HOW TO EFFECTIVELY USE GOOGLE CALENDAR FOR PRODUCTIVITY + TIME MANAGEMENT: College + Aesthetic Plan

In today's video, I'll show you how I make my google calendar a part of my productivity system + how I made it aesthetically pleasing so I actually look forward to looking at it.

The video will be broken down into a few sections: what I use Google Calendar for, how I integrate Canvas onto it, how I organize my Google Calendar, tips on using this type of digital planning system and how to make it look super aesthetically pleasing. Let's get started!

What I use Google Calendar for:
1. Google calendar is a part of my planning system. You can find my full planning system video here. I like using Google Calendar for time-blocking, adding in events, and my student schedule. I do not use it for writing out tasks I need to get done or to write in detail what I will be doing throughout the day. As you can see, my calendar isn't full for the whole day (just specific parts of the day that I need to manage my time wisely).

Tips on using Google Calendar:
1. Depending on how you are used to planning, this system might look super overwhelming and strict or it might be super laid back. The first tip I have is to complement your lifestyle. If you do need to schedule every minute of the day, time-block to complement that. But, if you feel like that would just stress you out, you can time-block generally. The reason why I recommend using an hourly digital planner is because life in college can be super repetitive. You want to minimize writing down repetitive tasks often in your planner because it's a waste of time.
2. Write down office hours! Ok you have no idea how useful this is until you actually do it. I've missed so many office hours in the past because I was too lazy to look it up or because I got too busy with other classes that I totally forgot about attending office hours.
3. Make sure to add a lot of time for random things to come up during the day. I have yet to have a day where random things don't come up to interrupt my workday. It might be me losing a file, due dates changing, or my parents asking me for favours but there are just so many things that you can't control. So, you need to carve out time for things like that to happen and add a bit of buffer time between your time-blocks.

HOW I made my calendar aesthetically pleasing:
2. Make a new calendar for each big part of your life (categories)
3. Change the hex color code for each calendar.
4. Use the same formatting for tasks (all caps, all lower case, using : - /)

That was how I use my Google Calendar for college. If you have an interesting way of using google calendar, let me know below!

Have a sunny day,
Shay 🌈

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♡ ABOUT ME
Hi, I'm Shay! I post videos on productivity, health, and wellness. I am a 4th-year student in the faculty of Health Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU). I am based in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

if you have any questions about the topics I talk about, feel free to ask in the comments or DM me on Instagram @shayhayashi!

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♡ DISCLAIMER
This video is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This description may contain affiliate links (including the Amazon affiliate links) that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.

[lailasullivan]

For anyone that needs them:

0:00 - 0:16 ~ intro.
0:16 - 0:37 ~ explaining different sections.
0:37 - 1:26 ~ first section.
1:26 - 2:13 ~ second section.
2:13 - 3:34 ~ third section.
3:34 - 5:17 ~ fourth section.
5:17 - 6:07 ~ last section.
6:07 - 6:19 ~ outro.

THIS TOOK TOO LONG

[hollyster]

The canvas trick is seriously a lifesaver. I would type all of those by hand and I am very thankful for your hack!

[kristyklin]

this has officially motivated me to redo my google calendar colors 🙈🙈 I love how everything of yours is always so nicely color coordinated 💗

[eliskakralikova]

I though of trying time blocking since I saw it in your videos, I love that you also care about aesthetics, I never knew how to turn the calendar into something cute. Thank you so much for this motivation to organise!

[madebyymira]

omg i love this!! i live by google calendar and recently started time blocking as well. its made a huge difference of actually getting things done that i would usually slack on. im excited to see more of your content :-)

[sophroxanne]

My second semester starts tomorrow, so this video def comes in handy :) I recently discovered your channel and I've been binge watching all of your videos, your tips are so so helpful!!

[linajadid]

I just found you and I am OBSESSED with your current videos😍😍. I love how you keep a balance of a practical and aesthetic Google calendar. You got a new sub 🙌✨

[theeehealthnut]

You make all your videos easy to follow along, so informative!! 🙏🏼💕

[glxxmy]

This was sooo helpful. I've been planning by handwritting digitally and really wanted to move over but it seemed so overwhelming. Looking forward to using it this semester thanks to you!

[sanjanae.]

SHAY! Your voice is so soothing, I love listening to you talk. Thank you for these tips!! <3

[betinaceciliafeld]

Thank you for sharing the palette generator page! This may seem a small thing but it is so important to actually want to look at your calendar.

[gouribellad]

so timely! i needed this for my Sunday weekly planning :)

[LeeReed]

Google is the number one system i use, so this helped me so much! As always you are inspiring, so keep doing what you're doing! My word for this year is Proactive and now I have a system to do so. 🤗

[marydavis]

Getting a Starbucks refresher 💓 love that I found your channel

[bri]

i came across your videos idk how and oh boy am not regretting this, much love xx

[tiffanykwu]

Wow yours is so aesthetic pleasing! Thanks for your tips, I need to redo my Google calendar ☺️ I’m not in school anymore, but this great for work too!

[jordanselemani]

Thank you so much for these tips ! I will definitely apply them into my journey as a student

[TineshaDePalma]

This video was so helpful, loved it!!

[andrear]

I´m about to get back to online classes and this really motivated me to be organized with school:)

[catpa-s]

This video is so helpful & pretty! I am starting grad school soon and this is so helpful as my class uses google calendar!
Ps. I binged watch your videos (such pretty editing btw) on my other YouTube account haha!