You’re probably familiar with Google Calendar, but did you know that it can also be used as a time-tracking tool? With this feature, employees can log their hours on a calendar and managers can see how much time they’ve spent on certain tasks.
Google Calendar Time Tracking is an easy way to keep track of employee productivity without having to rely on spreadsheets or other tools. This article will explain how it works and why businesses should consider using this feature in their workflows.
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How Does Google Calendar Time Tracking Work?
Google Calendar is a versatile scheduling and project management application that can be used to manage meetings, receive reminders for forthcoming events, and more.
Google Calendar lacks an inherent time tracker, however. Therefore, in order to track time, you must record project-related activities in Google Calendar and then construct a Google Sheet.
The Google app script includes a sidebar where multiple calendars or time periods can be added. In the event that multiple calendars result in overlapping events, you can also overwrite an event using the app’s permissions.
The Benefits of Google Calendar Time Tracking
The benefits of Google Calendar time tracking are numerous, and they’re all good. Here are a few of them:
- Improved focus and concentration: When you have a clear picture of how much time you spend on each task, it’s easier to stay focused on the task at hand. You can also get a better sense of how long it takes for you to complete certain tasks in order to plan accordingly in the future.
- Increased efficiency: If something takes longer than expected or if there are multiple steps involved in completing a project, this information will help ensure that future projects go more smoothly because they’ll be more efficient from start to finish.
- Improved task management: With all this data at our fingertips (and stored safely away in Google Calendar), we don’t have any excuses not knowing what needs doing next!
Best Practices for Using Google Calendar Time Tracking
Maintaining an organized calendar is extremely important for productivity, time management, and organization.
Let’s take a look at how you can best utilize Google Calendar for productivity and clarity.
1. Sync Multiple Calendars
Instead than keeping multiple calendars in various places, accounts, and platforms, sync them all to a single master calendar.
If you use multiple Google accounts, you can sync the calendars of all of them by making one of them the default.
You can also set up calendar sharing with your coworkers if you’re in an office setting.
Creating a shared family calendar that everyone can access is simple.
How to Sync Multiple Calendars:
Using Google Calendar, you may quickly invite others to view your schedule or add their schedule to your own.
To invite people to view a calendar, go to that calendar’s page and click the arrow next to the “Share” button.
On the following screen, you’ll have the option to send an email invitation to a select group of individuals, make your calendar public, or broadcast it to everyone in your organization if you’re using Google Apps for Work.
You can either have that person invite you or send them a share request if you want access to their calendar.
Select Add a friend’s calendar under the Other calendars menu to initiate a sharing request.
2. Add Public Calendars
Syncing your personal calendar with a shared one is a breeze. Visit the “browse interesting calendars” tab in Other Calendars again.
Sunrise and sunset times, national holidays, and other events may all be found on these calendars.
Here are some of the calendars I maintain: Personal, Work, Events, Holidays, and Birthdays.
3. Create New Events (keyboard shortcut: ‘c’)
Creating new events is very simple and straightforward, but I’d like to highlight a few handy features:
- To have the meeting time adjusted to your local time, select the time zone below.
- Event information is shared between Google Maps, Google Plus, and Google Now (more on this below).
- Create alerts in the form of emails or pop-ups.
- Organize a one-time or ongoing gathering.
- Allow guests to make changes, add guests, and view guest list.
- Include files (enable in Labs, see below for details).
- You can “find a time” to meet with coworkers by syncing your calendars.
4. Google Calendar integrations
It gets difficult when your Google Calendar is packed with blue blocks. The right Google Calendar integrations can help your schedule breathe while making your and your team’s day more productive.
Tackle is a powerful tool designed to enhance your workflow and increase efficiency. It seamlessly integrates with popular apps, such as Google Calendar, to help you manage your tasks and schedules effectively.
With Tackle’s integration with Google Calendar, you can effortlessly synchronize tasks and events in real time. This allows for better project and task management, ensuring that your team stays organized and meets deadlines.
Tackle also offers a convenient mobile app with a Calendar view, allowing you to access your schedule on the go. Never miss an appointment or important task again, as Tackle keeps your schedule easily accessible wherever you are.
Benefits of Using Tackle:
- Improved Productivity: Tackle enables you to optimize your workflow and achieve higher productivity. By centralizing your tasks and integrating with Google Calendar, you can streamline your processes and get more done in less time.
- Seamless Collaboration: With Tackle, collaboration becomes effortless. By syncing tasks and events between Google Calendar and Tackle, your team can stay updated and work together smoothly, ensuring efficient project management.
- Smart Scheduling: Seamlessly manage your scheduling needs right from your Google Calendar. Quickly join, reschedule, and share your availability effortlessly using Tackle’s Scheduling Snippet feature with our Chrome Extension
Conclusion
Using a calendar to stay on top of your schedule is a must. With these few simple tweaks, you can make more out of what is already one of the best calendar software out there.
And if you want to take your calendaring productivity to the next level, try Tackle for free or schedule a call with us ❤
