Use Google Calendar to get quick insights into how you spend your time.
Google Calendar is one of the most popular tools in Google Workspace by Kimbley IT. It makes managing your time and keeping up with your commitments easy. Through Google Calendar, you can set up appointments, video calls or scheduled focus times for when you want to get on with your work without distraction.
One hidden feature inside Google Calendar is Time Insights. This feature lets you quickly see how you are spending your time. It is heavily focused on your time in meetings, as meetings can soon take over many hours of your day. If you can access other team members' calendars, such as those that report to you, you can also see how they spend their time. With Time Insights, you can quickly see how much time you spend in meetings and the five people you have spent the most time with during the selected time range.
Accessing Time Insights in Google Calendar.
Time Insights can only be accessed through the web version of Google Calendar. Visit calendar.google.com and click Time Insights in the left column. Once you have clicked Time Insights, it will open on the right-hand side of Google Calendar.
The Types of Events shown in Time Insights.
Time Inights will show you the time you spent in these specific event types:
Focus Time - Time you have set using the Focus Time option.
One to One - Meetings with one other guest.
Three Plus - Meetings with two or more other guests.
Need to respond - Meeting you've yet to accept or decline.
Remaining Time - Free time you have remaining.
Not all events in your Calendar are counted towards Time Insights; for example, only events that you have RSVP'd "Yes" to, have at least one other guest, are marked as busy and are less than 8 hours long get calculated in your Time Insights. Events, where you are the only person or replied "No" to an invite, are not included in Time Insights.
How Time In Meetings Is Calculated.
The Time Insight feature in Google Calendar calculates time as an average.
In Day, Week, Schedule, or 5-day view, the average time spent in meetings is calculated based on the previous 3 weeks.
When viewing your Calendar in Month view, the average is calculated based on your meeting time during the past three months.
Your average meeting time may decrease if you are out of the office.
If two meetings are scheduled at the same time, the time for a 1:1 meeting is counted over that of a group meeting. For multiple overlapping 1:1 meetings, the total time is counted.
Your time in meetings is counted only once during any given period. For example, if you respond "Yes" to two one-hour meetings scheduled for the same time, only one hour will be counted toward your total time spent in meetings.
Now, you can manage your time better.
Using the Time Insights feature in Google Calendar, you can get a detailed view of how you and your team spend their time, letting you make decisions that may free up time and reduce meetings.
