How to make the best use of Google Calendar and Tasks

As always, let’s begin with some context here, so you have the full picture of where I’m coming from. I use Google Calendar and Tasks to keep myself orgainised with both work and personal events/tasks. At Lucid Towers we use Office 365, and therefore use a Team-based calendar. I can hear you now – what don’t you use the same solution for both, or why do we use Office 365 for business, over Google Suite.

In short, I find Google Suite to be a great personal product. I’m literally typing this article out in a Google Doc. However, for business, I prefer Office 365 as I like the way it brings together user authentication, email, files and teams all under one roof.

I’ll perhaps do a more in-depth article on this in the future. Let’s now crack on with the point of this article – how I get the most out of Google Calendar and Tasks.

Why Google Calendar?

I started using Google calendar, many moons ago, and I’ve never really left it. I’ve dabbled with other solutions, even going paper-based for a while, but Google Calendar is the king for personal organisation.

I use it because I can access it with ease from anywhere with a web browser, it has the apps I need to easily access it on my Android devices (of course it also has iOS apps) and I like its simplicity. 

The number one thing that keeps me organised, is the ability to have email reminders for calendar events. Personally, I need as many reminders as possible. I can’t be trusted to keep checking my calendar throughout the day, but having emails and notifications through, keeps my day running smoothly.

Making use of the daily agenda email

A recent discovery on my part is the ability to have a daily email (sent at 5am) which shows a summary of your day, at a glance. I particularly like this as it means I can check this (after reading and having a coffee) for a quick summary of what I need to get done that day.

Tasks – Using them as an unscheduled to-do list

I’ve experimented with using Tasks, as actual calendar events, but that didn’t work for me. It didn’t work for me, as Tasks only block the calendar for 30 minutes, there is no email reminder, and in some apps you can’t actually see Tasks on your calendar.

I use Tasks as a dumping ground for ideas and things to do, which aren’t yet scheduled into my calendar.

I will then review my Tasks every so often, and if the idea or task is important enough, I will create a calendar event for it, to get that item done.

I know lots of people who will use Tasks for scheduling, rely on them as events and like that you can have subtasks, but none of that works for me personally. I need things as simple as possible.

There are items on my Task list, which have never come from calendar events – this shows the actual task simply can’t be that important to me or isn’t going to be of huge benefit to anyone. Eventually, they’ll be deleted once I accept I’m never going to do that thing, which I’m glad I didn’t put straight onto my calendar as it would clutter it up.

So in short, a calendar is for all the scheduled events that are happening, tasks are for ideas/to-do items that may or may not happen.

I hope this gives you some ideas, and I’d welcome hearing your own productivity ideas.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions, an IT Support and Cloud Services business based in Redditch, Worcestershire. He produced this article having had his calendar remind him to do so.