Google Calendar

Pro Tips

In order to understand how best to use google calendar, I like to start off by watching a few random tips and tricks. I prefer starting off this way, as opposed to a tutorial, because it gives me a few cool ideas around which I can then centre all of my learning. I started off by watching this video: 8 Google Calendar Tips for Productivity :

- To quickly create a new calendar event, open a new tab (ctrl+t or ⌘+t) and type "cal.new" and hit enter.
- Either as a default setting or within each event (recommended until personal preferences are discovered) you can change the notification time and whether guests can modify the event directly.
- Near the suitcase icon the "busy" option means other people can't block that time, but "free" means other can over-ride that time and schedule over the event.
- The "Default visibility" can be changed to "Public" for others to see or "Private" if it is meant to be seen only by you.
- Notifications can be added with the option of "Notification" to appear through the calendar app or "Email" to appear as an email reminder. While using the email reminder, you can also add an email filter for mails from "calendar-notification@google.com" containing some keywords from this reminder. If you create such a filter, the filter can also apply a label, for more effective reminding. This process is recommended for some routine organisation tasks.
- To get an email with the day's agenda, go to settings ->Settings for my Calendars (select a calendar) -> Event notifications -> Daily agenda -> Email. Once again an email filter and label system can be setup for this.
- To share calendar with select people go to settings ->Settings for my Calendars (select a calendar) -> Add people (Share with specific people) -> Get shareable link. In doing this the level of access for each person can also be managed.
- For advanced search, click on the search glass button, and then the drop down for advanced search filters.

Setup Guide

With a few ideas in mind regarding the best features of calendar, I can move on to learning how to set my calendar up from scracth using this video: How to Organise Your Calendar - The Ultimate Guide :

From my initial setup, a few important takeaways that I have noted are as follows:

- Classifying Items

Each newly added item in the calendar can be an event (if it goes on during a specific time-frame, may involve other people etc), task (must be completed by a certain time) or a reminder (quick point of time notification). Based on the characteristics of the item to be added, one must carefully use the right element.

- Repetition

There are a lot of options in terms of when an event or task must repeat. I find it most useful to pick an appropriate time for the first event, and then set my best guess for the frequency of repetition. Most of my repeated tasks have an approximate frequency, and depend on the previously completed task. For example, I would get a hair cut approximately one month after my previous hair cut, not every 4th Thursday. To achieve this, closer to the day of the hair cut, I adjust the exact time of my hair cut task on the calendar, and ensure that all future events also update accordingly.

- Calendar Creation

It can be very useful to colour code events, so that a quick glance at the calendar gives you an idea of what the day is like. Ensure that you have already categorised different events, and set a colour for each of them. Otherwise one could end up with an overly colourful calendar, which doesn't clearly communicate anything with the colours. I execute the addition of different colours by creating different calendars (all of which I display). The reason that I create new calendars instead of just selecting a different colour for the event is that I get to add a custom colour this way, and also have the ease of quickly treating all similar events one way (if I have to change settings for 1 calendar).
Some of the calendars that I have found useful to create are work, social, chores, learning in public (any hobby) and chores. This is over and above the default tasks and reminders. I use this work calendar just to block out time that will go into work (so that other calendars become more realistic) and to mark some important to-dos that I might otherwise forget. The actual tracking of what will happen when and meeting invites, I will leave to my work's outlook calendar. Social will contain various social obligations coming up, as well as reminders of everyone's birthdays.

To Dos

Explore topic further and complete notes.
Create a sample calendar setup which can be copied, and provide the link.