Wow wow wow. Honestly I think I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for actual YEARS. People around me have heard me absolutely raving about this 1 thing for ages : GOOGLE CALENDAR. A total game-changer. The biggest life hack I will ever use. My ride-or-die BFF. It’s everything & MORE.
Just ask Tiffany – I gave her a nearly 2 hour seminar on the ins & outs of Google Calendar.
I am SO obsessed, so SPECIFIC about the way that I use my Google Calendar that I can likely write a book on it.
But first things first – this blog post! ( Which, by the way, ISN’T sponsored … though I wish that were a thing, ha! )
Let’s start with a quickie story : It was my sophomore year in college – I had just come back from studying abroad in Paris, France … and I recognized one thing. The achiever side of me WAS NOT satisfied – she wanted those ever-elusive straight A’s and she wanted to *finally* crack the code to getting them.
The thing is, I learned that there is no code for a 4.0! There is just one hugely important thing : TIME MANAGEMENT.
& nothing, NOTHING helps more with time management than Google Calendar.
This isn’t just about school or about grades, it’s about EVERY single thing you want to achieve in life – it all takes time, & with time comes time management. If you study any successful person out there, you would probably recognize that they have mastered the ART of time management – no Time Stone needed (for any Marvel fans out there).
I use Google Calendar on all of my devices – laptop, phone, iPad, you name it – but I have found that the web version is the absolute king.
And the reason is this …
The web version of Google Calendar has an integrated tasks function, where you can list out & easily reference your tasks & their corresponding due dates.
This is KEY.
While most people aren’t new to to-do lists, there is something extraordinary about being able to put the to-do list next to your daily timetable. When you are considering how to spend every minute of your day, knowing exactly what you have to accomplish by when helps you figure out how much time you have at your disposal.
While I had an insanely busy schedule nearly every year in college, I also stayed sane by knowing exactly when I could relax. Instead of procrastinating blindly, I chose to figure out when I could actually spare the time to do something fun! Because of Google Calendar, I had the ability to accomplish all that I needed to while also being able to read a book, hang out with friends, or watch an episode on Netflix.
How I Set Up My Google Calendar
I took two screenshots of my own Google Calendar from September 2018 to show you what my day-to-day looked like in college.
Above, you’ll notice that I use a couple colors – which to you might be arbitrary, but to me is a system that means something: Orange is school-related, green is work-related, grey is social, yellow is basic life things, & blue is anything that was on my task list. Usually, the white parts in between each event is a time when I either was getting to one place to the next or when I was relaxing in some way. I highly recommend coming up with a color system so you can easily see what is going on.
At the very top of the page, you can see the day-long events as well as all the tasks I need to complete by that day. At the side, that is where I have all my to-dos listed. As I mentioned before, it is INCREDIBLY helpful that the tasks and calendar are side-by-side, so that you know what you have to do & can easily figure out when you can do it.
Another reason why a digital web calendar trumps a paper schedule is that you can adjust the times if needed. While I’ve gotten very good at predicting how much time I spend on each task, in the beginning it was harder for me to gauge. After all, sometimes things just take longer than expected. And, that’s okay! All I would have to do is drag the events to extend or shorten the time. It is 100% simple & does not require erasing of any sort. I tried to LOVE paper planners in the past, but I found that they are not portable & that making any changes is difficult.
Overall, please be mindful that this is a system that works for ME. If you have something that works wonders for you (e.g. some people prefer traditional pen & paper, but I LOVE technology), stick with it! While experimenting doesn’t hurt, everyone does things in a different way, which does NOT matter as long as you get to the result. It’s a matter of doing it is all!
While I am not by ANY means perfect nor am I an expert on life, I wanted to share how I personally overcame procrastination & took control of my own life. I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Let me know if I can answer any of your questions in the comments!
Yours truly,
+ QUESTIONS? LEAVE THEM BELOW OR ASK KAYLA!
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