GOOGLE calendar & organization

What is the Google Calendar?

How can it help you be more efficient with your time?

Google Calendar:

• An online Calendar with a number of features that allow for easy organization and planning of various events and tasks in your life.
• This calendar is linked to your Google Account and can be used across multiple devices. So long as they are logged into the same Google Account.

How to Use The Google Calendar:

• Start by opening up Google and logging into your Google Account. If you do not have one make one at google.com
  • This account must be the account logged in on any device you wish to use this calendar for. If this account is not logged in you will not see your  google calendar.

• Go to calendar.google.com to open the Google Calendar.

• When in the calendar you can begin to set up and plan out Events, Tasks, or Reminders.

Having trouble getting to appointments?

Often forgetting what is scheduled in your day?

Setting up Events in your google calendar can be an easy way to help remind yourself of what is to come.

• Locate the Day that you want to set up an Event. Click on a box underneath of that day. This will open up another menu.

• In this next menu, you can add a title for the event and indicate the time frame from which the event will begin and end at.

• You can also press on the drop-down menu to indicate whether you would like the event to repeat.

• The bell icon indicates that you can set a reminder for this event. This can be through a phone notification or an email.

• Underneath this event you can also add a description to help inform and remind you of what the event is about.

• Additionally, next to your name in the setup menu for this event. You can add a colour to help separate and differentiate different events from one another.

What was I supposed to do?

Oh That’s Right!

Reminders are great.

They help us to remember important tasks and keep us on track towards our goals.

A reminder can act as a best friend, Keeping us motivated towards success.

Google Calendar offers a great way to plot and plan reminders to aid you in achieving your goals and keep yourself organized and on track.

To set up a reminder:

•  Click on one of the boxes in your Google Calendar on the day that you wish to set a reminder for. Select the reminder option.

• You can add a title for the reminder to keep you on track.

• Click on the time in the reminder tab to open a drop down menu. The time can be changed in increments of fifteen minutes.

• You can also indicate whether this reminder will repeat. This can be set up for daily, weekly, monthly reminders or customized to better suit your needs.

Use the TASKS feature in Google Calendar tasks to ensure that one knows what they are expected to complete in a day.

To create a task one must simply:

• Click on one of the boxes underneath the day you wish to set up a task for.

• Add a title to this task.

• Click on the time and a drop-down menu will appear. You can change the time in which the task begins at by increments of 15 minutes

• You can also add a description to this task to help remind you of what the task is for or about.

Sometimes the basics just are all you need.

Sometimes it’s nice to have even more tools.

Here are some advanced techniques to keep you even more organized and prepared for your day.

• Downloading and Subscribing to the RescueTime app is a great way to manage and track your time on the computer. Allowing you to better manage your time. The information from the app can also be integrated into the Google Calendar.

• Using the “Reduce brightness of past events” option can aid in eliminating confusion about upcoming events and help to signify when past events have been completed.

• Remember to hide the sidebar when you are done using it. To make sure the screen is less cluttered and more readable.

• Get creative with the Colour Coordination options on the calendar.
  • Changing the colours of your calendars, events, reminders, and tasks can be a fun way to remind yourself of the tasks to come, while also organizing them in a manner that is easier to be read.
  • As well naming the calendars can help to remind you as to why the calendar was created in the first place.

• Sometimes you may not wish to use a calendar that you have created, but you do not want to delete it. You can use the “Eye” icon in the settings section to hide this calendar from your view without deleting it.

• Similarly, you can also delete old calendars when they are not relevant anymore.

• Lastly, if you want to create the calendars in advance but not look at them, you can have an agenda emailed to you each day that will give you a rundown of the tasks listed on it.

• Time Blocking is an excellent strategy to help you schedule your day, stay on task, and to provide yourself with the opportunity to commit to a task for a set amount of time.
  • Time blocking (aka Calendar Blocking) refers to scheduling specific activities in your calendar for predetermined amounts of time.
  • This is to combat and avoid the trap of working too long on a specific project for an unspecified amount of time.
  • By using Time Blocking one can better use the time that they have and remain more focused.

MacKay, J. (August 4, 2020). How to use google calendar to get things done: 31 powerful google calendar settings you should be using today. RescueTime:blog. https://blog.rescuetime.com/google-calendar-focus-guide/