Key Takeaways

• Use advanced search to quickly find tasks and events in your Google Calendar.
• Color-code events to help them stand out and organize your calendar better.
• Modify events by dragging or stretching them; use Schedule view for a brief overview.

If your daily work routine involves a constant fight to balance events and tasks, a few simple Google Calendar strategies could come to your rescue. These tips will help you sort the clutter in your Google Calendar and take control of the chaos.

1 Find Things in Your Calendar With Advanced Search

Advanced search is a nifty way to quickly find tasks and events that may be in your blind spot, or which may be buried under all the clutter on your calendar.

1. To use Advanced Search in Google Calendar, click on the magnifying glass search icon.
2. Then click the Search options drop-down arrow to the right of the search box.
3. Filter by keyword, date, location, and people involved to find exactly what you want.

2 Use Colors to Make Things Stand Out

Did you know that you can color-code your events to organize your calendar?

You should definitely use this approach if your Google Calendar is clogged with events. It will help your many tasks stand apart from one another and give an otherwise “flat” workspace some welcome character.

To use colors in Google Calendar, simply right-click on an event and choose a color you like.

You can only pick from a few standard colors, but that should be enough to spruce up your calendar.

3 Quickly Modify Events

Sometimes, plans change and you need to adjust your schedule quickly. Google Calendar’s UI makes this easy, but you need to know how to use it. You can effortlessly drag and stretch events to change their timings.

Move Events Around by Dragging and Dropping

Just been notified of a rescheduled event? You don’t need to open it and start adjusting times, though; just grab the event and drag it to a new time slot to update it.

Extend/Shorten Event Durations by Dragging

If an event will start or end at a different time than initially planned, just drag the appropriate border of the calendar entry to stretch or shorten it.

4 Get a Brief Overview of Events

Sometimes, all you need is a summary glance at an event; you don’t need all that information bogging you down. You can do this quickly by switching to Schedule view (previously called Agenda view) to get a brief outline of your events.

To turn Schedule view on, click on the drop-down beside the gear icon and select Schedule.

Working in this view can give you productive information on the meetings and tasks for the day. That is why it is so important to create an efficient meeting agenda in Google Calendar.

5 Create Tasks on Google Calendar

Think of a task on your Google Calendar as a sticky note that you attach to your whiteboard or computer screen in real life. It serves as a way to remind you of something that you need to get done.

The great thing about tasks is that you can bundle together reminders that fall under the same category or that you set toward a specific goal.

How to Create a Task

Creating a task is similar to creating an event. Here’s how:

1. Click on an empty slot in your calendar, on the day you wish to add a task to.
2. In the window that appears, click on Task.
3. Finally, add a description to serve as a reminder. You can even mark it as an all-day task and set it to repeat at intervals.

You can view a list of all your tasks by clicking the tasks button to the left of the Google waffle menu (the 3×3 dot grid) or from the side panel.

6 Restore Deleted Events

Have you ever deleted an important event by mistake, only to have to re-create the item from scratch? With this tip, you shouldn’t need to do that ever again.

The next time your cat runs across your keyboard and accidentally deletes a calendar event, you can recover it like this:

1. Click on the Settings option at the top.
2. Select Bin. This houses a list of all your deleted events.
3. Hover over the event you want to restore and click on the restore option that appears.

Sorting through the disorder that is your schedule need not drain every ounce of your mental energy. Plan your week properly using Google Calendar to get on top of your meetings and events.