Google offers a seemingly endless toolbox of productivity tools, and thanks to Google Calendar I've been able to fine tune my scheduling and productivity habits. Calendar has been around for years, but I was surprised by the amount of people who don’t use it to its full potential. I now use Google Calendar to organize both my professional and social life, while also as a tool to stay organized on blog posts and scheduling. Here are some tips I've learned along the way...
Getting Started: Just like Google Reader, anyone with a Gmail account automatically has access to create and use their own Google Calendar. Click on the Calendar tab in the upper left-hand menu to get there from Gmail.
Schedule Meetings/Events: There are 3 ways to create an event. For meetings at work, I find it best to click on the button “Create Event” in order to fully detail the meeting with the exact time, date, location and everyone who may attend.
“Quick Add” lets you title your event first and then takes you directly to the same detailed page as "Create Event". I like to use Quick Add when planning out topics I’m going to write about for the month. For reminders that don’t require any invitations or specific times, I click on the square in the calendar (generally I like to look at my calendar in month view) and quickly type in a reminder for that day, such as a note to call someone or when an RSVP for an event opens.
Organize Social Life: If your friends are willing to share calendars, this is one of the best tools for scheduling hangouts for drinks, game night, sports or anything you like to do within and as a group. Because we can’t always keep in touch with friends during the week, being able to see each other’s availability makes it that much easier to pick a time where everyone can get together.
Adding Calendars: At my office, Gmail is our primary email server, so it was simple to add all my colleagues' calendars in order to easily check everyone’s availability when it comes to scheduling meetings or brainstorms. If all your coworkers and friends use Gmail like mine do, it’s a snap to add everyone’s calendars. Simply type in their email and wait for them to accept.
Color Coordination: I love color coordination, and the same applies to Gmail labels for marking and accessing others’ calendars in Google Calendar. You can view your own calendar at all times, and then click onto whoever else’s calendar in your list to see when they are available. The colors you assign to each calendar makes it easy to discern plans from different aspects of your life.
Plan Ahead: Color coordination also comes in handy when it comes to planning for assignments on deadline. I like to label my assignments, starting from a range of warm color tones to cool depending on the urgency. This way I can see which assignments need to be done immediately and which I have more time to plan for which makes a huge difference when work starts to pile up.
Other helpful organization tools you could try are the Pomodoro Technique and the Due app.
(Image: Shutterstock)
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Google Calendar rocks
That picture is awesome, though I have a disappointing suspicion it's merely a mock up. I would love a display on my fridge for my Google Calendar, ala those old magnetic dry-erase calendar boards.
I use Google Calendar for everything!
- Marking up-coming release dates for books and movies.
- Repeating events for things that we never remember to do like replacing the toothbrush, changing the baking soda in the fridge, change the oil in the car, etc.
- Menu planning. I've set up favorite dishes on a semi-random repeating cycle (dish A every 4 weeks, dish B every 9 weeks, dish C every 7 weeks, etc). After some initial effort, my menu plan automatically populates itself and it's never the same menu for the entire week!
- House cleaning tasks. If it's on my calendar, I'm more likely to do it. There's also those little things that we should do a few times a year but never remember (like washing the curtains and cleaning the blinds).
- Keeping track of contacts birthdays.
- Keeping track of holidays.
- Imported iCal calendar from SideReel to keep track of TV shows. Because DVRs aren't 100% trustworthy in my experience.
- Various other imported iCal calendars.
What's really cool about Google Calendar is that you can have multiple personal calendars. My menu plan calendar is separate from my tasks calendar which is separate from my regular calendar. Each is color coded, as explained in the post above.
In Gmail, whenever I get an email coupon or offer I might use, I add it Google Tasks marking the due date as the expiration date of the coupon. Then it automatically shows up in Google Calendar and I'm more likely to use the coupon (as opposed to letting it sit in my Gmail in-box, neglected and forgotten).
an old laptop and a case mod seem to be just right for that.
i didn't know that you could share calendars with friends!
I have several google calendars for my own events as well. That way I can control what I'm sharing with the various people who have access to my different calendars. I have three calendars for the various groups I work with a work, and several calendars for my own work.
The picture is definitely not a mock-up. My calendar looks just like that.
Oh! Ooops! The coat rack would be awesome!
like sam i am, i use my google calendar for eeeeverything. even as a food journal. i have a terrible memory, so it keeps me organized and... sane. i just put everything in! small things, movie release dates, library book due dates, when i need to do laundry or pick up medicine from the pharmacy.... and i have multiple calendars so i can collapse them. one for school, one for my to do list (i don't like the task feature, i'd rather block out specific chunks of time to do things). i also share mine with my boyfriend and he shares his with me. it's fantastic. and i agree with the author that people reeeeally don't use it enough, or to its full potential.
I love this and will color coordinate more often in Google Calendar.
My favorite part of the calendar is the notifications feature. I can get notified by email, text, popup or any combination of the three so that I don't forget a thing. I've had four concussions in 16 years (long story) so my short term memory is shot BUT no one notices a thing because I appear to remember everything.
I'll be asked to help a friend move, or attend a meeting for volunteers, or bake cookies for a coworker's birthday - and instantly it's entered into Google Calendar, a reminder set up, and then I can forget about it. I don't have to keep track of everything in my head anymore.
I've recently started using the Task feature - entering in a task then then I've completed it - I add that note to the task. There's something about typing out " - completed 4:03 PM Tue" then clicking the box to mark the task completed.
I'd be lost without my Google calendars. (work, personal, volunteer)