Google Calendar is a great calendar tool that syncs across all of your Google apps on your computer and mobile devices. If you’ve never used your Google Calendar before, we’ll walk you through the basics and how to get it started by creating events and scheduling through your Gmail.
To see our full video on how to learn and use Google Calendar, check it out here.
You can navigate to the Calendar by going to any Google website and finding it in the Apps section on the top right corner. You can also go to calendar.google.com.
The calendar will default automatically into a weekly view, but this can be changed to a daily, monthly, 4 days, or agenda view by changing it on the top bar.
My Calendars
On the left hand menu, you’ll find a list of calendars Google has automatically added for you. There’s a calendar you’ve created, any birthdays from your contacts list, tasks you have added from your Gmail, and national or statutory holidays. You can toggle which ones are visible by clicking on the label and turning the left box to a white box.
Creating Tasks
When you add a new task and assign a date to it, it’ll be added to your Tasks calendar. You can edit the task or reschedule it by editing it, or simply dragging and dropping it to the time and date you want.
Click on any calendar and click “switch to tasks” to open a Tasks bar on the right hand side of the screen. Here, you can add tasks, when they need to be completed, and check them off once they’re done.
Creating a Quick Event
If you want to quickly create an event to go into your calendar, hit the dropdown arrow beside the red CREATE button to Quick Add an event. Type in your event name and when the event is taking place. Google will add it to your calendar. You can type a specific date or something as simple as “tomorrow morning” or “next Saturday afternoon,” and Google will fill in the specific criteria for you.
You’re also able to create a quick event straight from the google.com homepage. Make sure you’re logged into Google and simply type in the command “make an appointment,” event, and time to schedule. For example, typing “make an appointment for the doctor next Tuesday at 1 pm” and hitting enter, Google will automatically create an event for you. To add it to your calendar, click on the Create event button right under the event. When you access your calendar, the event will show up.
Creating an Event
To create an event, hit the CREATE button on the top left menu, or find the day and approximate time in Google calendar and click on the blank space to create an event.
If you need to change the date and time of the event, you can drag and drop the event to any other time and date in your calendar view.
All Day events can be easily scheduled by clicking on the day in the Weekly view and adding in the event. You can also edit the event and select it as an “All day” event.
Editing an Event
To edit an event you’ve created, click on the event, and hit Edit. This will take you to an edit menu where you can change multiple aspects:
- The event heading
- The time and date
- If the event repeats
- Event location
- If it’s a video call
- Adding a description
- Adding an attachment
- Adding any attachments, like documents, tickets, or other files
- Adding notifications
- You can set up when Gmail notifies you and other guests of the event before the event starts
Repeating events
If you want an event to repeat, you can set it up as a repeat event. This can be found in the Edit menu of the event, and here you can adjust if the event is going to repeat every weekday, every other day, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
You can customize just about everything, including how long the event is going to repeat. For example, if you have a weekly meeting for the next three months, you can get that event to repeat every Tuesday at noon until whenever the last meeting is.
Invite Guests
Through making an event, you can add guests and send invitations to them through the Edit menu. Type any guests’ email addresses (or names and groups if you have them saved in your contacts) and hit Add to send them an invite.
You can change guest permissions to the event by clicking modify event, allow them to invite others, or they can see the guest list.
Availability
If you use Google Calendar to show your availability to others and when you’re available to book, there are two ways to adjust your availability.
The first is through your calendar settings. Under the settings page, the option of Working Hours allows you to show what days and time of day you’re working, which you can adjust to fit your hours. Check off the “Show a warning” checkmark and fill in the applicable time and dates for you.
Another way to show your availability is through your events. When you’re in the process of creating an event, check off the “Show me as Busy” setting, and now, whenever your event is happening, anyone who tries to reach you or book you for any meetings will see that you’re unavailable during those times.
Search for Events
If you have a lot of events in your Google Calendar, you can use the search bar at the top of the page to look for any specific events. You can search for the event by title, the guests you’ve invited, or the day that it’s scheduled.
Create a New Calendar
With Google Calendar, you can create as many calendars as you want. This can be handy if you’re sharing any calendars with groups, another person, or within your school or business.
On the My Calendars feature, click on the dropdown arrow and click Create new calendar. Here, you can fill in a name and description, adjust the time zone if necessary, and share the calendar with groups or specific people. You can also adjust the sharing settings to adjust if anyone else can add or edit events, or if it’s view-only for anyone other than you.
Once you’ve shared a calendar with somebody, it will show up in their Google Calendar account as well. Make sure when you’re adding a new event, that it’s being assigned to the right calendar. This can be changed when you’re making the event under the Edit menu.
If you have already made a calendar and want to share it with others, find the calendar in the My Calendars tab, click on the dropdown arrow and click Share this calendar.
Adding Interesting Calendars
If you’d like to add calendars and events to your account that are things like holidays, sports games, and other public schedules, there’s a way to do that in Google Calendar.
In settings under the Calendars tab, click on Browse interesting calendars. Here you can search for your favorite sport’s team schedules, national or religious holidays, and other calendars that may be available. Once you’ve added one, it will show on the main calendar page alongside your own events.
Restoring Deleting Events
If you’ve deleted an event either on purpose or accidentally, there’s still a way to recover it if you need to access it. Simply go to the dropdown menu of the calendar you’ve deleted it from and click View Trash. The events you’ve deleted will be there, and you can restore it if you need it. Keep in mind that the trash empties itself every 30 days, so any deleted events older than that will be gone for good.
Mobile Setup
Google Calendar is an app on both iPhone and Android phones if you want to access your calendar off of the computer. Here, you can also manage notifications for events, and if they’re turned on, you’ll receive notifications before an event starts. You’re also able to create and edit events and do anything available on the desktop version.
Settings Goals & Reminders in the Calendar Mobile App
A handy feature in the mobile app is the ability to set goals and reminders.
To set a reminder, click on the + sign on the bottom right corner of the app, and click on Reminder. This is where you can write down any descriptors and the date and time you need Google to remind you of this. You can also adjust if it’s an all-day reminder or if the reminder is a one-time or repeating occurrence.
Setting goals is helpful when it comes to tracking and planning to get things done and feel accomplished. If you need someone to keep you accountable, why not trust your calendar to help you out.
To start a new goal, click on the + sign and tap on Goal. From here, there are several categories to choose from: exercise, build a skill, family & friends, me time, and organize my life. Once you click on one of the categories, you can specify what your goal is. You’ll be asked how long you want to do this activity, when, and how many times a week.
Once you’ve filled everything out, Google will search through your schedule and find the openings in your schedule and assume what the best time is for you to work on your goal.
Once you’ve done your goal for the day, you can mark it as done in the app. If something’s come up or you’re otherwise not able to do your goal for the day, you can defer it. Google then will find another day and time for you to work on that goal.
If you want to delete a session, click on that particular session, tap the three dots on the top right of the screen, and Delete the session. If you want to delete all future sessions, go to the next session in your calendar, tap the Delete button, and delete All following sessions (and stop scheduling).
You can access and edit goals in the desktop version of Google Calendar, but creating goals is only available in the mobile app.
Check out a full walkthrough of how to set goals in this video.
Booking Appointments
If you have clients, students, or anyone who needs to meet with you via appointment, calendars offer an option to book time slots.
In the Week or 4 day viewer, click on the day and time you’re available. If you click and only one hour is highlighted, remember you can drag the event downwards to extend and change the end time.
After clicking and setting the date and time, a box will pop up asking you to describe the event. Click on Appointment slots to make the event into appointment slots.
Under type, you can choose between “offer as a single appointment slot” or “offer as slots of __ minutes,” in which you can fill in the minutes each appointment slot can be. Once it’s created, click on Edit Details under the appointment, and you’ll be able to edit anything that’s needed.
There will also be an option to invite guests through email addresses or groups. The appointment is created into a page for people to access and can be shared with anyone who has the link.
If someone wants to book a time slot in your calendar, they can click on any of the slots you’ve made available, and you will have information on who has booked that slot.
Agenda
Would you like to get an email in the morning showing your whole agenda for the day? This is already built into Google Calendar, and it isn’t on by default. If you want to turn this on, click on the gear in the top right corner and go to Settings.
On the Calendars tab, go to Edit notifications under My Calendars. Here, you can see what notifications are already set. There’s an option for Daily agenda to receive an email with your agenda every day at 5 am in your current time zone. Once you’ve enabled that, save the setting and starting the next day, all the events in your day will be emailed to you in an agenda-style format.
If you’re interested in learning more tips on how to use Google Calendar to the fullest, check out this video on tips and tricks you may not know about.
