This Easy Hack Turns Google Calendar Into a To-Do List
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Google Calendar is immensely useful, but it’s missing a crucial feature: the ability to mark a calendar event completed.
In the “Tasks” column in the sidebar you can list items and cross them off, but if you use Google Calendar as your primary to-do list, the lightweight Tasks option is not sufficient to handle anything more than a simple list.
But no problem—you can easily work around this limitation.
Step 1. Create a new calendar by clicking the down arrow on “My Calendars” in the left sidebar.
Step 2. Name the new calendar “Completed” (or “Done” or whatever you’d like).
Step 3. Give your Completed calendar the light grey color by clicking the down arrow next to the calendar in the left sidebar.
Step 4. When you finish an item on your calendar, click on the event, click “Edit event,” and under the calendar, change it to completed. The event will then be marked completed and greyed out on your main calendar.
Yes, it would be nice to have a checkbox or one-click option to mark an event as completed, and yes, the hack involves a couple of clicks, but I’ve been doing this for years and it works fine. I’m able to plan out my days, weeks and months, and mark events completed as I go.
Note: the calendar hack doesn’t work on shared calendars or repeating events. If you change an event on a shared calendar to Completed, it removes it from the shared calendar. If you change a repeating event to Completed, it changes all instances of the repeating event to Completed as well.
Recommended book: Google Apps Made Easy
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(Affiliate links)
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Comments
TY for this. Amazing that there isn’t some better method out there for Google calendar — especially with all the other junk they have.
Yes! This hack will be perfect for checking off completed assignments before they’re due.
I have been doing this too, google really needs to add this feature its so simple and works so well!
Just wanted to express my gratitude, this little hack does a lot for my mental health and organization. Much appreciated!
Google! Duhhh…
So close, and yet so far away (dumb/dumber/dumbest)
Yay! This is such a great hack… Thank you!
Guys, why not just change color of individual event in calendar? Right click and pick the color which you decided to indicate as “completed”.
I use the √ to mark complete. ( Alt + 251)
I just edit, click “home” to get the cursor to the front then add √ and a space hit save. Marked complete.
I do the same Debi suggested. If I’m on my phone, I put a checkmark emoji, and if I’m on my computer, I paste the character from either google search or a previous task. I like to keep each event to its relevant colour, but having the checkmark helps to see which ones I’ve actually completed 😀
This hack doesn’t work if you have a recurring calendar event. There’s no way to save one individual event (say… a monthly bill) to another google “completed” google calendar you’ve created. 🙁 If you try to move one of the events to your “completed” calendar, it moves all of them (does not give you the choice to save either “this even,t this and following events, all events.” I too use a character I’ve designated to mean “completed,” and then I save “this event” only… but the problem with that is you still get all of the notifications, etc. that you’ve set up for the event series… as if that one event hasn’t been completed/past. 🙁
Please hear us, Google! We need a real to-do list interface that’s as robust as calendar events! Thanks! 🙂
I have assigned a “completed” color so my brain knows its done. I use the lavendar color for all completed tasks. All I have to do is right click and change the color. Not as satisfying as a strikethru or checkbox, but it works.
Wow, “right click”! I was also just changing color (gray in my case) but with the longer procedure (click event, click edit, change color, save, this event only). I was very quick already because of practice, but right click is definitely better, thanks for the tip ^_^