3 "Slept On" Aspects of Google Workspace

In the hip hop music genre, the term "slept on" refers to artists, albums or songs that are very good, but have been ignored or overlooked. In Google Workspace, formerly GSuite, there are many small features and apps that are often overlooked. Three slept on aspects of Workspace that can be time savers and improve efficiency are attaching documents to Google Calendar events, creating new Calendars, and using the side panel in Gmail.

Don't schedule a meeting in Google Calendar and separately share a meeting agenda (Google Docs). Kill two birds with one stone by attaching the agenda to the Calendar event. Start by clicking the Attachment button on a Calendar event.

Choose your Agenda file from Google Drive.

When you Save the Calendar event, you will invite attendees via email. When doing so, you'll be prompted to set up the viewing permissions for attendees. Doing this will prevent you having to go back later and share the file with attendees. Attendees will be able to access the file right from their Google Calendar.

When scheduling meetings in Google Calendar, don't invite attendees to individual events, create a new calendar and invite attendees to access the new calendar. When you create the events, add them to the new calendar. This way, attendees only need to accept access to the calendar one time and they will have access to all events placed on it. This eliminates the need for attendees to deal with multiple emails for accepting individual event invites. 

This is useful if you are department or grade level lead, an administrator scheduling staff meetings and or teachers scheduling club or sports team meetings. Start by clicking the "plus" button next to Other Calendars.

In the drop down menu that appears, click Create new calendar.

Title your Calendar then click Create calendar. You'll see a status bar at the bottom while it is being created. When it's finished, it will say successfully created. Click the Configure button to invite people to access it.

When scheduling meetings, just below the Add notification button, you will see your default Calendar. By default, all Calendar events you create are put there. Your default Calendar is your name. To add the event to another Calendar, click your name and choose another Calendar from the menu that appears.

We spend much of our screen time in Gmail. Gmail has evolved into a one-stop shop. Most of Google's services, and the apps you need, are accessible right within Gmail. You can use them without having to tab hop in Chrome. A commonly slept on aspect of Gmail is the side panel. On the right side of Gmail, you will see a side panel that gives you at a glance access to Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Tasks and other add ons. 

Instead of tab hopping to see your Google Calendar, click the Calendar button on the side panel. When you click on an event, you are able to edit events and add other information.

Use the side panel to access your Google Keep Notes. You are able to create new notes and edit already made notes.

Google Tasks exists entirely within the side panel. Use Tasks to track "to do list" things and action items from email messages. Each task can be have a time based reminder set. Reminders can be recurring as well.

Below the apps above, if you click the "plus" button, you will access a marketplace to add other apps that can be accessible in the side panel. 

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Chat at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com.

My book, The Complete EdTech Coach: An Organic Approach to Digital Learning, co-authored with my wife Katherine Goyette is now available on Amazon. Click here to purchase. It is published by Dave Burgess Publishing. Be sure to follow the hashtag #OrganicEdTech and #CVTechTalk for updates.