Time is precious, especially if you're trying to balance both work and home life. Using an online calendar means less time spent inputting tasks, searching for meeting codes, and switching from app to app. This allows for more time getting things done and enjoying the little things in life!
Google calendar is the most straightforward online scheduling app to start off with as it's simple to use and already connected to your Google and Gmail accounts.
So whether you are finally making the transition from paper to online, organizing your family's complicated schedules, or just looking for a way to elevate your Google calendar game, here are a few tips and tricks to get you started.
Create Multiple Calendars
When you first start off with Google calendars, you are given one calendar called "my calendar" to work with. Click the little plus sign (+) next to "My calendars," and you'll see the option, "New calendar." Click that button, name your new calendar, and voilà! A cool feature about having multiple calendars is that you can hide them from view whenever you want to. So if you're on vacation and really don't want to think about work, all you have to do is turn off your work calendar for a while and enjoy your time away from the desk!
Color Coding
The Google calendar default colors are not the prettiest to look at. Chances are, if you're scheduling things on your Google calendar, you're going to be looking at the page often. The good news is that you can change the default colors to something that fits your style! This feature is especially handy when utilizing multiple calendars. Just click the little 3 buttons next to your calendars, and a selection of colors will pop up.
Google Keep
This hidden gem is the perfect addition to your google calendar experience. Google Keep is a sidebar pop up that lets you create, share, and collaborate with people on notes and lists. These notes also synchronize across all your devices, and are available to view and edit in all of the Google applications so your notes and lists go with you, wherever you are! This feature is located on the side bar in your Google Calendar; just click the little yellow box with the lightbulb.
Add Meetings - Google, Zoom, Google Hangouts
With working from home becoming more prevalent, so has the need for virtual meetings. Not all companies are on the same page with what video call platforms to use, this can result in having way too many tabs open at one time. Fortunately, Google has a solution for this. You can add a zoom or google hangout link directly to your calendar by clicking the "Add video call" link. This makes it so much easier to just hop on that call right away instead of filtering through the many online pages. And, as your Google calendar is attached to your Gmail, you can also attach that zoom link directly through your email. No copy and pasting necessary!
Daily Agenda
If you’re the type of person that always has a busy day ahead of them, then you might want to set up this feature. When you enable daily Agenda, Google will send your daily schedule straight to your inbox each morning at 5 am. This is perfect for a student or someone constantly on the go.
Click the “Settings menu” gear, then “Settings”
Click on your calendar under “Settings for my calendars”
Next, scroll down to “General notifications”
Under “Daily agenda” choose “Email”