsequent time.
Methods to Use This Function
So long as you have added everybody to the occasion that should go, you’ll be able to 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 kind in your message, kind within the e mail addresses of the individuals you wish to obtain it, and hit ship.
11. Add particular assembly places.
I want I would recognized about this characteristic the final time I acquired 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 Road,” I mentioned.
“Oh, the one by the Courtroom Home?” he requested.
“Effectively, it is kinda by the Courtroom Home, however additional down State Road,” I replied.
“Oh, you imply the one by Downtown Crossing?” he clarified.
Methods to Use This Function
The logistics of a gathering can get fuzzy and not using a particular deal with 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 buddy a calendar invitation with the precise deal with within the “The place” field. It integrates with Google Maps so it is tremendous simple to determine the place you are assembly and methods to get there.
12. Use desktop notifications.
As you most likely can inform by now, I really 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 every part you are doing and takes over your display screen. Overlook about what you had been engaged on — Google Calendar will all of a sudden 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 should utilize to make notifications a lot much less annoying: “Desktop notifications.” Slightly than interrupting your work, you may see a a lot gentler field slide in from the top-righthand nook of your laptop display screen, displaying the identify of the occasion that is 10 minutes away.
Methods to Use This Function
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 beneath.
By default, your notifications is perhaps set as “Alerts,” inflicting every occasion’s 10-minute warning to hijack your laptop display screen. As an alternative, choose “Desktop notifications,” return to your calendar view, and you should have efficiently enabled gentler assembly notifications.
13. Change the occasion notification time.
Within the earlier tip, you realized methods to soften the notifications you obtain prematurely of a gathering. However did you additionally know you’ll be able to change the variety of minutes earlier than the occasion you wish to be notified?
Methods to Use This Function
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 fitting to vary the variety of minutes prematurely you wish to be notified. As you’ll be able to see beneath, you’ll be able to inform Google to inform you hours, days, or weeks prematurely, too.
Professional tip: To the left of the “10,” you’ll be able to change “Notification” to “E-mail” if you happen to’d fairly be instructed about upcoming conferences by way of e mail as a substitute of a desktop notification.
14. Prepare appointment schedules.
Ever thought of incorporating “workplace hours” so people in your organization can guide time with you? Perhaps you are a part-time advisor with restricted hours to guide conferences, or wish to restrict the occasions your staff can guide time with you to sure occasions of day.
If any of the above eventualities resonate with you, consider using Google’s Appointment schedules.
Google’s Appointment schedules enable you carve out particular occasions of day in your calendar after which share these occasions with choose individuals by way of a personal calendar hyperlink. When these individuals 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 guide a personal occasion with you, together with all the knowledge they’d want for the assembly.
Methods to Use This Function
To arrange your personal Appointment slots, begin by clicking wherever in your calendar view to create an occasion. When the occasion choices seem, click on “Appointment schedules,” as proven beneath on the very high of the window. Set the date vary of the slots you’d prefer to open up for appointments, in addition to how lengthy every appointment ought to be by default subsequent to “Slots with length.”
If you would like extra management over your Appointments, click on “Extra Choices,” and you will be taken to the window proven beneath. Click on “This calendar’s appointment web page” for the hyperlink you’ll be able to then share with these whom you are prepared to rearrange appointments.
15. Browse calendars of curiosity.
Need to ensure you’re retaining observe of holidays in different international locations, your favourite sports activities staff’s schedule, or simply the time the solar rises and units every day? You will discover these calendars (and extra) in your Google Calendar’s lefthand sidebar.
Methods to Use This Function
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 prefer to subscribe to.
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16. Implement a customized view.
Whenever you first arrange your calendar, you may have the choice to view it as every week, month, the following 4 days, or as an agenda. That “4 days” choice? You possibly can change that out with a distinct interval in your “Customized view” choices.
Methods to Use This Function
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 screen. Scroll all the way down to “View choices.” Click on “Set customized view” and choose what number of days you wish to see at one time out of your calendar view, as proven beneath.
You can too make faster, extra basic 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’ll be able to customise your view additional, as proven beneath.
17. Share your calendars with others.
In case you’re utilizing Google Apps on your firm, you too can 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 might be essential to recollect.) You can too make your calendar public, if you want.
Methods to Use This Function
To vary your sharing settings, click on on the plus signal (+) subsequent to the popular calendar and select “Settings and sharing,” as proven beneath.
Then, you may be taken to the web page proven beneath. Right here, you’ll be able to 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 modifications to occasions, conceal all particulars, and many others).
Whenever you’re executed, click on the again arrow on the top-lefthand nook of your display screen to return to your calendar view. Google will mechanically save your new calendar settings.
18. Use keyboard shortcuts.
Are you trying to actually streamline your Google Calendar efforts? Google Calendar’s acquired a ton of keyboard shortcuts to make use of, comparable to:
- t = Transfer your calendar view to as we speak
- c = Create an occasion
- q = Fast Add an occasion
Try the total record right here.
19. Use fast shortcuts to discover a time or bounce again to your present time.
Slightly than manually scrolling via every month to discover a time far sooner or later, you’ll be able to kind the letter “G” once you’re in your Google Calendar to shortly discover a date sooner or later.
Alternatively, if you happen to’ve scrolled toofar and wish to discover your approach again to the present time with manually scrolling, kind the letter “T” to return to the present date/time.
20. E-mail all invited company.
I am going to admit — I have been responsible of making occasions after which lacking a recipient or two once I’ve tried to e mail the whole group a pleasant reminder, or needed info to peruse previous to the assembly.
Fortuitously, 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 E-mail icon, which allows you to e mail all of your company from inside the calendar itself:
21. Set a “Default Length” to make shorter conferences, or a “Default Time” to eradicate weekends out of your Calendar overview.
In case you’re feeling overwhelmed by the 30-minute or hour-long conferences that constantly deprive you of your potential to get different work completed, think about setting a “Default Length” of 15 or 20-minutes for conferences in order that, once 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 critical. But when nearly all of your conferences are “catch ups” or transient 1:1’s with colleagues, think about whether or not you’ll be able to talk the main factors in 20 minutes or much less, and save the extra minor particulars for a follow-up e mail.
Alternatively, if you happen to’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 cellphone if needed.
Streamline Your Schedule
Google Calendar can begin to really feel rather a lot 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 prepare.
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, fairly than accepting the default settings.
Editor’s be aware: This text was initially revealed in March 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
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