What you'll learn in this video
Can Google Calendar be used as an effective to-do list? Absolutely and in today's video, I'm gonna show you how.
Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And in today's video, I'm gonna show you how to set up Google Calendar to be a very effective to-do list.
I'm also gonna show you how to use this on the mobile version of Google Calendar and last but not least, I'm gonna cover the pros and cons of using Google Calendar as your to-do list but I think what you're gonna find out is that the pros far outweigh the cons.
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Let me show you three different ways on how you can set this up within your calendar.
How to use All Day Events as Tasks
The first one that we're looking at here is pretty basic and that is using the All-Day Events area to create new tasks.
So I'm just gonna create a simple sample task here. New task 1 and I'm just gonna hit save. It's going to appear here in my All Tasks area. I can see that I want to do this tomorrow on Tuesday, but I can quickly and easily drag it and move it to some other day.
What I love about this technique, about using it here on my calendar is I can see the relationship between this task and all of my tasks alongside my other appointments and where I need to be. So, for example, maybe I'm having a heavy day today. I'm not sure if I can get through all of these tasks and I'm saying to myself, "I don't want to really review this resume that I have to." I'd like to move that out to maybe Thursday or Friday. But then wait a minute, I'm actually interviewing someone on Wednesday. I can't push it out that far. Maybe I can put it out until Tuesday. I can see that relationship and make decisions based on that.
So, again, what we want to do is, using the all-day events area, simply click on that area and you can start adding a new task right away and whatever it is, it's going to appear in that all-day task area. And even if you think that you can't add all the same details as you would in another to-do list, well, hold on just a second. By hitting the edit button in any of these tasks, you can add not just a location, but of course, use this description area to add bullet points, to add an attachment. You can even change the color of this task if you want to highlight it in some other way.
How to use a separate calendar for tasks
That brings me to the second method that we can use for managing our tasks within the calendar, and that is creating a separate calendar just for your tasks.
So, here I've created one called "To-Do List." I'm going to enable that, and what you can see here is that I've added a few other tasks. For example, recording this new video, which I need to make sure happens Thursday morning. But here's another example that I have up above. It's labeled in this green shade or color, which I've selected, so I can separate out my tasks from everything else.
That's a second method if you want to keep your tasks on a separate calendar. Google Calendar makes this very easy to do. All you need to do is click "Add New Calendar," and then you can add as many calendars as you want. Of course, you can toggle through those calendars on the left-hand side to view or hide them as needed.
How to use Google Calendar Tasks feature
Now, the third way to implement a to-do list within Google Calendar is to use the built-in Tasks function.
You'll notice on the right-hand side of Google Calendar, there's a Tasks feature where you can create tasks and check them off directly from this side menu. To see these tasks on your calendar, just enable Tasks on the left-hand side.
For example, you might have a few tasks aligned with your week that appear on your calendar. If you drag a task to a different day, it will reflect the change on the right side as well. However, be aware that on the mobile version of Google Calendar, tasks do not integrate directly. You'll need to manage them within the Google Tasks app. So, keep this in mind when using the Tasks function across different devices.
How to use Reminders in Google Calendar
You may or may not like that as a part of your workflow.
Now one other thing that you can always add to enhance your to-do list here within Google Calendar is the reminders feature.
So I'm gonna enable the reminders feature and here you see I've got a couple that appear.
Now, what is the difference between reminders and tasks and the all day event tasks which we have created here?
Well, reminders will always carry over. So if I don't complete this particular reminder on Monday, it is going to carry over to Tuesday. I'm gonna have to address it eventually and check things off.
Reminders can be day specific or time specific, as you see down below here.
If you don't know how to create a reminder, let me show you how to do so.
If I wanna create a reminder here, let's say nine AM on Wednesday, all I need to do is click on that space and instead of starting to add the title of this event, I'm gonna first click reminder. You can see just below the title, event is the default selection, but I'm gonna select reminder.
So now, I can add in a new reminder here. I can just hit enter on my screen and there, I've got that reminder.
Now if I wanna change this reminder to an all day reminder, I can so so as well. All I need to do is select it, hit the Edit button, and now I can select the all day option.
Here you can see that that reminder now appears here at the top of my list.
Now, one caveat I'm gonna talk about a little bit later on in the video is one of the things that you need to watch for.
How to use to-do list on the mobile calendar app
Before I do that, let's jump to the mobile version of Google Calendar.
Alright, so here we are within Google Calendar on our mobile device.
As you can see, at the top of the screen, I have my all day tasks. Technically they're all day events, but I'm using them as tasks at the top of my screen.
What I love about this is that whether it's early in the morning or if I scroll all the way to the end of the day, those tasks always remain visible. They're always at the forefront.
If I scroll over here to the next day, you see I have a combination of tasks, appointments, and a couple of reminders as well.
So if you wanna add a new task within Google Calendar, we're gonna hit the plus button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and we're gonna select event because remember, we're using all day events.
So here, I'm just gonna call this one Task 2. The only thing you need to keep in mind at this point is that we wanna hit the all day toggle. Unless you want this task to appear at a specific time, you wanna select all day and hit save. Now that task will appear at the top of your screen.
Now if we wanna add a reminder, again, we're gonna start with that plus button but this time we're gonna select the reminder option.
Let me just type in a quick reminder. Let's call this one Reminder 3. If I wanted it at a specific time, I can select that here. I can select this to be at 8:30, for example, or I can hit the all day option and again, it will be all day as well.
Now, don't forget, you may need to hit the down arrow here to reveal all of your tasks. Now, this will stay sticky, meaning that the last time you've selected it or chosen that option, it's gonna remain that way.
So, here you can see I have a few reminders that I need to look at along with all of my tasks.
Now this is one of the, I guess, both pro and con of using reminders. Here you can see that it will never combine your all day events. We can see them listed out individually but you will notice here that it has combined my reminders. I've got two here. If I select it, I can now read and see those two, but you cannot, by default, expand those reminders.
Pros & Cons of using Google Calendar as a To-Do List
Lastly, I wanna cover some of the pros and cons of using Google Calendar as your to-do list.
Now I've already highlighted the pros of seeing your tasks up above and always having them stay in the forefront as you go about your day.
But one of the things that you wanna watch out for is that of course, these all day events which we are using as tasks will not roll over. At the end of today, these two green tasks will not roll over to Tuesday like this reminder will.
Now, this is a con, but in some ways, psychologically, it is also a pro. What I mean by that is that it forces you to engage with your calendar and specifically with your to-do list. Too many of us don't engage with our to-do list often enough and then after a day or two, we end up deferring a large number of tasks to the never next day.
Well in this case, this sort of forces you at the end of your workday or at the very end of your day to review what is leftover and have it move over. Drag it over to a more appropriate day where you can accomplish that task.
I hope you enjoyed today's overview of using Google Calendar as a to-do list and I would love to hear your experience as well. So be sure to leave me a comment down below.
Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel, give this video a thumbs up, and don't forget to leave me a comment down below. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
