Optimize Your Time: The Advanced Guide to Google Calendar

Calendar

With Google Calendar, quickly schedule meetings and events and get reminders about upcoming activities, so you always know what’s next. Calendar is designed for teams, so easily share your schedule with others and create multiple calendars that you and your team can use together.

Set up your calendar for Google Workspace

Customize your work week

Choose how many days you see

After choosing a new view, it will become your default view until you change it.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• In the top right, choose a view type:
  1. Day
  2. Week
  3. Month
  4. Year
  5. Schedule
  6. 4 days

Further customize your Calendar view

Set the start of your calendar week, define a custom view, and use an alternate calendar.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• In the top right, click Settings.
• On the left, click View options.
• Choose your settings. Changes are saved automatically.

Important: Side-by-side calendars will not work for week or month view in Google Calendar.

Set your working hours

If you prefer not to be invited to events outside your working hours, you can adjust your Google Calendar settings so organizers know to reschedule an event for a better time.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• In the top right, click Settings.
• On the left, under “General”, click Working hours.
  • Tip: If your administrator has turned on work location, you can click Working hours & location. 
• In the “Working hours” section, click Enable working hours.
• Select the days you work and then the hours you work.
• You can split the hours you work based on your availability.
  • To add more than one time period to your workday, next to a day of the week, click Add.
  • To remove a time period, click Remove.

Set your work location

Let people know which days you are in the office and when you are working remotely.

Specify work locations

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• In the top right, click Settings.
• On the left, under “General”, click Working hours & location.
• Select the days you work. 
• Next to each day, enter a work location.

Tip: To indicate your workplace, select a day on your calendar and click the location section.

Manage your event notifications

Set preferences for all your calendars

• In Calendar, click Settings and then Settings.
• On the left, under General, click Notification settings.
• Click Notifications and select an option:
  • Off
  • Desktop notifications
  • Alerts
• (Optional) To set a sound for your incoming notifications, check the Play notification sounds box.
• (Optional) To manage your notifications, on the left, click your calendar and then Other notifications.
• For each option, select None or Email.
• Change preferences for a calendar

You can change notification preferences for specific calendars under your own calendars.

• Open Google Calendar.
• In the top right, click Settings.
• On the left, under “Settings for my calendars”, click the calendar you want to change and then Calendar settings.
• Under “Event notifications” and “All-day event notifications”:
  • Frequency and method: Define whether you prefer to receive notifications (on-screen) or emails, and how far in advance you want alerts.
  • Add notification: Incorporate new alert types according to your needs.
  • Remove notification: Delete notifications you no longer require.

Schedule an event with coworkers

Create an event.

• Schedule the event and add guests.
• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
  • Optional: To add guests to your event
    1. On the left, click Search for people
    2. Start typing your guests’ names.
• Click any time on the calendar that doesn’t already have an event scheduled.
• Add an event title and any event details, then Save.

Tip: To schedule a longer event on the calendar, hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor down while selecting the desired time block.

Compare guests’ calendars to find a time.

You can view guests’ calendars side by side when you create an event to find a time when everyone is available:

• Go to Settings 
• Select View options
• Turn on “View calendars side by side” in day view.

Add a room to an event.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Create a new event or open an existing one.
  • To modify an existing event, select “Edit event”.

• Important: If your organization has access to Rooms:
  • Click Rooms
  • Here you can choose from suggested rooms or search for a new resource.
  • Click the rooms or resources you want to add.
• Click Save.

Tip: You can book more than one room for an event.

Attach an agenda.

Calendar can create an agenda for you, or you can attach an existing agenda to your event.

Create an agenda for a new event.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Create an event.
• Optional: Enter the title, time, guests, and other details.
  • Click Add description or attachments
  • Create meeting notes 
  • Save.
    • Your meeting notes, pre-populated with event details, will be attached to your event and shared with your guests, including those outside your organization.

Create or attach an agenda to an existing event.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Select an option:
  • Click an event 
  • Take meeting notes.
    • Meeting notes pre-populated with event details will be attached to your event.
  • To attach a document to an event
    • Click the desired event.
    • Select “Menu”.
    • Choose “Attach a document”.
      • The selected meeting notes will be attached to the event.

• Meeting notes open in a new window. On the right, click Share.

Add video conferencing.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Create an event or open an existing one.
  • For new events, click More options.
  • For existing events, click Edit.
• In the event, look for the video conferencing field.
  • To remove an existing video conference, click Remove.
  • To add a video conference, click Add video conferencing.
• Click Save.

Tip: To avoid joining meetings with expired codes and for better planning of future meetings, check the expiration date of meeting codes.

Invite more people to your event.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Click an event 
• Edit event.
• To invite people to an event, type their name in the Guests section and select them from your contacts. If the person is not in your contact list, you can enter their email address to send them an invitation.
  • To mark an attendee as optional, locate their name and click “Mark optional” shown next to them in the People section.
    • If the icon is hidden, you can reveal it by hovering directly over the guest’s name.
• When you finish editing your event, click Save.

Cancel or restore an event.

Delete an event to cancel it.

If you create an event, you can delete it. This removes the event from your calendar and from all other guests’ calendars.

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• Click the event you want to delete.
• Click Delete event Delete.

Restore an event.

You have approximately 30 days to restore an event you deleted by mistake.

• Open Google Calendar.
• In the top right section, click the Settings menu 
• Click Trash. Here you’ll find events deleted from this calendar.
  • Individual event: Next to the event you want to restore, select “Restore”.
  • Multiple events: Above the list of deleted events, choose “Restore all selected”.

Respond to event invitations

Respond to an invitation

When you receive an event invitation, it will appear on your calendar. If you are subscribed to email notifications, you can also receive them in your inbox. If you use Gmail, you can respond to the invitation directly from the email.

• Open the invitation email or the event on your calendar.
• Click “Yes”, “No”, or “Maybe”.
• If you click “Yes”, you can:
  • Automatically update how you will join the meeting:
    • Yes, in a meeting room, when joining from the office.
    • Yes, joining virtually, when joining from another location.
  • Manually update how you join a meeting:
    • Click the down arrow.
    • Select your preferred join method.

Respond to a forwarded invitation

Guests can forward a meeting link to other people. If someone tries to join and was not invited to the Calendar event, a meeting participant from your organization must accept their request. If you receive an invitation via a forwarded email, you have the option to respond directly from that email.

• In Gmail, point to the email and click “RSVP”. 
• Click your response.

Propose or review new meeting times

Guests can propose a new meeting time, which the organizer can review and optionally accept.

Propose a new time (as an attendee)

• On your calendar, click the event.
• Next to “Maybe”, click the down arrow.
• Click Propose a new time.
• Select a different time or day.
  • Tip: You can also add a message to your proposed time.
• Click “Send Proposal”.
• Note: If you have edit permissions granted by the organizer, you can change the event time directly without needing to suggest a new time.

Review proposed times (as an organizer)

• On your calendar, select an event that has a clock icon.
• Under “Guests”, look for the suggested times.
• Under the time proposal you want to review, click “Review proposed time”.
• To change the event to the proposed time, click “Save”.

How proposed times work

• Proposals are not available for large events (more than 200 guests) or all-day events.
• All guests can propose a new time. Organizers cannot propose a new time.
• On a computer, in Google Calendar settings, if organizers turn on “Event responses”, they will receive email notifications of proposals.

Customize notifications for an event

For an important event you don’t want to miss, customize how you receive notifications just for that event:

• Open Google Calendar. 
• Click the event and then “Edit event”.
• Next to “Notifications”:
  • Notification settings: define whether you prefer to receive notifications or emails and how often you want to be notified in advance.
  • To add a different notification: Select “Add notification”.
  • To remove a notification: Click “Remove”.
• At the top of the page, click “Save”.
  • Tip: You can choose to be notified by email, desktop alert, or both. Changes you make will not affect anyone else invited to the event.