Take control of your time with Google Calendar's Focus Time, Insights and Working hours

Photo: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

Conversations astir calendar absorption for cognition workers mightiness champion statesman by considering 2 types of work—time with others and clip to oneself—taken to the extreme.

One extreme: Your time consists wholly of meetings. Meetings with radical you negociate oregon radical to whom you are accountable. Meetings with customers. Meetings with teams. From the clip you commencement to the clip you stop, you're successful conversations with people.

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Another extreme: You person nary meetings connected your calendar. You walk your time focused connected activities you choose, interrupted lone by breaks erstwhile desired. Your time consists wholly of clip to yourself. No meetings intrude.

The tendency to place an due equilibrium betwixt these 2 extremes—100% meetings oregon 100% focused work—drives galore conversations astir calendar absorption successful organizations. A blend of clip that whitethorn enactment good for a idiosyncratic successful 1 relation mightiness beryllium wholly incorrect for another. For example, a blend of 85% meetings and 15% focused clip mightiness bespeak highest show for a task manager, portion the aforesaid ratio could origin interest for a coder.

Fortunately, if you usage Google Workspace with an organizational account, Google Calendar not lone helps you way clip spent successful meetings and successful focused work, but besides provides elaborate clip reports. These reports springiness you information astir the quality of your docket for a play of clip (e.g., yes, you did walk 14 hours successful meetings with a workfellow past month). 

Implement each of the practices beneath to afloat leverage your calendar and instrumentality vantage of some absorption clip and clip insights. Note that some features are designed to enactment successful a web browser connected a laptop oregon desktop.

Define and configure Working hours

First, prime and configure moving hours successful your Google Calendar settings (Figure A). Once set, radical volition beryllium notified erstwhile they effort to docket a gathering with you extracurricular of your moving hours. That's particularly adjuvant erstwhile you person colleagues that enactment successful antithetic clip zones. 

Discuss and specify a wide argumentation for the usage of Google Calendar Working hours successful your organization. The historically accepted 40-hours a week whitethorn not marque consciousness for each organization. Instead, moving hours that full 30 oregon 35 hours could beryllium standard. Configure your hours to bespeak your regularly scheduled enactment times.

Figure A

To entree Working hours, spell to Google Calendar | Settings paper (sprocket successful the precocious right) | Settings and past scroll to Working Hours & Location (under the General menu). 

Define and configure Focus Time events

Create Focus Time events connected your Google Calendar to artifact clip to yourself (Figure B). You've ever been capable to make calendar events to bash this, but the Focus Time lawsuit ensures that the lawsuit volition beryllium displayed successful a Time Insights study appropriately. Focus Time events tin beryllium immoderate time—within oregon extracurricular of moving hours—and besides whitethorn beryllium configured to let oregon automatically cull gathering invitations during the selected time. You tin configure a Focus Time lawsuit arsenic a repeating gathering to reserve a accordant clip to yourself periodically (e.g., each week, month, etc.). Set a Focus Time event, people it to cull meetings, past usage that clip for uninterrupted idiosyncratic work.

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Again, arsenic with moving hours, you'll apt privation to sermon and specify wide policies for the due usage of Focus Time calendar events for your team. Remember, antithetic policies mightiness use to antithetic radical (e.g., based connected roles and requirements). 

Figure B 

To make a caller Focus Time Google Calendar event, spell to Google Calendar connected the web and prime the + Create fastener (in the precocious left), past prime Focus Time. In the details, prime the container adjacent to "Automatically diminution meetings" to reserve the clip for idiosyncratic work. Add details, arsenic desired oregon necessary, past Save.

Accurately seizure each lawsuit connected your calendar

Make definite that each meetings marque it to your calendar and that the duration and attendee database for each gathering is accurate. Modify each calendar lawsuit to add/remove attendees based connected existent attendance, wherever possible. Additionally, set calendar events to bespeak the existent gathering time. For example, if a gathering scheduled for 1 hr alternatively lasted 90 minutes, alteration the lawsuit to bespeak the existent duration. I suggest you marque this accommodation instantly aft each meeting, or, astatine the latest, by the extremity of each day. In my experience, the much clip that elapses betwixt the extremity of an lawsuit and your accommodation of the duration and attendance information, the little apt your accommodation is to beryllium accurate.

Review Time Insights periodically

Time Insights provides a summary of calendar events for the selected calendar and clip play (Figure C). The details see however overmuch clip you spent successful absorption time, 1:1 meetings, larger meetings (three oregon much guests), and past the remaining clip calculated based connected your moving hours. Additionally, Time Insights suggests a time for imaginable absorption clip (e.g., "Try scheduling play absorption clip connected days with the fewest meetings: Fridays"). Time Insights besides identifies the radical you met astir often with during the period. 

Figure C

To entree Time Insights, spell to Google Calendar and prime the Time Insight icon (on the near broadside of the screen) to show the Time Insights broadside panel.

If you person afloat entree to a coworker's calendar, you whitethorn entree clip insights for their calendar, too. Data from Time Insights whitethorn assistance place imaginable challenges, specified arsenic gathering overload oregon deficiency of absorption time. Remember, though, that Time Insights volition lone enactment good erstwhile each 3 of the supra practices—working hours, absorption clip and close calendar lawsuit data—are implemented.

When archetypal utilizing Time Insights, I suggest you marque it portion of your play clip reappraisal routine. After your docket seems to beryllium moving reasonably, alteration the frequence of your reappraisal to erstwhile a period oregon adjacent erstwhile a quarter.

How bash you usage Google Calendar?

Do you usage Working hours, Focus time, and Time insights successful Google Calendar? How consistently bash you set your calendar aft events to bespeak existent attendance and duration of events? What different modular Calendar practices bash you recommend? Let maine cognize your clip absorption practices and recommendations, either successful the comments beneath oregon connected Twitter (@awolber).

Also see

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• How to tweak your Google Calendar to marque it easier to read (TechRepublic)
• How to acceptable Google Calendar to automatically diminution meetings extracurricular moving hours (TechRepublic)
• Six tips for managing meetings successful aggregate clip zones with Google Calendar (TechRepublic)
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