Some stuff you assume shall be easy truly find yourself getting actually advanced. Google is aware of this all too nicely, 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 consider how easy it’s to make use of and arrange. Nevertheless, when working at an organization with a company Google account you instantly should learn how finest to combine your private calendar together with your weekly assembly schedule.

Beneath are a few of our favourite suggestions, tips, 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 elements of your life.

Once you first begin out on Google Calendar, you are given one calendar to begin with — it is the one together with your title 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 intervals of centered work time, and scheduling repeating reminders — you solely have one place to do it. However whenever 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 prefer to preserve monitor of in your Google Calendar.

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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, title your new calendar, give it an outline and time zone, and voilà — you have obtained your self one other calendar.

Professional Tip: You possibly can even color-code every calendar to make it straightforward so that you can select what you have to do every day.

2. Schedule conferences with teams utilizing “Discover a time” or “Advised instances.”

Do you ever want to rearrange a meeting with a number of individuals who have busy schedules? It may be actually annoying to attempt to determine whenever you’re all free. Fortunately, Google Calendar truly has two options that may do the heavy lifting for you: “Advised instances” or “Discover a time.”

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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 counsel a time so that you can meet, merely choose the “Advised instances” hyperlink beneath your company’ names. A dropdown window will seem with a listing of instances when each assembly visitor, together with you, is accessible with no conflicts.

“Discover a time” is the opposite option to shortly discover a time that works for each visitor included on the assembly invitation. To make use of this function, 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 meant assembly. Once 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: it’s also possible to use a free product like HubSpot Meetings to simply schedule conferences with out back-and-forth emails. With HubSpot’s Conferences device, 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 each 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 present integration with Google Calendar.

HubSpot CRM users, you are in luck — it is fast and simple to arrange this integration. Learn how to do this here.

4. Sync your calendar together with your advertising software program.

If you wish to make your Google Calendar align much more together with your advertising actions, you may combine it together with your advertising software program.

For HubSpot clients, you need to use Zapier to arrange some fairly nifty workflows, comparable to making a social media message each time an occasion begins. Check out this page for more on how you can set up that integration, in addition to some concepts for tactics you may combine the 2.

5. Disguise your occasion particulars.

Typically, the conferences you host or attend are delicate in nature. Remember, nevertheless, {that a} closed door is not the one means for others to know what is going on on inside. The occasion’s particulars in Google Calendar also can 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 small print of the occasion — assembly title, attendees, attachments, and so forth. By default, the general public label on the occasion block will merely be, “Busy.”

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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 subject.

With the primary subject set to “Busy,” click on into the second subject 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. (Learn more about Google Meet here)

7. Add attachments.

I do not find out about you, however I typically discover myself attending conferences that require me to reference a related doc. Possibly we’re all working off one Google Doc, or maybe we’re pouring over an intricate spreadsheet.

Regardless, it is best to verify all assembly attendees have the supplies they want earlier than the assembly begins so they do not should go searching of their inboxes for it. Google Calendar may help you do that, permitting you to connect paperwork on to the occasion for company to open and overview.

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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 may add recordsdata to connect instantly out of your Google Drive.

Professional tip: Once 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 recordsdata out of your laptop.

8. Allow your world clock.

Do you’re employed with teammates who reside around the globe? You may 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.

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To shortly verify 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, verify the primary blue field, and choose the time zones you need 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 may work fairly a bit with those that are. When you’ve got an unconventional work schedule that none of your colleagues appear to recollect, this function 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 outdoors a variety of hours set by you in Google Calendar. Hey, it beats having to hit “Decline” after which observe 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 routinely be scheduled to final 25 minutes whereas longer conferences shall be minimize by ten minutes. That means your working hours turn out to be extra productive because you finish conferences sooner and have time to make amends for todos that do not preserve you past working hours.”

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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’ll specify whenever 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? Possibly you have been attempting to coordinate a group outing — or simply let everybody know they need to carry their laptops to the all-hands assembly. Regardless, I will guess it was annoying to determine who was truly going to the occasion and make sure you did not overlook anybody.

Nicely, this Google Calendar function will turn out to be useful subsequent time.

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So long as you have 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 kind in your message, kind within the e mail addresses of the individuals you need to obtain it, and hit ship.

11. Add particular assembly places.

I want I would recognized about this function the final time I obtained espresso with somebody in downtown Boston. We agreed to fulfill 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 stated.

“Oh, the one by the Courtroom Home?” he requested.

“Nicely, it is kinda by the Courtroom Home, however additional down State Avenue,” I replied.

“Oh, you imply the one by Downtown Crossing?” he clarified.

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The logistics of a gathering can get fuzzy with no particular tackle or convention room. Fortunately, Google Calendar has a function 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 particular tackle within the “The place” field. It integrates with Google Maps so it is tremendous straightforward to determine the place you are assembly and the right way to get there.

12. Use desktop notifications.

As you most likely can inform by now, I like Google Calendar … however there’s one function of which I’m not a fan.

When you’ve got 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 screen. Overlook 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.” Somewhat 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 title of the occasion that is 10 minutes away.

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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 right down to “Occasion settings” and click on the “Notifications” field, as proven beneath.

By default, your notifications could be 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’ll have efficiently enabled gentler assembly notifications.

13. Change the occasion notification time.

Within the earlier tip, you discovered the right way to soften the notifications you obtain prematurely of a gathering. However did you additionally know you may change the variety of minutes earlier than the occasion you need to be notified?

The right way 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 selected 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 alter the variety of minutes prematurely you need to be notified. As you may see beneath, you may inform Google to inform you hours, days, or weeks prematurely, too.

Professional tip: To the left of the “10,” you may change “Notification” to “E mail” when you’d fairly be informed about upcoming conferences through e mail as a substitute of a desktop notification.

14. Prepare appointment schedules.

Ever considered incorporating “workplace hours” so other people in your organization can e-book time with you? Possibly you are a part-time advisor with restricted hours to e-book conferences, or need to restrict the instances your group can e-book time with you to sure instances 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 instances of day in your calendar after which share these instances with choose individuals through a non-public calendar hyperlink. When these individuals click on the hyperlink, they will schedule conferences with you at any of the instances you carved out for them.

In case your hyperlink recipients discover a time they like, all they should do is choose it to e-book a non-public occasion with you, together with all the knowledge they’d want for the assembly.

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To arrange your personal 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 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 may then share with these whom you are prepared to rearrange appointments.

15. Browse calendars of curiosity.

Wish to be sure you’re protecting monitor of holidays in different international locations, your favourite sports activities group’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.

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To browse and add fascinating 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.

16. Implement a customized view.

Once 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 swap that out with a distinct interval in your “Customized view” choices.

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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 right 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 beneath.

You may also 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, may say “Week.” Click on it to disclose a dropdown menu the place you may customise your view additional, as proven beneath.

17. Share your calendars with others.

In case you’re utilizing Google Apps on 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’ve got an assistant, this tip shall be essential to recollect.) You may also make your calendar public, if you want.

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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 may select to do any of the next:

• Make the calendar public.
• Select to point out 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, conceal all particulars, and so forth).

Once you’re finished, click on the again arrow on the top-lefthand nook of your display screen to return to your calendar view. Google will routinely save your new calendar settings.

18. Use keyboard shortcuts.

Are you trying to actually streamline your Google Calendar efforts? Google Calendar’s obtained a ton of keyboard shortcuts to make use of, comparable to:

• t = Transfer your calendar view to immediately
• c = Create an occasion
• q = Fast Add an occasion

Check out the full list here.

19. Use fast shortcuts to discover a time or soar again to your present time.

Somewhat than manually scrolling by way of every month to discover a time far sooner or later, you may kind the letter “G” whenever you’re in your Google Calendar to shortly discover a date sooner or later.

Alternatively, when you’ve scrolled toofar and need to discover your means 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 will admit — I have been responsible of making occasions after which lacking a recipient or two after I’ve tried to e mail the complete group a pleasant reminder, or needed info to peruse previous to the assembly.

Luckily, with Google Calendar you do not have to manually type-in each title 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 Period” 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 capacity to get different work achieved, think about setting a “Default Period” of 15 or 20-minutes for conferences in order that, whenever you’re planning fast check-ins on auto-pilot, you may make sure you’ve deliberate your time effectively.

After all, for sure assembly subjects, 30-minutes to an hour is important. But when nearly all of your conferences are “catch ups” or temporary 1:1’s with colleagues, think about whether or not you may talk the main factors in 20 minutes or much less, and save the extra minor particulars for a follow-up e mail.

Alternatively, when you’re like me, you solely use your Google Calendar for the workweek — why, then, do you want the added house 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 leisure 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 just a few) 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 observe: This text was initially revealed in March 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.