Organize Your Life: How to Plan Your Week With Google Calendar

Most people could be more organized, especially those of us who work from home and/or run a business. Luckily we all have access to Google Calendar. It’s free, syncs with other calendars and productivity apps like Trello or Notion, and is relatively easy to use. Go beyond handwritten to-do lists; How to use Google Calendar to plan your week.

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Organize your week

Many people use calendar apps to keep track of appointments or Zoom calls. That’s fine, but there’s a lot more you can do. With the Google Calendar app as your planner, you can:

• Create digital to-do lists

• Create events and tasks

• Article with color code

• Set up reminders

You can also add extensions to increase functionality. Some are aesthetic, like the ones that let you set a wallpaper(Opens in a new window) or choose colors that go beyond the standard colors that Google provides for color coding. Others can be integrated with video conferencing apps like Join.me(Opens in a new window) and blue jeans(Opens in a new window).

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Create to-do lists, calendars and categories

Google Tasks

Before creating your schedule, ask yourself what you usually do. It sounds simple, but writing down regular tasks and important things like meetings will help you get a better sense of how to manage your time. You can start making a list of tasks.

Katrina Oko-Odoi, content marketing manager at CRM firm Copper, recommends(Opens in a new window) that people think both long-term and short-term. Record projects or tasks that you need to get done, even if you have to do it today or not at all this week. For larger projects, try to break them down into actionable steps. This makes it easier to mark the time on your calendar.”

You can build your list using other productivity apps that link to Google Calendar, or simply use Google Tasks(Opens in a new window) to keep it simple Tasks can be accessed from any Google Workspace app such as Drive, Calendar or Google Keep. Click on the blue tick icon in the right menu bar to access it.

Use tasks to create a list of things you know you need to do throughout the week in no particular order. When you’re done, click and drag them to specific days on your calendar as new tasks. For example, if you know you want to block out time for exercise during the week, you can create a task called “Exercise” and then drag it to the day and time you want.

Group tasks by list for easier tracking. For example, you could create a list called “chores” for keeping regular household chores, or “life management” for things like checking email and scheduling appointments. If you want the freedom to add and organize tasks from anywhere in your browser, check out extensions like the Tasksboard app for Chrome(Opens in a new window).

Google Calendar also lets you create separate calendars for different aspects of your life. You can have a calendar for work and one for private events, filled with tasks relevant to each category. If you use your calendar primarily for work, try creating one calendar for important meetings, one for project dates, and another for work events to help organize your work life. Specific calendars can be toggled on and off in the left sidebar.

To create a new calendar, click the plus sign (+) icon next to the Other Calendars section in the lower-left corner, and then select Create new calendar. Add a name for the calendar, write a description and assign an owner (if multiple people use the same Google account).

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Add to your calendar

Adding new tasks, events or reminders to your calendar is easy. Click and drag on the specific day you want to add and a new field will appear for you to enter the details. Or just click on the Create Button next to the big plus sign in the top left corner.

If you want to set a task to repeat, click the time for that task where it says Doesn’t repeat. A drop-down menu will open with a number of options you can select to repeat the task. Depending on the to-do item, you can set it to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or on a specific day of the week. You could set a time for your practice assignment that will appear each week in the future.

Color-coding your schedule might seem unnecessary, but it helps keep things organized so it doesn’t get overwhelming. When you create a new task or event, you’ll see a circular color icon, which is blue by default. Click on it to change the color that appears on your calendar.

Don’t like the options shown? If you have the extension for additional colors(Opens in a new window) installed, click the plus icon in the color box and enter a hexadecimal value from Google’s color picker(Opens in a new window).

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Best practices for weekly planning

When filling out your schedule, Oko-Odoi recommends adding “non-negotiable things” first. These are appointments, meetings, and other events that need to happen at a specific time and day. You can then fill in other important items from your to-do list and retrieve them from Google Tasks or another connected app or extension.

Start with the most important things and allow enough time so you’re not in a hurry or get overwhelmed by too many tasks in a day. If you’re working on something particularly dense, try breaking it up into chunks of time over several days. Experiment with both types of time blocking to get a feel for what you like and then run with it.

Productivity YouTuber Jules Acree, for example, has designated certain days on her calendar as “potato days” while others are designated as “creation days.” On “Potato Days,” Acree takes care of editing tasks and other tasks that don’t require being in front of the camera or looking fancy. Creation Days are for filming videos and/or meetings.

To create labels she has for each day, just add an event to your calendar that lasts all day and label it as such. Acree also flags deadlines in bright yellow so they stand out — which is especially useful for freelancers who set their own work schedule. If you want to see how she further breaks down her organizing philosophy, watch the video above.

Plan breaks in good time. Working five hours straight might look good on paper, but you’ll end up exhausted if you don’t take a moment every now and then to step back. The reminder feature comes in handy here — if you’re the kind of person who gets drawn into your work, try scheduling reminders for stretch breaks throughout your workday.

Plan blocks of time for calls, including a few minutes to prepare beforehand. That way, you can relax between tasks and fully focus when it’s time to jump on that Zoom call. You can call these blocks something like “prep time” and color code them differently than the others.

After all, sometimes things come out of nowhere. When that happens, you need time to deal with it. Try to schedule time in case you get an unexpected call or need to jump to an unplanned task. When you do that, you still have the time and space to get your most important tasks done.

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Try it yourself

The more you use Google Calendar, the easier it becomes to organize your week. Learning the ins and outs of how to B. Hotkey shortcuts(Opens in a new window), will help you plan your days intuitively and easily. To recap, the basics of weekly planning with Google Calendar are:

• List your tasks and identify which ones are repetitive

• Categorize these tasks

• Create calendars for these categories

• Fill out these calendars with your tasks

• Color code items by category

If you’re not sure if this system is for you, try it for a week to find out. Go to Google Calendar, switch to week view and jump to the next week. You may also need extra help to eliminate distractions, avoid procrastination, and prevent fatigue to maintain productivity.

Fill out your planned weekly plan and see how easy it is to stick to your plan. Check out these calendar tips and Google’s own guide for more info(Opens in a new window).