My entire life is organized in Google Calendar.
As in, if it’s not in Gcal, it’s not happening.
Yes, really.
So, if you want to get organized like me, this is how to time block with Google Calendar.
Hey friends!
I’m Tasia and welcome back to my YouTube Channel where I share tech tips, app reviews,
and more Google content than your heart could desire.
Today is a complete time blocking tutorial in Gcal.
We’re heading into my personal Gcal so, let’s go!
Alright, let’s jump right into my primary Google Calendar to see how I time block.
Don’t freak out, I told you, it’s my whole life in here.
So as you can see from this week, I’ve got my entire workdays and then some all blocked
out in Google Calendar, as well as color-coded which I’ll get to a little later on.
I use Google Calendar to make sure I have enough time in my day for all of the tasks
I need to get done.
So, you’ll notice my Gcal isn’t just meetings with other people - a lot of it is blocked
for my own tasks I need to accomplish in the day.
So, let’s move to another week that doesn’t look quite as crazy so we can start time blocking
in Gcal.
And just so you know, I typically reserve time on Thursdays or Fridays to finish time
blocking the following week.
But you can use whatever schedule works for you to get the most out of time blocking and
to keep you on track and organized.
So here we are on another week.
I know I’ve got a shoot on this day, so what I want to do is block some time the day
before so that I can prep for the shoot.
So, I’ll just click on Monday afternoon, and we’ll call it shoot prep.
I can add any notes in here if needed, and then just hit enter.
So, now everyone in my organization that I’ve shared my Google Calendar with will see that
I’m busy from 3-4 pm.
So not only is time blocking helpful for you to stay organized, but it gives your team
members, or family or friends, or whoever you’ve given access to your google calendar
because they’ll be able to see your exact availability.
So if someone is trying to book time with you, they will see you’re busy at this time.
And the same is true if you have your Gcal linked to a scheduling tool like Calendly
or something - it’ll show you as busy.
Another important reason you want to ensure you’re time blocking in Google calendar
is because of the notifications you’ll get prior to an event.
So when you create an event in Gcal, it’ll automatically be set to remind you 10 minutes
before.
You can change this by clicking on that notification option.
You can delete the notification altogether, or set a different notification time, everything
from 5 minutes before up to a day before, or set a custom reminder.
If it’s a big event, you can actually add an additional notification.
That’s really handy if you wanted to set a reminder a day before, then again an hour
before.
Something else I recommend when it comes to time blocking, you block everything.
I have my lunches blocked in Gcal, and sometimes I put workouts in there, things like that,
non work related things, to ensure it is on my schedule and going to happen.
Another function I find really helpful when time blocking in Gcal is to use the repeat
functionality.
So every other Tuesday is podcast day, so maybe we can click to create an event.
And we’ll set this podcast publish task to repeat every other Tuesday at this time.
So, click on the does not repeat option and then in this drop-down you’ll have a bunch
of pre-set options like weekly, monthly, and things like that, or you can select custom
and choose your custom repeat schedule.
So I want every 2nd Tuesday.
And I want it to last to infinity, though you could set an end date here as well if
you want.
I’ll hit enter and there we go, this has now been added to my calendar every other
Tuesday.
And I can do this again for a Livestream I have on Tuesday nights.
You can literally set repeating events for anything you want in Gcal.
One of the most important things you need to remember when it comes to time blocking
is that people you’ve shared your calendar with will only see you as busy for the events
you’ve added to your primary calendar.
Here’s what I mean.
On the left here, you’ll notice I’ve got a whole whack of calendars.
These are other calendars I’ve enabled or added.
So, as an example, people in my organization wouldn’t see this mom physio time block
because that was created using a different calendar I made called Moms appointments.
So I can toggle this view off and you’ll see it disappears from the calendar.
So none of these other calendars will set me to busy for someone, only my tasia custode
calendar will.
But you might be wondering well how do I have all these lovely colors organized on my calendar
if most of these are set to my personal calendar which is pink?
Well, you can quickly change the event color in Google Calendar, regardless of the calendar
the event belongs to.
So, you’ll notice how I’m a big color coder when it comes to my calendar blocking
in Gcal.
So, you can set the color of an event when you are creating it of course, so I’ve got
my Gcal colors organized by client.
That way, I can tell at one glance of the color of the task which clients this task
is for.
What can I say, I’m a visual learner.
But you can color block your Gcal to whatever works for you.
Is it per client, per project, per category of task?
Find whatever makes sense for you.
So it may make the most sense when you’re first creating your event, to color code it
then, but what if you want to change an existing event after it’s made?
Instead of clicking on the event and then clicking the edit option, and then selecting
the new color, just right-click on the event, and boom, pick your desired color.
Extra mouse clicks be darned.
And by the way, you’ll know which events originated from your primary calendar because
you’ll still have your primary calendar color on the left side of the event.
So, see here how I make all my youtube edit tasks stand out in grey?
Well, on the left of that event, it’s pink, which is my primary calendar color.
And you’ll notice that for every single event on my calendar that’s tied to my primary
cal, regardless of the color blocking I’ve assigned it.
So, again, I can tell with one glance this mom physio appointment is on a different calendar
than my primary because it doesn’t have my primary calendar color to the left of it.
Make sense?
But you might have noticed something else on my Gcal to help me visually decipher a
task.
That’s right, you can easily add emojis to your Gcal events to make your time blocking
stand out even more.
So when we create an event, on mac we can hit command, control, space to pull up the
emoji picker.
I think on windows it’s the windows logo key and period, but either way we can select
an emoji to add to the event title.
You’ll see I’ve done that with lunch and editing tasks and vet appointments.
You can add them to whatever if it helps you with your time blocking.
Now if you want to save even more time in Google Calendar to help along your time blocking
journey, well I’ve got you covered.
You can watch that video by clicking up here or via the link in the description below.
Happy time blocking.
So that’s how to time block with Google Calendar.
What do you think of these tips?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
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