From work deadlines to family happenings and random reminders, Calendar is what keeps me on track, on time, and on top of the approximately one.7 zillion things I tend to juggle on an hourly basis. And the more I've used information technology, the more I've learned just how flexible information technology is—and how many easily disregarded options it offers for enhancing its interface, getting stuff accomplished more efficiently, and making the service work in whatever manner makes sense for my own personal workflow.

If you rely on Google Calendar as I practice—or even if you just employ information technology casually to keep rails of occasional appointments—you'll get more out of information technology once yous've discovered all of its advanced tricks and time-saving possibilities. And if y'all're as well decorated to tackle this right now, no worries: I happen to know a spectacular tool for setting reminders and making sure you never forget annihilation on your agenda.

(Unless otherwise noted, all the instructions mentioned beneath are specific to Calendar'south web version.)

Interface enhancements

one. Wish your calendar could show a little more info—with less wasted space? Google Calendar has a hidden option to increase its display density. Click the gear icon in the website'south upper-right corner, then select "Density and color" and change the "Data density" setting to "Compact" to endeavor it.

2. If most of your appointments tend to be during the calendar week, yous can also tidy upward your view by telling Calendar to stop showing weekends. You'll find the toggle by clicking the view dropdown—the box directly to the right of the gear icon on the Agenda website—and looking at the lesser of the menu that appears.

3. Fifty-fifty if you desire to come across weekends, you might prefer to show your weeks starting with Mondays and ending with the weekend—the style nearly of us think of a traditional workweek. You tin make that change with a couple of quick clicks by opening the "View options" section of the Calendar site'due south settings.

4. Google Agenda tin let yous create your ain custom view in addition to the standard twenty-four hour period, week, calendar month, and year arrangements—if, say, yous want to view your agenda in a zoomed-in ii-day perspective or maybe a zoomed-out two- or 4-week layout. Open the site's settings, click "View options" in the left-of-screen sidebar, and then suit the "Fix custom view" option to set it up even so you lot like.

v. Having multiple calendars in your account can oft be useful, whether you're separating holidays, shared family events, or any number of shared work-related agendas. But some calendars aren't of import enough to be seen all the fourth dimension—so allow Calendar hide depression-priority calendars by default and and so show them only when you need them. In the left-of-screen sidebar on the Agenda website, uncheck the box next to any agenda you don't want displayed. That'll keep it out of sight and make clean up your agile view, and you tin can then simply recheck the calendar in question when you want it to appear.

vi. Conversely, Calendar can show you a single agenda at a fourth dimension for a slimmed-downwardly and hands digestible arrangement. Click the three-dot card icon next to whatsoever agenda's name in that aforementioned left-of-screen sidebar area, and then select "Display this just" to give it a whirl.

7. Stop distracting yourself with events that already happened and permit Calendar dim past appointments and so you can focus on what'south next. Look for the "Reduce the effulgence of by events" checkbox within the "View options" expanse of Calendar'southward settings. You'll observe the difference immediately in Agenda's week and month views.

Google Agenda can dim past events so they're less attending-grabbing.

8. Clear out ataxia and give your calendar more space to spread out past hiding Google Calendar'southward sidebars whenever you lot aren't using them. On the left side of the screen, click the three-line carte icon at the elevation to collapse the sidebar (and then click that same icon to expand information technology as needed). On the right—the sidebar that lets you lot view your Google Keep notes and other connected services—click the modest left-facing arrow at the bottom to make that area vanish (and then click the correct-facing arrow that appears if and when you want to bring the panel dorsum).

nine. Manage appointments across multiple fourth dimension zones past activating Calendar's secondary fourth dimension zone option, which gives y'all the ability to have events beginning or cease in different locales without the need for whatever mental conversions. Look for the "Fourth dimension zone" header in the website's settings, so cheque the box next to "Display secondary time zone" and select what fourth dimension zone you desire. Yous tin can likewise requite each time zone a label ("Boston" and "California," for example) to make things even simpler.

10. Calendar tin also show you a world time clock to give you an at-a-glance view of the current time in any number of places. Look for the "World clock" selection in the website's settings; one time it's activated, y'all tin can add together however many time zones you desire, and they'll all be displayed in the left-paw sidebar.

Time-saving tools

11. Switch your calendar view in an instant by tapping into one of Google Agenda'southward super-handy hidden shortcuts: Press "1" or "d" for the day view, "2" or "west" for the week view, "3" or "m" for the month view, "4" or "x" for your custom view, "5" or "a" for the agenda view, and "6" or "y" for the yr view.

12. One of Agenda'due south most helpful hotkeys is also one of the easiest to miss: Printing "chiliad" from whatever calendar view to leap directly to whatsoever specific date, in whatever year. Agenda volition pop upwardly a box in which you can merely blazon whatever date you want, using either a standard date format ("4/13/06") or a text-based clarification ("Apr thirteen, 2006").

13. Another shortcut worth remembering: From anywhere on the Calendar site, striking the Esc key to spring back to the main calendar screen in a jiff. And while looking at whatever agenda view, striking "t" to return to today's date.

14. For years, I've been irritated when I try to save new Calendar events by hitting Ctrl-Enter—a standard shortcut for that sort of function and one that'south present in other Google services—simply to remember that key combination does absolutely nothing in Calendar'due south event cosmos tool. Well, I recently discovered Calendar does have a keyboard command that lets you save a new event without having to lift your fingers; it's just Ctrl-S instead of Ctrl-Enter. Now you know too!

fifteen. While in Calendar's solar day, week, or month view, you lot can left-click on any event for a fast popular-upwardly view of its details—or correct-click to admission quick event adjustment options, including a selector to switch the event's color and a one-click button to delete the outcome entirely right and then and there.

sixteen. You lot probably know most Agenda's "c" keyboard shortcut for creating a new event, simply here's a helpful variation to add into your virtual toolbox: You tin can printing Shift and "c" together to pull up Agenda's floating-window event interface from your keyboard. That'll allow you create an result without having to leave the main Calendar screen.

17. Google Calendar's search office is a cracking style to discover an event in a hurry, and information technology has more options than you'd call up: After clicking the search icon at the top of the Agenda site (or tapping the slash cardinal on your keyboard, if you'd rather), click the downward-facing arrow in the search box that appears. That'll reveal an advanced search panel that lets you lot narrow a search down to specific calendars, dates, locations, or participants—and even search for an result by excluding certain keywords.

Calendar'due south avant-garde search function has all sorts of options for narrowing down your search and finding the items you need.

xviii. Calendar has a little-known control that'll allow you undo errant deportment—similar moving an event by fault or deleting the wrong appointment. Equally soon equally such an case arises, hit Ctrl-Z or even just "z" past itself on your keyboard. Yous have only nigh a 10-second window to exercise information technology, annoyingly, only if you grab your slipup soon plenty, information technology's a corking way to prepare your flub.

19. For times when yous delete an result entirely and then need to get it back later, don't forget about Google Calendar's tucked-away Trash section. Information technology gives you the opportunity to recover any deleted event for a month afterward its axing. You lot can detect the Trash section by clicking the gear icon in the site's upper-correct corner and selecting the "Trash" option in the menu that appears.

Smarter sharing

xx. Take the hassle out of planning by asking Calendar to testify your calendar aslope someone else'due south in a carve up-screen, side-past-side view. First, the other person will have to share his or her calendar with you (past clicking the agenda's name within their Google Calendar settings and then calculation you into the "Share with specific people" department). One time you've accustomed their invitation, open the "View options" section of your Calendar's settings and brand sure the "View calendars side by side in twenty-four hour period view" option is activated. Then, just open up your day view, and you'll see your cohort's calendar right next to yours for easy calendar coordination.

Google Calendar can display your agenda alongside anyone else'due south for enhanced planning and coordination.

21. You can as well peek in at someone else'south agenda while you're in the midst of creating a new event (provided that person has shared his or her calendar with you, of course). Offset, first a new event and add together that person in as a guest. Then look for the "Find a Time" tab directly above the location box in Calendar's event creation interface. Click that, and you'll meet your agenda and your pal's side past side, merely like y'all did in the previous tip. You can then click on whatever mutually available time to select it.

22. When you need to send a message to everyone invited to a item issue, salvage yourself the problem of opening up your inbox and instead simply e-mail all of your invitees directly from Calendar. While viewing any effect that has at least one other person involved, you'll meet a small envelope icon under the "Guests" header on the right of the screen. Click that icon, and you can compose and send your bulletin right within that window, using the Gmail address associated with your account.

23. If y'all create a group issue but then finish up needing to dorsum out of attending, Calendar has a fashion to permit you transfer event ownership so the event tin can continue in your absence. Open up the event from the Calendar website, click the "More than actions" push in the upper-right corner of the screen, and select "Change possessor" from the carte that appears. And then, you can type in the name or address of whomever yous want to accept over as the main point of contact.

Event enrichments

24. Did you lot know you can add together an zipper directly to an event within Calendar—something like a PDF, image file, or certificate that you want all the invitees to see? When creating a new effect, look for the newspaper clip icon in the toolbar atop the description field. Clicking it volition permit you to insert whatever file from your local device or your Google Drive storage.

25. By default, new events in Google Calendar last for an hour—but you can customize that setting and give events any default elapsing you similar. Just look in the "Event settings" department of the Calendar site's settings and notice the aptly named "Default duration" selection.

26. Got something that needs to be on your agenda on a regular, repeating interval? Calendar tin can handle recurring events and reminders with some impressively customizable parameters. While creating a new event or reminder, click the box labeled "Does not echo" (below the appointment and time and to the correct of the "All day" option). That'll requite you a list of preconfigured patterns—having the item echo daily, weekly on the electric current day, monthly on the current day, and and then on—along with an option called "Custom" that lets you get incredibly specific about exactly how, when, and for how long you desire your item to recur.

You can ask Calendar to echo events in pretty much any pattern imaginable.

Avant-garde alerts

27. In add-on to the usual notifications on the desktop and on your phone, you can ask Calendar to send you an electronic mail notification for any result. That can be particularly helpful if you spend a lot of time in your inbox and want to have a reminder that remains nowadays until y'all archive it. To create an email reminder for an consequence, open up the issue and then click the "Add together notification" control. Next, within the new line that appears, click the "Notification" box and change information technology to "Email"—so just tell Calendar how far ahead of the event you desire the email to arrive. Be sure to hit the blueish "Save" push button at the top of the screen when you lot're done.

28. If you desire to become email alerts for all events by default, open up Calendar's settings and select your calendar from the list on the left side of the screen. Whorl down to the "Effect notifications" section and click the "Add notification" button. Click on the new "Notification" box that appears, change it to "Email," and set it for whatever corporeality of time you'd like.

29. You lot tin can also modify your default alert times for regular Calendar notifications in that same area of the site's settings: But adjust the number of minutes next to the existing notifications under the "Event notifications" and "All-mean solar day event notifications" headers. You lot can add together boosted notifications as well, or remove whatever existing notifications by clicking the "x" alongside them. Any changes you make will automatically employ to notifications generated by the Agenda app on your telephone.

30. Want to get a daily rundown of your Calendar agenda via email every morning? Wait under the "Other notifications" header within that same department of the site'southward settings. Find the line labeled "Daily agenda," then click the box next to it that says "None" and change information technology to "Email." Your new daily summary will now arrive at 5:00 every morning, courtesy of the virtual agenda genie who's been waiting for your wish all this time.

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[Editor'southward note: This story was updated and expanded in Apr 2022.]