For most organizations, effective project management is an operational necessity - keeping teams on track, ensuring delivery deadlines are met, and ensuring every employee understands their roles and responsibilities.
While project management platforms are a great way to organize large tasks, they’re not always the best tool for small jobs that don’t quite merit a task card or action item but need to be monitored and fulfilled.
Google Calendar provides a handy way of making sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle for these small but significant items. With a recent upgrade improving this function, your calendar app is now your secret weapon for better task management.
How to use Google Calendar as a task management tool
The task feature in Calendar gives users a way to tie their activities to their schedule - making it easy to view your action items on any given day or week. It’s effortless to use too:
- Open Google Calendar
- Click anywhere on your Calendar, and select the ‘task’ tab from the pop-up window
- Select the date and time of your task, and add additional notes or a description in the box provided
The task is then logged into your Calendar and can be edited, added to a list, marked as complete, or deleted simply by clicking on the task button.
The new and improved Google Calendar
While Google Calendar allows users to set and see tasks, it has one big flaw - tasks could be easily ignored and forgotten days after being due.
To address this glaring functionality gap, Google is releasing an update to their calendar app, rolled out in stages from February 2022. The upgrade allows you to easily see and manage overdue tasks i.e, those that are marked uncompleted but were due in the past 30 days.
The overdue items are marked as ‘pending’ and appear as an all-day item at the top of the date field. Simply click on the ‘pending tasks’ label to bring up the list and edit your tasks or mark them as complete.
Don’t forget to tackle them within the month - pending tasks will only be visible for 30 days.
As it’s rolled out over the next couple of months, the new feature will appear by default for Calendar users but can be easily turned off by unchecking the ‘tasks’ box in the left-hand menu. With its easy implementation and obvious productivity benefits, however, you may find you come to rely on this small but transformative tool.
As a Google Premier Partner, UpCurve Cloud has helped hundreds of clients make the most of their Google Workspace tools, assisting with cloud migration, software integration, and product features. Book a consultation with our highly-experienced team today to see how we can position your tech stack to support your business as it grows.
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