Google Calendar for Android has been updated with a great new feature that is aimed at keeping you on track in various aspects of your life. The new Goals feature allows you to setup specific goals and have them scheduled in your calendar to help you stay focused and to make sure that you have time to complete them. The updated version of Google Calendar is in the Google Play Store now and should be rolling out via an OTA update to users over the course of the next few days.
Much like Reminders that came to the app a few months ago, when you go into Google Calendar and tap the red + button, you can now add a Goal. These goals can be in five distinct areas and you
Goals in Google Calendar
can have multiple goals within each area.
- Exercise: Allows you to schedule a workout, walk run or yoga session in your calendar
- Build a Skill: For learning a language, to code, practice an instrument or make art
- Family & Friends: Reach out to a friend, eat with your family, call your parents
- Me Time: Read, meditate or work on a personal hobby
- Organize my Life: Plan the day, clean or do chores
Each one of these areas also offers a custom setting where you can name and create a goal personalized for you. Also, each goal you set up can be set up to be done daily or a certain number of days per week or per month. It is actually very flexible in how you can setup these goals and when you have created it, Google Calendar will automatically populate your calendar with place holders for you to complete these tasks.
While the concept is great, there are a few weaknesses in this new Goals setting, most notably that it will not “see” any other calendars other than your main Google Calendar. So if you have multiple calendars you could end up with events overlapping goals. You can move the goals of course but it would be great to see in a future release that the feature is a bit more calendar aware. All-in-all though, it is a great feature and one to give a try.
