Google Calendar adds Focus Time entries so you can rest and reflect between events

With the overwhelming amount of digital meetings and collaboration that has become the new normal thanks to the global pandemic, it can be very easy to become overwhelmed. Google has previously baked Time Insights into Calendar to help you see where you’re spending your time and how often you’re sitting in calls, but that only felt like half of the solution.

As someone who intentionally places blocks of time into my schedule for rest and reflection, I’m happy to announce that Google is officially making this a feature. “Focus time” is now going to be a new entry type on your Workspace calendar in place of events, out-of-office, tasks, and appointment slots. This way, you can take some alone time to put your head down, plan, and recover from the hustle and bustle of your everyday work-from-home lifestyle.

Focus time entries have a different appearance, rocking a headphones icon, and include the option to automatically decline meetings for their duration. You can even manually choose a different color for these events if you’d like for them to stand out a bit more. I personally always make entries that have to do with my health and wellness the color blue (I told you before how I color code everything, right?) since blue releases endorphins and I associate it with rest and reflection.

I encourage you all to use between one and three chunks of your day to plan and realign with your goals or just to have a diversion from the chaos. If you have a Rapid Release domain, you can start using it as early as today, and as late as November 4, 2021. Those with Scheduled Release domains will have to wait for two weeks starting November 3, 2021, but that’s by design. Get your ducks in a row, train your organization’s members on how to use the new feature, and truly consider implementing it as a part of your work culture.

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