It’s more likely than not that you’ve used Google Calendar at least once, whether someone sent you a meeting invite or you just ended up using it because it comes with your device.
While Google Calendar is a pretty straightforward app when it comes to scheduling, it comes with several amazing features and integrations that can help boost your productivity and improve your overall efficiency. Here’s a list of some of the best ones below.
1. Set Up Default Reminders
It’s always helpful to set reminders to avoid missing any upcoming events or to give yourself enough time to prepare. However, setting up a reminder for each new event you make can be quite a hassle.
Fortunately, Google Calendar lets you automatically create default reminders for all the events you make. Here’s how:
Going forward, all the events you create will automatically have these default reminders. Note that you can add more than one notification—say you want to receive several notifications for your event.
2. Integrate With Other Tools
Managing and using different tools on a daily basis, whether for personal or work use, can get overwhelming—requiring you to constantly switch between tools to stay aware of your projects and tasks.
Many of these tools let you integrate Google Calendar so that you don’t have to manually transfer information to or from your app to your calendar. For example, Google Calendar is apretty useful Slack integration you should tryif you’re using the business messaging app. The integration lets you schedule and delete events right from Slack. Slack can update your status based on your schedule! Note that how you integrate Google Calendar with an app varies depending on the app.
3. Receive Your Daily Agenda via Email
If you’re in the habit of casually swiping away notifications without giving them a second thought, there’s a good chance you might overlook your Calendar notifications. And if you prioritize emails over other forms of communication, here’s a handy trick: you can have your daily schedule sent directly to your email. This way, you won’t miss those important reminders and appointments.
To do this:
Expect to receive a daily agenda email every morning at five in the morning to get a glimpse of how your day would look like.
4. Begin Your Week on a Different Day
Whether your work involves shifting schedules, offshore assignments with different weekly start days, or you simply prefer a non-traditional start to your week, Google Calendar has got you covered. You can easily change the starting day of your week in Google Calendar.
Simply go to your Google Calendar’sSettings, selectGeneral, then scroll down toView Options.ClickStart week onand choose fromSaturday,Sunday, orMonday.
5. Use Your Voice to Set a New Event
If your hands aren’t free at the moment but need to schedule an event immediately, you can use your voice to create an event instead of opening the Google Calendar app and typing in all the details.
Just say something like, “Hey, Google, create a calendar event: a dinner with Jane Doe at 8 p.m. at Chili’s. Aside from recording all the information, Google may ask for additional information before saving the event.
Note that this isn’t possible if you’re using an Apple device. Siri can’t create events with Google Calendar. If you want Siri to add events to your Google Calendar, you must set it as your default calendar. Do this by going toSettings>Calendar>Default Calendar.
6. Embed Your Calendar
Handling your schedule could be difficult, especially if people want to set schedules with you. If you have a website, let other people set a schedule with you based on their preferences by embedding your calendar on your website.
7. Use an Online Scheduling Software
Sharing your calendar can come with the downside of having your free time taken advantage of. If you’re looking for better control over when others can schedule appointments with you, it’s worth exploringtools that simplify online scheduling,like Calendly.
8. Set Up Time Blocks
Google Calendar can further help youachieve peak productivity with time blocks. The feature lets you assign designated slots so you can focus on specific projects or tasks. Doing so enables you to focus your energy on particular goals efficiently, preventing you from procrastinating and wasting time switching from one task to another.
9. Automatically Decline Events
Using Google Calendar not only helps you keep track of your appointments. You can also use it to ensure that you maintain a work-life balance. When you set a work schedule, Google Calendar can automatically decline meeting requests when you’re out of the office or on vacation.
You can also send them an out-of-office message, informing them what they can do in the meantime, like direct them to another colleague who can handle their requests or concerns.
10. Alternate With Another Time Zone
Working with people in other time zones can make planning meetings and setting schedules tricky. Instead of spending too much time consulting anonline time zone converter, you can use Google Calendar’s secondary time zone feature to keep track of time differences and prevent scheduling mishaps.
In Google Calendar, clickSettings>General>Time zone. TickDisplay secondary time zoneunderTime zone.You can also add labels to each time zone for further organization.
11. Create Recurring Meetings
If you have meetings every week or month, you may set up recurring meetings instead of manually creating events every time. When you create an event, select the dropdown menu that saysDoes not repeatand choose how often you want the event to repeat.
12. Create an Event Shortcut
While creating a new event on Google Calendar will only take you several clicks, an event shortcut skips most steps and brings you right to the new event window in Google Calendar.
Just open your browser, typecal.new, and hitEnteror return. Additionally, there’s a lengthy list ofGoogle Calendar shortcutsthat can help you navigate and use the app more efficiently.
13. Find an Ideal Time for Meetings
Finding the ideal time is another struggle with setting a meeting or schedule. This is harder the more people are involved, and the situation becomes more confusing if you throw different time zones into the equation.
Fortunately, Google Calendar has a Find a Time feature that lets you find an available time for everyone on the team. However, it requires access to the team’s Google Calendars, and you’re able to only use it through the web app, not on the mobile app. This feature allows you to find a mutually available time that works for everyone on the team.
Use Your Calendar to Your Advantage
Google Calendar offers a range of productivity-boosting features and integrations. From setting default reminders to managing time zones and utilizing voice commands, mastering these hacks can help you make the most of your calendar for efficient time management.
