The best way to start anything is by consulting a calendar. Whether it’s for fabulous vacations, a surprise birthday party, or your next project, the calendar holds all the answers to your planning questions. However, the wall calendar is now a thing of the past, just like cassette players and flip phones. It belongs to a distant past. Today, you need an online calendar that can keep up with your schedule, anytime, anywhere. Luckily, you can manage that with a Google Sheets calendar. In this article, we will guide you step by step on how to create a calendar in Google Sheets and offer you a better alternative. Mark your calendar and follow this Google Sheets calendar tutorial!
Why Create a Calendar in Google Sheets?
Let’s be honest, you probably have a pre-installed calendar tool on your computer. Or maybe you think a simple static calendar will do the job. But here’s why a Google Sheets calendar is much better than these default options:
- Easy access: Google Sheets is part of everyone’s Google Workspace.
- Editable: Create a custom calendar that suits your unique needs.
- Collaborative: Invite team members to edit in real-time.
- Free: Don’t spend a penny to benefit from a truly universal set of features.
Use Google Sheets to plan an event, create a content marketing and social media calendar, or simply count down the days to your big launch. Ready to discover how to unleash its full potential? Let’s go!
How to Create a Calendar in Google Sheets?
Look, if creating a Google Sheets calendar was straightforward, you wouldn’t be here, right? Unfortunately, it’s a complex process, filled with formulas, much like creating an Excel calendar. But don’t worry, we’ve simplified it into three steps! Follow the guide.
Step 1: Add the Days of the Week
The first thing to do is create a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Name your spreadsheet and add the title of the month you’re creating. Then, enter the days of the week on a row at the top, like this:
(Note: You can start the weekly calendar on any day that suits you).
Step 2: Create the Full Month
Adding dates to your month is super easy. Start by entering “1” where the month begins, then add the formula to automatically calculate the next date. In our case, since our start date is in cell B3, the formula to add in the next cell is:
=B3+1
Copy and paste this formula until the end of the week (end of the row). Then, once you’re done with one row, repeat the process with each subsequent row.
Do this until you reach the last day; 28 in this case.
Step 3: Format the Calendar
Now that your calendar is ready, you can format it according to your project’s needs. Here are a few tips:
- Add a blank row for your notes below each row of dates.
- Resize the cells to your preferences.
- Highlight weekends or important dates.
- Add your brand colors to the calendar.
Here’s an additional tip: use conditional formatting to change the colors of cells based on the amount or type of data they contain. For example, an empty cell can remain white. But if it’s filled with multiple events, it changes color to indicate a blocked day.
To add more months to your calendar, repeat the process in the same sheet or add new sheets for each new month.
PS: If you’re not comfortable with GSheets’ rows and columns, try creating calendars on a Google document. But we don’t recommend it because a Google Docs calendar has the same disadvantages as a Google Sheets calendar!
3 Drawbacks of Google Sheets Calendars
We stand by what we said earlier. Google Sheets is like a pair of comfy old jeans. They fit perfectly when you’re doing your own thing. But you probably wouldn’t wear them to an important meeting. Here are the top three reasons why you don’t always want to rely on Google Sheets for your calendar needs.
1. No Task Management Features
Google Sheets is a fantastic tool for managing data, but that’s about it. Because once you’ve filled your calendar with tasks to do, who’s going to execute them? And how do you communicate with your team members?
You can mention people in comments. And the comment will reach them in their inbox. After that… you wait. The follow-up will be just as tedious. In the end, you’ll have no choice but to use another tool to assign tasks and communicate with the team.
2. Limited Automation
Google Sheets is a coder’s paradise. On a scale from simple to Einstein, there’s a formula for every function. But that’s it. You have to be really passionate about formulas to get the most out of Google Sheets, as they are your only way to automate the spreadsheet. So get ready to learn a few spreadsheet magic tricks from a GSheets geek. Without these skills, the tool doesn’t really have any real utility.
3. Not Compatible with Other Tools
Finally, how well does Google Sheets integrate with the rest of your working environment? The answer is complicated.
Let’s say you’re using a work operating system or a project management tool for your day-to-day operations. You’re fine if that tool allows you to integrate a Google Sheet into its discussions and dashboards.
But that won’t always be the case. More often than not, you’ll have to switch from Google Sheets to your project management tool. Check out our detailed guide on project management with Google to learn more.
Do all these reasons make you rethink Google Sheets calendars? Then you’re in the right place.
The Best Way to Manage Your Calendar: ClickUp
Typewriters, fountain pens, and directories may be outdated. But organization? It’s still trendy. Here at ClickUp, we love staying on the cutting edge of technology and helping you organize your workplace amazingly.
And it all starts with our immaculate calendar view. It’s one of the many views that help you sort and filter your tasks as you wish. What makes it so great?
First of all, you never have to create it yourself. It’s part of your ClickUp workspace, ready to solve all your calendar problems.
The Calendar view offers you a multitude of features to enhance your productivity. One of its biggest advantages is its flexibility. You decide the level of data that appears on your calendar. Choose the time unit you want to display. A single day, four days, a week, or an entire month. This allows you to be as efficient in your daily tasks as in your long-term projects.
But that’s just a small part of what you can do with the Calendar view. ClickUp allows you to create a task from almost anywhere, anytime. And all those tasks (if they have a due date) are automatically added to your full calendar. Just move them to change their start and end dates, and you’ll feel the power of productivity.
Use the right column to view unscheduled or overdue tasks. Also, change their due dates by simply dragging them. If you want to focus on in-depth work, activate the “Me” mode and only display tasks assigned to you.
We think these features are enough to relegate many basic calendar tools to oblivion. But wait, there’s more!
Want to create a new task within the Calendar view? Simply click on the small “+” sign in any date box. Add a name, summary, due date, and even a task priority level. Once added, click on the task to add any other necessary details.
And if you want to take your calendar with you everywhere, you’re in luck! ClickUp’s Calendar view is also available in the mobile app, making your organization even easier.
That’s right. Plan, organize, and visualize all your tasks right on your phone. In the ClickUp mobile app, you can choose to filter your Calendar view by day, week, workweek (Monday to Friday only), month, or schedule (continuous layout over multiple days). And don’t worry, any new Calendar views you create on mobile will also appear on the web.
But an empty-looking calendar app can be quite intimidating, right? Don’t worry. You don’t need to manually copy and paste every event from your other calendar. Just integrate your personal Google calendar, Outlook calendar, or Apple calendar, and all your events will appear.
To be honest, we’re just scratching the surface of what ClickUp has to offer. Here are some of the other features we love at ClickUp:
- Views: Choose from Calendar, List, Board, Box, Timeline, or Table view
- Time Estimates: Add approximate completion times for tasks
- Reminders: Never miss a task, or even a checklist item
- ClickApp Email: Manage your emails directly from the ClickUp workspace
- Multi-Task Toolbar: Perform bulk actions across all your views
- Important Milestones: Identify major milestones in your project timeline
- Native Time Tracking: Measure the duration of each task, from start time to finish time
- Offline Mode: Keep working even without an internet connection
- Dashboards: Track project metrics with dozens of widgets
- User-Friendly Mobile App: For iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux
Book a Date with ClickUp!
We’ve come a long way from the yearly table calendar of the ’90s. Today, a professional calendar is an essential part of your project planning process. Plan every task. Track every step. Achieve every goal. No matter how user-friendly (or free!) Google Sheets is, it can’t do all these things. You’ll need a powerful calendar tool that does much more than just tell you the day and month. So why not get the complete package with ClickUp’s project management features?
Assign tasks to team members, effectively communicate with them, without missing a beat in your weekly schedule. It’s simply the best you can get. So get ClickUp for free today and book your date with success! Explore article topics on Crawlan.com.
