Google Calendar Gets Focus Time Entries That Can Automatically Decline Meetings

Focus time entries get a small headphones icon — in a colour of your choice — on the calendar.

By Nithya P Nair | Updated: 21 October 2021 16:22 IST

Google Calendar Gets Focus Time Entries That Can Automatically Decline Meetings

Photo Credit: Google

Focus time will function similar to ‘Out of Office’ event on Google Calendar

Highlights

Focus time entry aims to reduce work-related distractions
Focus time entries will appear on the ‘Time insights’ panel
Focus time feature started rolling out Wednesday

Google is introducing ‘Focus time' entries on Google Calendar that can automatically decline meeting requests for a selected time slot. A focus time entry will indicate the working status of users and make it easier for them to block out time for focused individual work. Focus time entries on the Google Calendar will appear with a small headphones icon that users can customise in terms of colour. This can also make the entries look different from other events and meetings. The new Google Calendar feature started rolling out on Wednesday

Google detailed what a ‘Focus time' entry will do for users in a blog post on Wednesday, October 20. The company says that it hopes to make it easier to create dedicated time for thinking and core work for users. Focus time will function a lot like ‘Out of Office' event on Google Calendar that was launched back in 2018.

Focus time entries will show with a small headphones icon on the calendar. As mentioned, different colours can be given to the Focus time entries to make them stand out from other calendar entries. Focus time will include the option to automatically decline conflicting events such as meetings. These entries will also appear in the ‘Time insights' panel that shows how a user's working hours are spread between meetings and other activities so that they can plan better.

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You can follow these steps on your computer to schedule Focus time

How to Schedule Focus time on Google Calendar

Open Google Calendar
Select when you want to schedule focus time.
At the top of the event, click Focus time and select the event starting time
Click on the Save button

The new feature on Google Calendar started rolling out from Wednesday, October 20 for people on the Rapid Release domains. Google confirmed that Focus time entries are limited to users on certain Workspace accounts — Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Teaching, and Learning Upgrade, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Nonprofits customers. It's not available for Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Frontline, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

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Further reading: Google Calendar, Google Calendar new features, Focus time, Focus time entry

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More