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Tips to manage your time in Calendar

Google Workspace productivity guide

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Create task lists

You can keep track of your daily tasks, organize multiple lists, and track important deadlines by using Google Tasks in Calendar.

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Learn how
  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. On the left, under “My calendars,” select Tasks.
  3. Choose an option:
    • In your calendar, click an empty slot on your calendar.
    • In the top left, click Create.
  4. Click Task.
  5. Enter a title and description.
  6. To add the new task to a specific list, choose one from the drop down.
  7. Click Save.

 

 

Make notes in Google Keep

You can easily keep track of important notes, while working in your Calendar. Just open Google Keep!

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Learn how
  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. On the right, click Keep .
  3. To Add a note or list, click + Take a note or New list New list.
  4. To edit a note, click a note and enter a message.
  5. Click Done.

 

 

Set out of office status

If you plan to be out of the office, update your calendar so co-workers know you’re away from work.

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Learn how

When you indicate that you’re out of office, your calendar will automatically decline all meetings during that time.

  1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
  2. At the top of your calendar, click the first date you’ll be out of the office.
  3. Click Out of office.
  4. Select the dates that you’ll be out of the office. You can also specify a time.
  5. Optional: To schedule out-of-office events that repeat, below the day and time you select, click the drop down menu next to “Does not repeat” and then choose a frequency.
  6. Optional: Change your decline settings and edit your decline message.
  7. Click Save.

 

 

Schedule focus time

You can reduce distractions while you work by blocking out time in your calendar to let you focus on what you need to do.

To schedule a focus time event, you must have a work or school account. If you can’t find the focus time option, it may not be available for your organization.

Learn how

Important: You can only create focus time events from Day and Week views. The events must have a specific start and end time.

  1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
  2. Click the time you want to schedule focus time.
  3. At the top of the event, click Focus time.
  4. Select when you want your event to begin and end.
  5. Set your focus time preferences:
    • To receive notifications for Chat messages, next to "Do not disturb," deselect the box.
    • To automatically decline meetings during focus time, next to “Automatically decline meetings,” check the box.
  6. Click Save.

Tips:

  • When you deselect Do not disturb, it becomes the default setting for new focus time events.
  • By default, focus time declines new and existing meetings. However, you can update your focus time settings to “Only decline new meetings.”

 

 

Create an appointment schedule

Important: Appointment schedules replace appointment slots. Learn more about the changes to appointment slots.

With appointment schedules, you can:

  • Create and share booking pages so people can book time with you.
  • View booked appointments alongside your schedule in Calendar.
Learn how

Create an appointment schedule

Important: To create an appointment schedule on a secondary calendar or add co-hosts to an appointment schedule, you need an eligible Google Workspace subscription. Learn more about premium features for appointment schedules.

  1. On a computer, open Google Calendar.
  2. At the top left, click Create Add.
  3. Click Appointment schedule.
  4. Enter a title.
    • The title is visible to anyone who has the link to your booking page.
    • The title appears on your calendar for the schedule and incoming bookings.
  5. To set an appointment duration, click the down arrow Dropdown.
    • Appointments must be at least 5 minutes long.
  6. Set the date, time, and time zone of your appointments.
    • You can set up a one-time or recurring appointment schedule.
    • Tip: To add multiple time slots for a single day, click Add another period to this day .
  7. Choose settings for your appointment availability, such as your scheduling window or days when you won't be available. Learn about customizing your availability.
  8. Choose a primary or secondary calendar where you want to add your appointment schedule.
    • Tips:

      • Once you create an appointment schedule, you can't edit it to be on a different primary or secondary calendar.

      • Anyone with edit permission to a secondary or primary calendar can make changes to the schedule and view incoming bookings. Learn more about access permissions.

  9. Optional: To avoid conflicts for events created or accepted on primary or secondary calendars, under "Calendars," select Check calendars for availability. Then, select all calendars for which you don't want bookable times to be available during any created or accepted events.
    • Important: Each appointment slot on a booking page can only be booked once even with this feature turned off.
  10. To add co-hosts to the appointment, enter the co-host's names or email addresses.
    •  You can also add Google Groups directly.

  11. Click Next.

Learn more at the Google Calendar Help Center

 

 

Check guest attendance

If you need to track attendance for your event, you can instantly see who’s accepted or declined your invitation, and who’s proposed a new meeting time.

Learn how
  1. In the Calendar grid, click the event.
  2. Go to the Guests field to see a list of responses from your guests. You might have to click the Down arrow Down arrow to see the responses.

 

 

Schedule private or personal events

You can add personal events to your work calendar where details aren't shown to other people. For example, schedule a doctor appointment or personal sports event and set the visibility of your event to Private. You'll see event details on your calendar, but for others the event shows only as "busy."

Learn how at the Google Calendar Help Center


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

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