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Moving back to the office, working at client locations again or anything in between - all is possible in the new normal. How to square all this fluidity with your team, which might depend on knowing where you are?
Calendar removes the awkward "Where will you be Tuesday? And Wednesday?" and does all the work for you.
Working from home, from the office, from the client, from the garden - it does not matter, as long as you let your team know. Now you can.
Tim Ferris would be proud of me. (Monday: No working location set - that is possible, too. Friday: Custom working location.)
Setting your baseline
Setting your baseline
Setting your standard
Setting your standard
To set working location, go to Settings > Working hours & location and select Enable working location. Then, set the location where you work in a typical week.
Setting exceptions
Setting exceptions
If, during the week, you find yourself changing your schedule, just click the day's entry to change it. You can write your own status, "@client" for example.
Consulting others' whereabouts
Consulting others' whereabouts
Other people's working location, if they set it already, will appear whenever you schedule a meeting with them.
Who sees my working location?
Who sees my working location?
People in your company will see your working location by default. You do not have to share "all event details" - keeping the default ("free/busy") is enough.
People outside will not see your working location, even if you share your calendar with them.
Your delegates can only see your working location.
I mostly work from home/the office, why should I bother?
I mostly work from home/the office, why should I bother?
Setting your whereabouts makes it easier for others to include you in meetings. Do they need to reserve a chair for you? Do they need to even ask? You are signaling, and that means less back and forth.
Get even more out of your new signaling super powers
Get even more out of your new signaling super powers
Use "Somewhere else" to indicate limited availability
Use "Somewhere else" to indicate limited availability
How about "Limited availability for meetings" or "limited availability for calls" or "Cannot be on video" or "In the office, but cannot leave my desk"?
If this is your day to take care of the kids or the elderly
If you are working from somewhere with spotty internet connection
If you are waiting for a very important call
... and whatever you need people to know before they reach out.
What about out-of-office?
What about out-of-office?
If you create an all-day out-of-office event, there will be no working location for that day. Because - you will be out of the office. How practical is that?
What about mobile?
What about mobile?
It's all there, and looks even better than on the desktop, if you can imagine that.
I hope you have enhanced your "when" (working times) with a "when" (working location) already. If not, it's high time you set them up! It's easy and it helps you get less email and pings. Let Google Calendar do work for you - and thank you for reading!
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