This Google Calendar update is a dream come true for organization obsessives

by DTM | Posted on

Google has enhanced the way its Time Insights works in its calendar app to help you better understand how your time is spent in meetings.

Time Insights, which initially launched at the end of August 2022, has been highlighting things like your average number of meeting participants and hours spent on calls per week, in the hope that users could gain better insights into their working patterns to prioritize work more efficiently.

At its initial launch, the tool noted, “With the changes to our working environments in the past year, some people have more meetings and may feel less control over how their work time is spent. Time Insights can show you this data, and help you plan your time better.”

Google Calendar Time insights

(Image credit: Google)

Google Calendar Time Insights categories

Now, Google is allowing users to customize their experience with support for event names and colour schemes, which could help workers to understand which projects each meeting belongs to. 

General availability for Rapid Release domains is underway now, however it could take more than 15 days for some users to get access to the feature. Scheduled Release domains (this is the default setting for most accounts) are set to get the feature from August 30 2022.

In order to create a color label, users will need to navigate to Time breakdown > select By color > click on Add a Label. Time Insights can then be viewed by clicking on Time insights in the left side panel > clicking on More insights.

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Google’s help page has already been updated to include information on the new color-coordinated Time Insights.

For now, Time Insights remains reserved for top-tier subscribers of the company’s office software, on the following plans: Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits. 

Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Frontline, legacy G Suite Basic and Business, and personal accounts are not set to get the upgrade for now.