Google Calendar Integration

What you'll learn

• Connect your Google Calendar to RescueTime
• Using the Google Calendar Integration
• Access to Multiple Calendars
• Troubleshoot Common Issues with Calendar Integration
• Disconnect your Calendar from RescueTime

Connect your Google Calendar to RescueTime

To connect your Google Calendar go to your Settings page > Calendar Integration

1. On the integration page, select + add a new calendar integration

2. Select See Permissions

3. Select Add Google Calendar 

You will be asked to grant the following permissions:  See, edit, share, and permanently delete all the calendars you can access using Google Calendar

You will need to grant these permissions in order for RescueTime to create the dedicated RescueTime Calendar that summaries will be posted to. 

4. Log into the account or click the account you want to connect and  select Allow 

5. A calendar titled "RescueTime" will be created on your Google Calendar.

Your calendar will now look like this with your total time logged along with your meeting time. This will also be synced to your Assistant.

Google Calendar

The Assistant

Using the Google Calendar Integration

There are many uses for this powerful integration: meeting reports, the ability to schedule automatic Focus Sessions, and a view of your daily summary everyday. 

Meeting Reports

If you have meetings added to your calendar then RescueTime will report these meetings as Scheduled meetings in your meetings reports. All your meeting time will count toward your scheduled meeting. Any desktop or web browsing that you do outside of your meeting will not be recorded and reported. You can read more about meetings here. 

During a meeting your Assistant will display a Join Meeting pinned alert. If the event in your calendar has a Zoom or Google Meet link, then you'll be able to click into the Join Meeting button to join the meeting directly. 

Automatic Focus Sessions

You can schedule an automatic Focus Session right from your calendar through calendar event hashtags or the Focus feature. 

Daily Summaries

RescueTime creates a new calendar containing daily summaries of your time detaiiing your logged time, meeting time, and Focus Work goal.

To view your daily summaries on your Google Calendar open your Google Calendar > Choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly view

💡  Please note: you cannot view the summary for the present day till the next day. 

To see details of the summary, just click on the timer and calendar emoji.

Daily Summary Overview

• 🗓  Calendar Summary: Total meeting time on your primary calendar

• ⏱   RescueTime Summary: Total time RescueTime logged plus percentage of that time dedicated to Focus Work

• 🎯   Your Focus Work Goal: Exceeded or missed your Focus Work goal

Access Multiple Calendars

Thankfully, Google Calendar has a great feature that allows you to have access to multiple calendars from different accounts. This makes it easier to keep track of different kinds of events. Instructions on how to calendar share are here.

Connecting all of your calendars allows RescueTime to have a better view of the availability of your whole day. The idea would be to add calendars that encompass each facet of your day. For example, you can have the following calendars

1. Your work (i.e., G Suite) calendar
2. Your personal (i.e., Gmail) calendar (for example, with your kid’s piano lessons)
3. Your work calendar, which is shared with your colleagues.

Add a calendar that is not owned by you

**If you want to add a calendar but don't own it, you can still get it connected. You will need to get the owner of the calendar to share the calendar with you.

Here are a couple of examples of why you might want to calendar share:

• Share your main calendar with someone you're training 
• Create a new calendar that multiple people can edit, like a “Support” calendar that everyone in support can see events and add events to.

So this is what the owner of the calendar needs to do, to give you access to the calendar owned by them:

• On your computer, open Google Calendar.
• At the top, select the gear wheel and select Settings

• On the left, find Settings for my Calendars. You might need to click it to expand it.
• Select the calendar you want to share, click Access permissions
• Under Share with Specific people click Add people. Enter the email address of the person you want to share with.
• Under Permissions select Make changes AND manage sharing. This is necessary for RescueTime to connect with the calendar.

• Add people and click send.

Once connected you will be able to pull from all of your shared calendars within your RescueTime calendar integration. 

**We have found that our integration does not work when trying to share a paid to unpaid Gmail account. 

Troubleshoot Common Issues with Calendar Integration

Regenerate Daily Summaries

If you don't see your daily summaries on your Google Calendar, then you can retrieve your daily summaries for the last 7 days.

• Click your Gravatar > Account Settings
• On the left, select Calendar Integrations
• Select the settings wheel > Settings
• Scroll to the bottom and click Regenerate daily summaries 

Other Common Issues

• Cannot regenerate your daily summaries
• #FocusTime on your calendar event did not start an automatic Focus Session
• RescueTime is not reporting your scheduled meetings in your meetings report

Disconnect and then reconnect your Google Calendar to RescueTime. Please ensure you accept the permission to " See, edit, share, and permanently delete all the calendars you can access using Google Calendar."

Please remember: RescueTime will not add, edit or delete anything from your existing calendars.

Disconnect your Google Calendar from RescueTime

1. Click your Gravatar > Account Settings
2. On the left, select Calendar Integrations
3. Select the settings wheel > Settings
4. Select Remove Google Calendar

5. Go to your Google Calendar settings page

6. Under Settings for my calendars click RescueTime

7. You'll see a dropdown, click Remove calendar

This will completely disconnect your Google Calendar from RescueTime.