Google Calendar is a great tool for managing your time. You can create custom calendars, view and add events to calendars from anywhere, and manage your calendar with reminders and alarms. However, there are a few things you can do to improve your experience with Google Calendar.
- Use the search bar to find events you want to attend. This will help you plan your schedule better and avoid overlap in your events.
- Use the filters on the left side of the screen to find specific types of events or groups of events. This will help you find events that are close to you or that have similar interests.
- Use the date fields on the left side of the screen to enter dates in either Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or local time (LAT). This will help you keep track of when things are happening in your area and avoid confusion about when an event is actually taking place.
- Add people to your calendar using their email addresses or phone numbers. This will make it easier for them to be contacted when something important happens at work or at home, and it also makes it easier for them to be included in future updates of your calendar if they decide they want to be added as participants later on.
Have you ever wondered how much time you spend in meetings or even who you meet with the most? With Time Insights in Google Calendar, you can see a breakdown of your time.
What Are Google Calendar Time Insights?
The intent of Time Insights is to better understand how you spend your time. With the type of information you learn, you may decide to make adjustments to your schedule or see which day most of your meetings are held. Here’s how Time Insights work in Google Calendar.
View Time Insights in Google Calendar
Head to the Google Calendar website and sign in. If necessary, display the Main Menu on the left side by clicking the hamburger menu icon (three horizontal lines) on the top left.
You’ll see a section above your calendar list for Time Insights that you can expand.
This gives you a quick look at your time in meetings for the day, week, month, or year, depending on which calendar view you’re currently using. To get a detailed view, click “More Insights” which opens a scrollable sidebar on the right.
Here, you’ll see your Time Insights separated into three sections for Time Breakdown, Time in Meetings, and People You Meet With. Let’s take a look at each one.
Time Breakdown
With a handy pie chart at the top and details beneath, you can view how much time you spend in various types of meetings in the Time Breakdown area.
You can see one-on-one meetings, those with three or more guests, events you need to respond to, and the remaining time you have based on your work hours.
If you change your calendar view with the drop-down list at the top of the Google Calendar screen or using a keyboard shortcut. You’ll then see your Time Breakdown adjust accordingly.
RELATED: Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Calendar: A Cheat Sheet
Time in Meetings
The Time in Meetings section shows you exactly that, how much time you spend in meetings.
At the top, you can see which day of the week most of your meetings occur along with your daily average. Below, you’ll see one-time meetings appear in a light blue with recurring meetings in a darker blue.
Like the Time Breakdown area, you can select a different calendar view in the drop-down list to see your Time in Meetings by day, week, or month. If you choose a year view, you’ll simply see the day for most meetings and a daily average.
People You Meet With
The final area in Time Insights is for viewing the people you spend the most time in meetings with and for how long.
What’s nice about this section is that you can pin up to 10 people to it manually. So if you frequently attend meetings with someone in particular, click the gear icon and select them from the list. Click “Done” and they’re pinned to your list.
Along with seeing the amount of time you spend in meetings with your pinned people, you can quickly schedule a meeting with someone in your list. Click “Schedule Next Meeting” and an event detail page will open with your collaborator as a guest. Just complete the information and save the Google Calendar event as you normally would.
RELATED: How to Schedule a Meeting in Google Meet
And just like the other two areas in the Time Insights sidebar, you can see the details in this section adjust based on the calendar view you select.
If you’re interested in a way for others to schedule meetings with you only on certain days or during specific times, consider setting up appointment slots in Google Calendar.
