Have you ever worked on a project and later wondered exactly how long it actually took? You start the day with a plan, move from one thing to the next, and before you know it, the day is over. Where did the time go? I added a new feature to my DelCal Add-on that pulls time spent from Google Calendar. This makes it easy to see how much time you actually spent on meetings, planning, grading, or any other task. Instead of guessing, you can have a clear picture of how your time is distributed.
Start with Google Calendar
To track time spent you have to record your time somewhere. I am in the habit of leaving a tab open for Google Calendar. When I am working on something I add a calendar event with a hashtag in the title. #lessonplanning, #grading #meeting, etc… When I stop, I edit the time in the event to accurately note my end time.
DelCal by AliceKeeler
Collects NO User Data
Add-on for Google Sheets to manage your Google Calendar.
- Quickly create a new calendar.
- List all of your calendars.
- Delete old calendars with ease.
- List events within a date range.
- Search for events by keyword.
- List time spent on tasks.
- Delete events in mass.
Create a Work Tasks Calendar
My regular calendar gives me big picture what my schedule is. What it doesn’t tell me is what I did during that time. To help me keep track of what I am spending time on, I created a calendar just for “Tasks Tracking.”
Try DelCal to Quickly Create a Calendar
After installing DelCal in Google Sheets, use the Extensions menu to select “Create a New Calendar.” This will prompt you what you want to name your new calendar. Go to calendar.google.com to view your new calendar.
Note that if you, like me, have a lot of calendars that you no longer use. DelCal can also help you list and delete unused calendars.
Listing Calendar Events
From the menu, or sidebar, you can manage your calendar events with DelCal.
- Select your calendar from the dropdown list
- Choose the start and end date
- Optional: Filter by keyword
- List events
Columns
After selecting the date range a sheet called “Events List” is inserted with event information.
- Checkbox (if you want to use the delete option).
- Event title
- Start Date
- End Date
- Duration
- Duration Units
- Event Description
- Date event was created
Tracking Hours Spent on a Task
DelCal indicates how many hours (or days) the calendar event lasted. Highlight the selected duration times. In the bottom right hand corner of your spreadsheet a sum of your selection will automatically be displayed.
How Long Did I Spend Grading?
Using the filter feature in the sidebar, if I include #Grading in the calendar event title (or even just “grading”) I can add this filter in the sidebar before listing the events. This then shows me only the events where I was grading. Quite eye opening to run at the end of the school year.
