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Top Google Calendar Tips to Implement Now

February 23, 2021

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Google Calendar has become a leading professional calendaring tool. With millions of users across the globe, Google Calendar is a great scheduling and time management tool for creating events, scheduling appointments, setting goals and more.

Excellent inherent functionality and ease of integration with other tools continue to drive Google Calendar’s popularity. This feature-rich tool has so much to offer, but unfortunately, many users are failing to max out what the tool has to offer.

Google Calendar offers several options for enhancing its interface, improving efficiency and delivering an overall better user experience. From the basic to the advanced, here are some tips or hacks to help you get the most out of Google Calendar

1. Leverage Extensions and Add-ons

Integrate your calendar with your browser or blog, and optimize the integration with these, and other, extensions and widgets:

  • Google Calendar WordPress Widget. Specifically designed for WordPress, use this calendar widget on your blog and share with your readers upcoming events.
  • Add Google Calendar to the homepage on your chrome browser with i-chrome. You will see upcoming events every time you open your browser or run a search.
  • Checker Plus for Google Calendar is another chrome extension. It allows you to see your appointments for the day, upcoming events and notifications for meetings, and you can add events, and much more.
  • Use Twitter to add events to your Google Calendar with Connect Google Calendar to Twitter.
  • Integrate your calendar with your task list with Remember the Milk. You can easily check off any task you complete and keep track of what your task list.

2. Customize Experience with Scripts

Scripts make it easy to use and personalize your experience with Google Calendar.

  • Easily transfer Facebook events to your calendar with this Facebook integration script
  • Install the Extra Tabs if you prefer working with a little more than the standard on Google Calendar.
  • Eliminate icons, change the font size and padding and change up the look of your Google Calendar by installing the Google Calendar Optimized script.
  • Ensure your Google Calendar is being used over only secure connections, which keeps your personal appointments private with GCal Secure
  • Remove the header from your GCal by installing the Compact Header. This script eliminates all the extras that normally display at the top of your calendar, giving you a more streamlined view that is also easier to use.

3. Sync with other Calendars

If you use more than one calendar, syncing them with GCal should be fairly easy to do with these options:

  • See GCal Events on Apple Calendar. Follow the instructions from Google to see events on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.
  • Remote Calendars is an Outlook 2003 add-on allows Outlook users to sync with GCal and other calendar programs
  • Using SyncMyCal is another way to sync GCal with Outlook. SyncMyCal is a user-friendly and intuitive program for syncing the two calendars.
  • Google Calendar Quick Import is a script that makes importing events from iCal to GCal much easier and faster.

More Tips and Hacks

1. Share Calendars

Share calendars with other GCal users. It’s as easy as creating a new calendar and clicking on the “share calendar” link. Everyone you share your calendar with will be able to view what’s on there, which will ultimately make collaboration easier.

2. Find a Time that Works Best for Everyone

GCal has an in-built feature that allows you to see, at a glance when everyone is available. How? When you are creating an event, go to the “Find a time” tag besides “Event Details.” You will be able to see the calendars and open slots of those who have shared their calendars with you. Choosing a time that works for everyone increases the chances of them accepting your invitation to participate in the event.

3. Set Up Event Reminders

Never forget a scheduled important meeting, on crossing off an item off your to-do list by setting reminders. You will get notification by a pop-up message, an SMS or via email. It’s easy to set up these reminders, just go to Settings-Notifications and select how you’d like to get the notification.

4. Set up a Recurring Event

Don’t want to type details over and over again for events that occur regularly on your schedule? On the “repeats” pull-down, select the days on which your event repeats, whether weekly, monthly or at any other frequency.

5. Show Map Location

GCal automatically syncs to Google Maps. This synchronization comes in handy when you are scheduling a meeting in a location that is unfamiliar to invited participants. Add a physical location to the event details when you create an event. Attendees will be able to see a map view of the location of the meeting when they click on the location. With this feature, you can say goodbye to attendees running late because they got lost and you can start your meeting in good time.

6. Add Attachments

Having to draft a separate email with attachments that your meeting participants will need for reference can take up too much time. Save yourself this time, and meeting attendees the time it will take them to comb through their inboxes by adding attachments to your meeting event. You will find the icon to add attachments in the top left corner of your event details.

7. Show World Clock

Adding World Clock to your GCal will be especially helpful if you travel around the world, across different time zones. This addition allows you to schedule events or meetings in different time zones, while at the same time allowing others to view the event in their own time.

8. Hide Your Guest List

Hosting a confidential meeting? GCal offers you the option of hiding your guest list. After creating an event, uncheck” see guest list” and you can keep your guest list confidential.

9. Get Your Daily Agenda Via Email

Google Calendar allows you to get your daily agenda to your email. In one email, you get a look of the day’s events and tasks, so you know what awaits you for that day. Go to “Settings for my Calendars”, click on your calendar and scroll right down to “General Notifications.” Finish by selecting “Email” under “Daily Agenda.”

10. Duplicate Events

Save on time and effort with GCal’s “Duplicate” feature. It’s a feature perfect for when you need to build events that are similar, with very little, if any changes between them. Simply duplicate an event, and only spend time and effort changing details such as the time and location. You can access this feature by going to “Event Settings”, and on the “More Actions” drop down menu, select “Duplicate.” This feature loads a new event with the same details as your first one and you can make the necessary changes.

Conclusion

Tips and hacks for using the feature-rich, and highly functional Google Calendar will see you manage your time and workload better. It’s user friendly and intuitive, so it doesn’t really matter whether you are getting started with GCal. It may seem like you’d get lost with this many features, but each feature will really improve your experience.

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