How to Set Goals in Google Calendar – And Keep Them!

Published on August 3, 2016

One of our main focuses here at Geek Chicago is on helping our clients maximize their productivity. That might mean saving them time by helping manage their social media and email marketing, or it may mean educating them on how to use their technology more effectively.

Whatever the case, we maintain that geekiness, growth, and efficiency all go hand-in-hand (in-hand).

So when we see a great new opportunity for efficiency and task management come along, we’ve got to share it. The new “Goals” feature on Google Calendar is one of those golden opportunities, an intuitive addition that loads a ton of function and value into an app that most of us already use every single day.

In broad strokes, the “Goals” tool allows users to set up clearly-defined, actionable goals in a variety of categories (exercise, skill-building, and more). From there, the feature works with you to set up tasks in the free periods in your calendar. You control how often you want to work and how long, (15 minutes, 30 minutes, or so on) and the calendar automatically sets up assignments in your down time.

Have a new meeting come up in a time slot reserved for your goal? No longer will you just have to bump your task into some unspecified point in the future; instead, Google Calendar will automatically reschedule the session for you – meaning you’re going to quickly run out of excuses for not spending your time wisely!

Want to add some productive, actionable goals to your Google Calendar? With our thanks to Hubspot, here’s how to get started with the feature:

1. Bring up the Google Calendar app (while your goals will appear on your desktop browser, you can currently only set them on mobile)
2. Tap the “Create” icon (the little red plus sign), then select “Goal”
3. From there, you can choose your goal type and skill. Don’t be afraid to get specific!
4. Next, select your frequency (ranging from “once a week” to “every day”) and duration (from 15 minutes up to 2 hours)
5. Answer a few basic questions about your schedule
6. To edit your goals at any time – including changing their calendar color, setting up notifications, or altering your choices – choose the “More Options” link

What is your first big goal going to be? We’d love to hear about it on Twitter or Facebook.

And remember, Geek Chicago is all about efficiency. We’d love to help bring your brand into the digital future with sleek, effective web design and development, no-hassle content creation, and value-boosting social media and email marketing. Drop us a line today to see just what Geek can do for you!