How to Calendar Block with Google Calendar Integration

If you’ve ever tried calendar blocking with Google Calendar, you know the struggle: your actual events and meetings get mixed up with blocks of time you’ve reserved for deep work, admin tasks, or focus sessions. Before long, your calendar looks messy, overwhelming, and nearly impossible to follow.

The good news? There are practical ways to set up calendar blocking while still keeping your Google Calendar clean and usable. Whether you’re looking for a free solution or advanced apps, here’s how to make calendar blocking actually work for you.

Step 1: Decide if You Want Blocks in Google Calendar or Separate

The first choice you’ll need to make is whether you want your time blocks to live inside your main Google Calendar or exist separately.

• Inside Google Calendar: Everything shows up in one place, but it gets crowded fast.

• Separate from Google Calendar: You use another app to visualize your time blocks, while Google Calendar remains clean for real events.

If you’ve tried and failed at calendar blocking before, chances are it’s because you stuffed both meetings and focus time into the same view. That’s where the following options come in handy.

Step 2: The Free Hack — Apple Calendar with One-Way Sync

If you use Apple devices, here’s a clever workaround that costs nothing and keeps your calendars neat.

1. Sync your Google Calendar into Apple Calendar.

   • Open Apple Calendar on your Mac or iPhone.

   • Add your Google account under Internet Accounts.

   • This will pull in all your existing Google events.

2. Create a new calendar inside Apple Calendar.

   • Call it “Time Blocks” or “Focus Calendar.”

   • Use a separate color so it’s easy to distinguish.

3. Add blocks to the new calendar (not your Google one).

   • Drag out time slots for writing, admin, workouts, or study time.

   • These won’t sync back into Google Calendar — meaning your main calendar stays uncluttered.

4. View both together in Apple Calendar.

   • You’ll see your real events (from Google) and your time blocks side by side.

   • But your Google Calendar itself stays clean.

Why this works: You get the benefit of visual calendar blocking without overwhelming the calendar you use for scheduling with others.

Step 3: Use a Dedicated App (If You Want More Control)

If you want something more powerful than Apple Calendar, two apps stand out for Google Calendar users: Sunsama and Skedpal. Both integrate beautifully with Google Calendar while giving you smarter ways to plan your day.

Option A: Sunsama — Drag-and-Drop Task Blocking

Sunsama is perfect if you like to plan your day by hand and see tasks in a calendar view.

Here’s how it works:

1. Connect Google Calendar to Sunsama.

   • Your existing events will appear inside Sunsama.

2. Import tasks.

   • You can pull tasks from tools like Asana, Trello, Todoist, or just type them in manually.

3. Drag tasks into your day.

   • Each task becomes a block of time.

   • Add subtasks if needed (e.g., “Write report” → research, outline, draft).

4. Review daily.

   • Each morning, open Sunsama, decide what’s realistic, and drag tasks into available time.

Key benefit: Your blocks never clutter your main Google Calendar. They live in Sunsama’s view, which syncs events from Google Calendar but doesn’t push time blocks back.

Option B: Skedpal — Smart, Automated Scheduling

If you’d rather let software do the heavy lifting, Skedpal is the way to go. It uses AI-like logic to place tasks on your calendar based on your rules.

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Connect Skedpal to Google Calendar.

   • Your real events will sync into Skedpal.

2. Create tasks with deadlines and time estimates.

   • Example: “Finish presentation, 3 hours, due Friday.”

3. Tell Skedpal your preferences.

   • When do you like to do deep work?

   • When are you available for calls?

4. Skedpal automatically schedules tasks into free time slots.

   • It will shuffle and re-batch tasks if your week changes.

Key benefit: You never have to drag and drop. Skedpal adapts automatically and batches similar tasks together, which is great if you juggle many projects.

Step 4: Choose the Right Tool for You

Here’s a quick breakdown to help you decide:

• Apple Calendar (Free Hack):
  Best if you just want a simple, no-cost way to block time without cluttering Google Calendar.

• Sunsama:
  Best if you like manually planning your day with a visual drag-and-drop workflow.

• Skedpal:
  Best if you prefer automation and want the app to figure out your schedule for you.

Step 5: Put It Into Practice

Whichever option you choose, here are some best practices to make calendar blocking stick:

• Start small. Try blocking just one or two important tasks per day.

• Color code. Make deep work a bold color, admin tasks a lighter one.

• Review daily. Spend 5 minutes each morning adjusting your blocks.

• Protect your focus time. Treat blocked time like a meeting with yourself.

Final Thoughts

Calendar blocking only works if you can stick with it—and the easiest way to stick with it is to keep your main Google Calendar clean.

If you want free and simple, use the Apple Calendar trick. If you want more features, Sunsama and Skedpal are both excellent choices depending on how you like to plan.

The main thing is this: don’t let your calendar get in the way of your productivity. With the right setup, your schedule will guide you—not overwhelm you.