I am an avid user of calendars. I need them to stay on top of things and remember what I have going on. I’m also very forgetful so having everything written down and in one place helps me know what I have on and when I am busy. And now that things are opening up in the UK, we finally have things to add to our diary! With all that being said, I have tried many types of calendars, both off- and online. Though I love having a physical calendar, I always end up not using it after a few weeks or months.
Another problem with physical calendars is that you need to take them everywhere with you. As we’ve already established, I’m forgetful. But sometimes you don’t want to be carrying around an extra item or having to use a larger bag to accommodate it. And if you forget to bring a pen, that’s it. So having an online calendar fixes that as I (almost) always have my phone with me.
Having said all that, and if you haven’t already guessed from the title, I use Google Calendar and I love it. I find it very intuitive and user-friendly. It also has many features and is completely free! If you already use Google Calendar, you might find out a thing or two, and if you don’t use it, I might convince you to start! Also, I apologise in advance for how many times I have used the word “calendar” in this article. Enjoy!
Access your calendar from any device
Something Google has excelled at is being on all of our devices - though some apps may be better than others. Google Calendar is an example of this done well and you can have access to all of your meetings and events from anywhere. If I’m scheduling in a few events and organising my week, I prefer to be on my laptop as I can use shortcuts to make it quicker and more efficient (more on that later).
However, I use my phone more on a daily basis and being able to quickly check my calendar, get notifications for upcoming events and even quickly adding something to my schedule is incredibly easy. Just the other day, I got a phone call about moving an appointment I had and as soon as I hung up the phone, I went into my calendar, tapped on the one in question and changed the time of it. It was easy and quick, and more importantly, meant that I wouldn’t forget to do it when I got back to my computer.
Quickly change between calendar views
Depending on what you’re doing, viewing your calendar in different ways will make things easier. If you’re planning your semester work or classes, a monthly view would be more helpful than a daily view. Similarly, using the weekly view would help if you are planning your week.
Google Calendar has a variety of ways to display your calendar other than the classic daily, weekly and monthly view. The schedule view lists all your events and appointments, and you can also choose to use a four-day view. With that being said, use the shortcuts below for each view. You just need to click the letter you want, no need to press Ctrl or Alt:
Daily: D
4 days: X
Weekly: W
Monthly: M
Yearly: Y
Schedule: A
Drag and drop
Sometimes, life gets in the way and events need to be postponed. To make your life easier, you can just drag and drop them to where you want them to go. This is extremely handy if you plan your days and use time-blocking; if something comes up or you finish something earlier than expected, you can very quickly move things around to accommodate all your plans.
Duplicate and repeat events
If you work the same shifts or have the same classes every week, repeating events would win you a lot of time and effort - these are usually called recurring events. You can choose to set them for a certain time period or for a number of sessions. If that recurring event were to change, say to a later time or a different day, you can edit all the occurrences at once. You can also modify individual events without changing any of the other ones. Here’s a tutorial on how to create recurring events.
If you have similar events, for example, four-hour shifts that are never on the same day or at the same time, you can duplicate (or copy) an event and then quickly modify the day and/or time and save it. This means you can skip creating a brand new event every time. The duplicated event will have all the details that you put in the original one: name, colour, calendar, notes, locations, and more. Here’s a short video walking you through duplicating events.
Use different calendars
A great feature that you can (and should) use is the different calendars. You can create loads to suit your needs. You could have one for work, uni, an online course, a hobby, different family members if you use a shared calendar (more on that later) and more. You automatically get a public holiday and a birthdays calendar, but you can turn those off if you prefer.
I currently have 5 calendars: one for work, one for uni, one for the blog, one for time-blocking and planning daily tasks (which are not events or appointments), and my “main” calendar which I use for general appointments, events and such. The latter includes things like hairdresser or doctors appointments, hobbies and activities, travels - basically anything that isn’t specific to one of the other 4 calendars.
Using different calendars makes it easier to visualise what you have going on and when, what your availability is and how much time you are spending on different areas of your life. The best way to do that is by using different colours.
Colour code
My favourite element of Google Calendar is being able to colour code my calendars. Whenever I add an event, I choose which calendar to add it to and it automatically makes that event the colour I chose for the calendar. By just glancing at my calendar, I immediately know what an event relates to, whether it’s something to do with my classes or work for example.
There are many colours you can choose from. However, you also have the option to create a custom colour. This is ideal if you want to make the calendar match your brand colours. It also just allows you to be creative and use the colours that work best for you. I hate when apps or websites only have a small selection of colours to choose from. It’s very limiting and makes it less personal to you. So yay for that!
Share your calendar with others
Finally, as mentioned earlier, a great feature with Google Calendar is that you can share it with people. You only share individual calendars meaning that even if you share your university calendar with your classmate, they won’t be able to see your personal or work one. Sharing your calendar with others can be practical for work, projects or even couples and families.
You can choose whether the people you share it with can only view it, which is great when you want colleagues to know when you’re busy, or can also edit it. The latter is great when you are working on a project and need to know what everyone is working on and you have deadlines in common. It’s also a good way for families to stay organised and parents can check when their children have football practice or ballet classes, for example.
Thank you for reading this week’s post, I hope it was helpful or, at least, somewhat entertaining. I hope you have a wonderful - and organised - week and I look forward to seeing you again next week!
Yours truly,