How to use Google Calendar to be a Rockstar Remote Worker
12 tips for '21 to help you make the most out of your calendar
Super fam, wish you a stunning 21! 2020 was a year when everyone went remote. Being remote is not easy, it’s a forcing function for you to be extremely organized & disciplined for it to work.
Today, I’ll be talking in-depth about helping you set up your Google Calendar which is one of the most underrated tools when it comes to remote collaborations.
If you want to skip the long-form & you’re a Twitter person, I summarised everything in this thread there for those who’re aware of basics. Just go there & enjoy! :)
1. Make different calendars for different purposes
Google doesn’t limit you to just one calendar that you usually see titled as your name when you open the app/site, you can actually create more calendars that’ll be listed under ‘My Calendars’.
The idea is to create different calendars for different or aspects of your life, because when you use only one calendar which contains all your business meetings, personal routine, family and friends get-together, it gets too cluttered to focus and separate these out.
By switching to multiple calendars, let’s say one for work and one personal, you get better at organizing things efficiently, you can view them separately or you can just check all the boxes if you want to view everything together.
Creating a new calendar is quite easy, you’ll see a plus (+) sign on the left in My Calendars, under which you’ll find ‘Create New Calendar’. You can then set a name, add a description, select a time zone, and also color code it!
2. Increase efficiency with Tasks
As I mentioned earlier, the best part about Google apps is their integration with each other. Therefore, Google Tasks (task tracking) and Keep (note making) apps feature on the right side of your calendar in a blue and a yellow circle respectively.
The useful Tasks function will allow you to create as many tasks to schedule things effectively, further, you can add a date/time and also set these tasks as repeatable turning Calendar into a to-do list.
Click on the blue circle with a tick to add a task, the pencil on the right will allow you to edit the task details or even add a subtask! Don’t forget to mark your tasks as you complete them.
3. Fix working hours
This feature becomes especially useful when people are scheduling meetings and events. Google Calendar allows you to set your own working hours and days and lets you view other people’s working hours so that you have an idea when not to schedule a meeting.
Google will simply alert you when you add someone to a meeting that lies outside their working hours (because people don’t like hitting the ‘Decline’ button).
Plus it’s a great help when people have unconventional work hours (read not 9 - 5), which has become quite the case since people are working remotely. Further, you also get the option of adding a period when you’ll be ‘Out of office’. Calendar will automatically decline any event that you are added during this time and send a custom message stating why you won’t be joining. This can be set by simply clicking on the first date you’ll be out of the office.
To fix work hours, go to Settings > General > Working Hours and then check ‘Enable working hours’ to select the days and time.
4. Set your own appointment slots
An extension of sorts to the fixing of work hours, you can also create appointment slots for other people to schedule a meeting with you (these features come with a G-Suite account commonly used in workplaces).
It’s an easy way of letting others know when you have got time to spare for quick chat or a meeting. You can select a date/time range for appointments and set the duration of each slot, there are more options to add a Zoom meeting or a location and edit description.
Now, all that your recipients need to do is click on the slot that you have marked and book their event to get in touch with you without any hassle of back and forth emails and coordinating over details.
You can create a slot just by simply clicking on Create and then go to Appointment slots.
5. Set up World Clock for different time zones
Around 11% people stated that they were struggling with different time zones. Working across different time zones is definitely challenging, therefore Google takes care of that by allowing you to enable a world clock and set up time zones where your colleagues/employers work so that you can see their times directly on your calendar.
This also helps you in scheduling an event by considering the other’s time so that you don’t end up creating an event when they are sleeping. You can also add a new calendar and set the time zone where your colleagues are working when you share it with them.
Go to Settings > Time Zone to add your preferred and secondary time zones. Just below Time, you’ll find an option to enable World clock to show on the left side of the Calendar.
6. Let the Calendar find a suitable time for your meetings
An absolute favorite, this feature helps you in saving so much time and getting rid of long email chains. Given that we are all at home where distractions and chores are plenty, it can become really tricky to find a time that suits everyone for a meeting.
Whenever you create an event, you can let Google work out the timing by checking if other people’s availability is in sync with yours. To use the feature, you have to first add all the people whom you intend to invite and click on ‘Find a time’. If they are sharing their basic calendar information with you (which is the case with friends/work), you should be able to follow their schedules side by side with yours and you can select the time period where your schedules don't clash.
The other option is to use ‘Suggested times’ where Google will start picking out slots where all participants can attend without you having to look at your attendees schedule.
7. Schedule a conference with Hangouts/Meet/Zoom
Video conferencing is one sector that has greatly benefited from the pandemic, most of our meetings require some form of video communication in remote work. Any event that you add can be easily patched with a Google Meet/Hangout video conference.
When you create an event, you’ll find this option just below the add guests list, once you select it a video call link will be generated inside the invite itself. Further, you can also use a Zoom add-on for GSuite to seamlessly schedule, join, and manage Zoom meetings right from the Calendar or you can create a Zap connecting the two.
8. Share your calendar
I have often said how over-communicating is the key to remote work, It becomes very important to keep track of your coworker’s schedules. Therefore, you should change the default setting so that the people you work with can view your calendar with the event details.
That’s why the concept of adding different calendars for different purposes makes a lot of sense. By sharing your schedule with others in detail increases your approachability. If someone needs urgent help, they can easily check what event of yours can be easily shifted to another time.
To share a calendar all you need to do is click on the three vertical dots next to the calendar, and then click ‘Settings and sharing’. You’ll be taken to a calendar settings screen where you’ll find an option to get a shareable link for your calendar for public viewing or you can share it with a specific set of people.
You can easily manage the sharing permissions depending on whether you want it so see only or others can edit. You can keep certain events private on your shared calendar if you don’t want anyone to see it, unsharing at any point of time is also quite easy, you can read more about it here.
9. Add Calendars of interest
We are always looking forward to holidays and important days, such calendars are a dream for planners. Google calendar allows you to import ‘Calendars of interest’ to add to your calendar.
Same as adding a new calendar, just go browse calendars of interest and you’ll get a list of calendars that you can import from Jewish/Christian/Muslim/Orthodox holidays to a country-specific list of holidays.
What’s even more exciting is that you can also import sports-related calendars that’ll let you know the schedule of your favorite tournaments. There’s an option to add a calendar for phases of the moon as well!
This feature can be extremely useful for people in HR to keep track of occasions around the world and organize something in a diverse environment.
10. Manage your notifications/alerts
Google gives you a lot of control over how you want to be notified or alerted before an event. You can specify whether you want them 10 minutes (default) before the start of the event or an hour earlier, you can set if you want an email as well. You can also enable notifications to inform you if someone has made changes to the event or if it is cancelled.
Click on event and below the video conferencing option, you’ll see your calendar’s name with a number of notifications and default visibility written, once you tap on that you’ll get the following box where you can set the notification timing.
You can also get your daily agenda mailed to you every morning so that you can quickly glance over at what you’ve scheduled for the day. To enable it go to Settings > Click on the calendar > Other Notifications where you’ll find the daily agenda option at the end.
11. Manage your Calendar’s view
Google Calendar gives you multiple options for its view, you can easily switch the view from day to week to month to year. There are options for showcasing weekends and declined events as well. This can be accessed from the tab (Week by default) right next to the Settings icon.
You can also set a custom view if you want to by going to Settings > General > View Options. By default the custom view is set to 4 days, but you can set it from as short as a zoomed out two day view to next 4 weeks together.
An interesting option to enhance the visibility of upcoming events is to reduce the brightness of past events so that your eye focuses only on the ‘brighter’ upcoming ones.
12. Save time with these keyboard shortcuts
Saving the best for the last, Google Calendar is equipped with loads of keyboards shortcuts to save you time by eliminating your dependence on the touchpad.
Right from adding an event to changing the view or deleting appointments, almost everything can be done using shortcuts. You won’t realize how many minutes you can save unless you try them out. Learning these shortcuts will go a long way in refining your calendar management skills. The complete list of shortcuts can be found here, some of which I’ve included below:
Apart from these, there are pretty much straightforwards options that allow you to add attachments to an event or a location so that your guest doesn’t have a hard time finding the venue.
With more control over your calendar, you can become a pro at scheduling your personal and well life and that is exactly what one needs to become a rockstar remote worker.
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