This New Google Calendar Feature Basically Flags Meetings That Could’ve Been Emails

This New Google Calendar Feature Basically Flags Meetings That Could’ve Been Emails

Spending too much time in meetings that probably could’ve been emails? Well, you’re in luck because Google Calendar will now break down exactly how much of your day is being chewed up in meetings with a brand new feature.

The Time Insight feature will be displayed as a side panel on the web-version of Google Calendar, showing users how much time is spent in scheduled meetings.

According to a new blog post from Google, the feature will be rolled out as part of selected Google Workspace plans in the next month after being announced back in March.

At first, this feature seemed pretty insignificant to me because, well, you could just manually add up how much time you’re spending in meetings. But that’s not the only benefit of the Time Insight panel.

In addition to simply giving you the total time spent in meetings per day, the feature also gives you information regarding your busiest day of the week, your overall time breakdown and insights over longer periods of time.

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You can see data on who you meet with most frequently and which days are busiest, and can then plan your days accordingly.

Additionally, the new feature allows you to set goals, which could be a game-changer if you find your days chewed up by meetings that could’ve been an email. But unlike the screen time features on Android and iOS, this feature won’t allow you to set hard time limits on your meetings.

Google has made a point to stress that “this information is visible to you, not your manager.” However, it’s worth noting that if your manager has permission to manage your calendar, they will also be able to see the breakdown, so probably don’t set a bunch of “meetings” that are actually just excuses for you to binge-watch your favourite show on Netflix.

 


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