Don't Reinvent the Wheel
While it's possible to create a calendar from scratch in Google Sheets, I strongly recommend against it. A calendar is a tool designed to boost your productivity, not consume your time in its creation. Instead of reinventing the wheel, start with one of the many readily available calendar templates and customize it to meet your specific needs and preferences.
Here are some excellent templates I recommend for different uses:
- Weekly Calendar: The folks over at SmartSheet have created a clean and functional weekly calendar template that's perfect for detailed scheduling.
- Monthly Calendar: For a broader view, Template.net provides a versatile blank monthly calendar template that's easy to adapt.
- Annual Calendar: Google itself offers a comprehensive yearly calendar template in its template gallery, ideal for long-term planning.
- Content Calendar: Social media managers will appreciate this multi-page content calendar from SociallyPowered, which includes sections for everything from live video planning to Instagram posts.
- School Calendar: For educators and students, Vertex42 has created a selection of school-oriented calendar templates that cater to academic scheduling needs.
Once you've found a template you like, you need to create your own copy otherwise you won't be able to edit it:
- Open the template link. You'll notice it's in view-only mode and can't be edited.
- To create your own editable copy, click File in the menu, and select Make a copy.
- Give your new calendar a name and choose where to save it in your Google Drive.
- Click Make a copy again to create your own editable version of the template.
Now you have a foundation to build upon, and, in the next section of this article, I'll explain how you can improve your chosen template to create a calendar that perfectly suits your needs.
Improve Your Google Sheets Calendar
By adding custom features, you can transform a basic calendar into a powerful tool that helps you achieve your productivity goals.
Add Dropdown Menus to Cells
Dropdown menus in calendar cells make it easier to enter frequently used information.
💡 I've personally used them in the past to manage my work schedule. Instead of writing "Morning Shift" and "Night Shift" over and over again, I could simply select the appropriate shift from a dropdown menu. This not only saved time but also made my calendar entries consistent.
Here's how you can create a dropdown menu for shift scheduling or any other repeated calendar entries:
- Select a cell or cells where you want to add the dropdown.
- Click on Data in the top menu, then choose Data validation.
- Click the + Add rule button in the Data validation rules pane.
- Enter the desired dropdown options and optionally pick suitable colors for them.
- Click Done to create your dropdown menu.
You can now click on any of the dropdown menus you've created and pick from the specified options.
🎯 Congrats, now you can quickly build a weekly calendar or monthly calendar that clearly displays your work schedule or any other repeated information!
Add Notes to Calendar Cells
Unlike physical calendars that limit you to cramped handwriting in tiny squares, Google Sheets calendars let you add virtually unlimited information to each date even if the cells themselves are quite small thanks to its notes feature.
Cell notes are like digital sticky notes attached to your calendar entries. They provide a way to store extensive information, links, lists, or any other relevant details right alongside your events. To add them, you need to do the following:
- Right-click on the cell where you want to add a note.
- Select Insert note from the dropdown menu.
- Type your note in the pop-up box that appears. Feel free to add multiple paragraphs, bullet points, or even paste in text from other sources.
- Click outside the note box to save it.
Cells with notes will have a small red triangle in the upper-right corner. To view a note, simply hover your mouse over the cell, and the note will appear, displaying all the information you've stored. Use this trick to remember important information and see your productivity in the workplace skyrocket.
Give Your Colleagues or Family Access to the Calendar
After you've put in the effort to create a calendar in Google Sheets, it's only natural that you want to share it with others. However, downloading the file and sending it via email is far from the best option. While you can email a Google Doc or Spreadsheet, there's a more efficient way to share your calendar.
Instead, take advantage of the blue Share button in the top right corner of your Google Sheet to give access to others and decide what they can do with your calendar. Here's how:
- Click the Share button in the top right corner of your Google Sheet.
- Invite specific people using their email addresses. This is ideal for sharing with colleagues or family members.
- Alternatively, you can generate a share link with three levels of access:
- Viewer: Anyone with the link can view the calendar but can't make changes. This is perfect for sharing a read-only version of your calendar.
- Commenter: People with the link can view and comment on the calendar but can't edit it. This is useful for getting feedback on your schedule.
- Editor: Anyone with the link can make changes to the calendar. Use this for collaborative planning or when you want to create a fillable calendar that others can update.
💡 Of course, you can always change or revoke access later if needed. You just need to click the Share button again and change your settings.
Improve Productivity and Inbox Management with Clean Email
Managing your email inbox is just as important as keeping track of calendar events and appointments. Many crucial messages about meetings, events, or deadlines can easily get lost in a cluttered inbox. The Clean Email app helps you ensure that no important email goes unnoticed.
Clean Email offers a range of advanced features that surpass most email providers’ built-in tools, making it easier to boost your email productivity. You can automate tasks, filter new senders, and clean up unwanted subscriptions with precision and ease.
Auto Clean
With Auto Clean, you can automate the organization of incoming emails without any hassle. Set rules to prioritize emails from your boss, file project-related messages into specific folders, or move newsletters to the Read Later folder automatically.
Once set, Auto Clean works continuously without the need for manual input, while offering you lots of customization.
Cleaning Suggestions
The Cleaning Suggestions feature is a tool many users find helpful for maintaining an organized inbox. Clean Email intelligently analyzes the inbox and provides recommendations, such as unsubscribing from newsletters you no longer open, moving old messages from a single sender to Trash, or archiving them in one go.
Screener
Don’t let important messages from new contacts slip through the cracks. The Screener feature gathers emails from unknown senders in one place, allowing you to review and approve or block them as needed.
Whether it's a job opportunity or an appointment reminder, Screener gives you control over which senders make it to your inbox.
Unsubscriber
Subscription emails can easily overwhelm your inbox, making it hard to focus on what matters. With Clean Email’s Unsubscriber feature, you can unsubscribe from multiple mailing lists at once, saving time and decluttering your inbox in just a few clicks. No more manually opting out of newsletters one by one.
All these powerful features are available across Clean Email's web platform, Mac desktop, and mobile apps for Android and iOS, ensuring you can manage your inbox seamlessly from anywhere.
Final Thoughts
Creating a calendar in Google Sheets offers flexibility and functionality that traditional paper calendars simply can't match. Whether you're managing a personal schedule, coordinating team projects, or planning long-term goals, Google Sheets provides the features you need to stay on top of your commitments.
