Guide to Gmail’s Drag and Drop Tasks and Calendar Scheduling Workflow
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
This is such an easy productivity hack that will save you time and help you manage your time more efficiently.
We have done this several times, you see an email and realise it is going to take time to action that you don't currently have, so you leave the email and then forget about it, oops!
This workflow turns an overwhelming inbox into a perfectly balanced Google Calendar. You take the email to your Google Tasks (with a link and everything), then you move it from Tasks to Google Calendar to schedule a time to action it. It's brilliant and here's how you do it.
Step 1 - Open Gmail. On the right-hand side, you’ll see the Google Tasks icon (the blue circle with a tick). Keep that sidebar open.
Step 2 - Click and hold the email in your Inbox that you would like to come back to, and drag it directly into the Tasks sidebar.
Step 3 - Google automatically creates a task with the email’s subject line and a direct link back to the email. You can now clean up your inbox and archive the email.
Now we want to block out that time in our Google Calendar.
Step 4 - Open Google Calendar. On the right-hand side, you’ll see the Google Tasks icon (the blue circle with a tick).
Step 5 - Take that task you just created in Gmail and drag it onto your calendar grid at the specific time you plan to do the work.
When it is time to do the task, you don't have to go hunting for the original email.
Click the task event on your calendar.
Click the Gmail link inside the task.
Complete the task.
Tick the 'Mark Completed' box.
Top tip: We like to colour-code our tasks in pink (or whatever colour you prefer) so we can see them in our Calendar and how much of our day they take up.
You can do this by clicking on the three dots on the 'Tasks' calendar in your calendar list.
To learn more about Gmail, Tasks or Calendar, book a live training session with Cloudshed.
You can also purchase our on-demand £75 Gmail course to learn more about Gmail at your own pace with videos, guides, a quiz and a certificate!
