IN THIS CHAPTER
It seems almost redundant to describe modern life as busy. Everyone is working harder, cramming more appointments and meetings into already packed schedules, and somehow finding the time to get their regular work done between crises. As many a management consultant has advised over the years (charging exorbitant fees to do so), the key to surviving this helter-skelter, pell-mell pace is time management. And although there are as many theories about time management as there are consultants, one key is that you should always try to make the best use of the time available. Although that often comes down to self-discipline and prioritizing your tasks, an efficient scheduling system can certainly help.
That's where G Suite comes in, because it offers a great way to manage your bee-busy schedule: the Calendar app, which you can use to create items called events, which represent your appointments, vacations, trips, meetings, and anything else that can be scheduled. Calendar acts as a kind of electronic personal assistant, leaving your brain free to concentrate on more important duties. In this chapter, you explore the most useful features and settings of the Calendar app.
Navigating the Calendar Window
Calendar is a sort of electronic personal assistant that, while it won't get coffee for you, will at least help you keep your schedule on track. Calendar is a simple electronic day planner you can use to keep track of appointments, meetings, tasks, and other commitments. So, whether you have a date and you can't be late or you have a rendezvous you need to remember, Calendar can handle it.
Assuming you have no pressing appointments (although even if you do, you're still in the right place!), you have a couple of ways to get started:
Point the nearest web browser to https://calendar.google.com.
In any G Suite app, click the grid-like Google Apps icon (pointed out in Figure 3-1) and then click Calendar.
FIGURE 3-1: Calendar: your G Suite scheduling assistant.
Sign in to your Google account, if asked. You end up eyeballing the Calendar app, which will look quite a bit like the one shown in Figure 3-1.
As you can see, Calendar is laid out more or less like a day planner or desk calendar (assuming you're old enough to remember those relics of a bygone era). There's quite a lot to look at here, so let's step back and check out the main features of the Calendar screen. (Handily, Figure 3-1 points out the features in the list that follows.)
Main menu: The sidebar on the left, which consists of the following elements:Date Navigator: Shows one month at a time (usually, the current month). You use the Date Navigator to change the date displayed in the Events area. Note that today's date always has a blue circle around it.Meet with: Enables you to search for people in the Contacts app.My Calendars: Lists the calendars that the app is using to display events. Most people use just a single calendar (the one with your name), but you might want separate calendars for, say, business use and personal use. Your G Suite account also comes with a Birthdays calendar (based on the birthdays you enter in the Contacts app) and a Holidays calendar for your country (Holidays appears in the Other Calendars section).
Main menu toggle: An icon you click to narrow the main menu to show only icons. This gives you a bit more horizontal space for Calendar. Click the icon again to expand the main menu.
View navigation: Enables you to change the date or dates shown in the main Calendar window based on the current view (see the View item, below).
Settings menu: Gives you access to all the Calendar settings.
View: Displays a list of the different ways you can view dates in the main Calendar window. For example, you can view dates by day, week, month, or year.
Google apps: Displays icons for all the Google apps.
Google account: Gives you access to your Google account.
Current date: Marks today's date on the calendar.
Current time: A bar that indicates the current time and moves down as the day progresses.
Events area: An area that shows the appointments and meetings you schedule.
Side panel: The sidebar on the right, which consists of the following elements:Keep: Opens the Keep pane so you can add a quick note to store in the Keep appTasks: Opens the Tasks pane so you can add a quick task to store in the Tasks app
Hide side panel: An arrow you click to collapse the side panel and gain a little extra horizontal legroom. Click the arrow again to return to the side panel.
Changing the Calendar View
By default, Calendar uses Week view in the Events area, which shows a week's worth of appointments and meetings. However, Calendar is quite flexible and has several other views you can use. Here's the complete list:
Day: Displays a single day's worth of events. In the View list, click Day (or press D). You can switch to Day view and simultaneously navigate to a specific date by clicking that date's day number in Week view or Month view. You can also do this in Year view, but that requires two separate clicks (not a double-click, though!) on the day number.
Week: Displays Sunday through Saturday for the current week. In the view list, click Week (or press W). By default, Calendar uses Sunday as the first day of the week. If Monday feels to you like the true start of the week, you can configure Calendar to oblige. Click Settings, See all settings, and then click View Options. Use the Start Week On list to select Monday. (Note that you can alternatively choose Saturday as the starting day, if that floats your boat.)
Month: Displays the current month. In the View list, click Month (or press M).
Year: Displays the current year. In the View list, click Year (or press Y). In most multiday views, Calendar includes weekends. If you use Calendar exclusively for work, you might never schedule anything on a Saturday or Sunday, so you can get a bit more room in the Events area by excluding weekends for the view. On the View menu, deselect the Show Weekends command.
Schedule: Displays a list of your upcoming events. In the View list, click Schedule (or press A).
4 days: Displays four days' worth of events. In the View list, click 4 Days (or press X).
