Introduction
Google has integrated their software into the Gmail interface creating a productivity hub centered around email. Read below for some best practices to get the most out of the integrated Gmail experience.
Instructions
Managing Schedules
- Your calendar can be access directly from Gmail so you can keep track of your meetings and appointments from a central location. To open your calendar from within Gmail, click on the Calendar icon in the right vertical toolbar.
- Inform your colleagues when you’re available by setting working hours and locations on your calendar. You can specify different combinations of hours and locations for every day of the week. You can also split individual days into multiple work periods to accommodate lunches or blocked times. Learn how to show your working hours and set your work location.
- Check someone else’s availability to schedule events when everyone is available. Avoid the email back and forth. Learn how to check someone else’s availability.
- Inform meeting participants if you are attending the meeting from a meeting room (or office) or virtually. You can do this by adding your location when responding to a meeting invite. Learn how to add your location when you respond to invites.
Collaborating in Real Time
With Chat, you can have real-time conversations with your colleagues anytime, from any location. You can even turn a group chat into a project space in Spaces. When chats are not enough, you can quickly meet using Meet from within a chat or space.
- Direct chats, even small chat groups, should be used for non-project related work where the people are more important than the topics as membership doesn’t change. If members are added to an existing chat, a new chat group is created instead. Learn how to create direct messages and rooms.
- Spaces should be used for project work as membership can change and everyone will have access to the same assets and historical information as everyone else as soon as they are added.
- Sometimes typing is not enough. You can start Google Meet video meetings and schedule team events, right from your chat or space.
- Files and information are important to any project. Colleagues frequently need to collaborate on plans, spreadsheets, presentations, and other files. Make it easier to find project files by adding them to your project’s space. You can also open, edit, and create docs, sheets, and slides directly in your project’s space. Learn how to add files to a room.
- Add or remove people from your project’s space as needed. New members can view past conversations and relevant files to get up to speed. People no longer have to search for and read long email chains. Learn how to add or remove people in a room.
Track Progress Towards Goals
- You can use Tasks to keep track of who is doing what within your project. Tasks can be assigned directly from a space or email message. Tasks cannot be assigned from within Chat. Learn how to create and assign tasks in a room.
- You can create an event from within an email message, Space or Chat. The following information from the message is copied to the event:
- Email subject -> Event title
- Email message -> Event description
- Email recipients -> Event guests