How to (Easily) Make Perfect Content Calendars in Google Sheets

How to Easily Create a Customized Calendar in Google Sheets for 2024

Whether you‘re a business owner planning out your quarterly goals, a marketer mapping out a content strategy, or just someone who likes to stay organized, having a calendar is a must. But you don‘t need to pay for an expensive calendar app or buy a paper planner — with Google Sheets, you can quickly and easily create a customized calendar that‘s accessible from anywhere and shareable with your whole team.

In this post, we‘ll walk through exactly how to make a 2024 calendar in Google Sheets, either by creating one manually or using a pre-made template. We‘ll also share some tips and tools to save you time and help you create a professional-looking, easy-to-use calendar design.

Finally, we‘ll explore some of the benefits of using Google Sheets for your calendar needs and share some creative ways to customize your calendar to maximize organization and productivity in 2024.

Benefits of Creating a Calendar in Google Sheets

There are many great reasons to use Google Sheets to create your 2024 calendar:

  1. Easy access from any device. Because Google Sheets is cloud-based, you can access your calendar from anywhere you have an internet connection, using any laptop, tablet or mobile device. You can even set up offline access to stay productive on the go.

  2. Real-time collaboration. Need to share your calendar with teammates or family members? Google Sheets makes it super simple to give others viewing or editing access. Everyone can collaborate in real-time, making updates or adding events that instantly sync for all users.

  3. Endless customization options. With Google Sheets, you have full control to customize your calendar‘s design and layout. Change colors, fonts, cell sizes, and more to match your aesthetic. Add your own images, links, and branding elements.

  4. Powerful features to automate and improve workflows. Google Sheets comes with built-in formulas, conditional formatting, data validation, calendar view, and other helpful features to make calendar creation and event scheduling easier. Connect your calendar to other Google apps you use daily.

  5. It‘s 100% free! While many calendar and project management apps charge a premium, Google Sheets is completely free to use. It comes included with any free Google account.

How to Manually Create a 2024 Calendar in Google Sheets

Now, let‘s get into the step-by-step process of manually building your own calendar in a blank spreadsheet. While this takes a bit more initial work than using a pre-made template (which we‘ll cover in a later section), it gives you the most flexibility to design a calendar tailored to your exact needs.

Step 1: Open a new Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Go to sheets.google.com and click the large plus sign to start with a blank spreadsheet.

Step 2: Decide on your calendar‘s time range and frequency.

Do you want to create a monthly, quarterly, or annual calendar? A weekly or daily calendar? This will determine your column and row setup and how much detail to include.

For this example, we‘ll create a monthly calendar with a separate tab for each month of 2024.

Step 3: Set up your columns and rows.

Rename your first sheet tab to "January 2024" or "Jan 2024". Type the days of the week (Sunday to Saturday) in the top row, with one day per column. Adjust the column widths if needed to allow space for the full day names.

In column A, add numbers to represent each week of the month. Most months in 2024 will have 5 weeks. In the cell to the right of each week number, type a formula to get that week‘s starting date:

=DATE(2024,1,[week number]*7-WEEKDAY(DATE(2024,1,1))+1)

Replace the month number (1) with the corresponding number for future months.

Step 4: Fill in the day numbers.

In the cell under "Sunday" in the first week, type a 1. Then click and drag the fill handle (small blue square in the corner of the selected cell) across to Saturday to automatically fill in the numbers 1-7.

Do the same for the next weeks, typing in the next number in the sequence and dragging across. The numbers should wrap correctly into the next month. Just delete any extra numbers that get pulled in past the last day of the current month.

Step 5: Add design formatting.

Now the basic structure of your calendar is in place. It‘s time to make it look nice! Some easy design ideas:

  • Merge and center the month name across the top row
  • Bold the day of week row
  • Change the font, colors, and cell borders
  • Adjust row heights to create more space to write in events
  • Shade weekends a different color
  • Add a notes section off to the side

Feel free to get creative and infuse your own personality and branding into the calendar‘s look and feel. Simple design touches make it more motivating and enjoyable to use.

Step 6: Set up calendar for remaining months.

Once your first month is set up how you like it, you can easily copy it to new tabs for the remaining months of 2024. Just right-click the sheet tab and click "Duplicate."

Then update the month name and starting date formula for each month. Remember, the first day of the week and number of weeks may change each month.

Repeat the process for all 12 months, and your 2024 calendar is complete! Of course, you can always go back and continue to refine the design and add more advanced features as you use it.

Time-Saving Tips for Creating Your Google Sheets Calendar

The process above works well but can be quite time-consuming, especially if you‘re building out a full 12-month calendar. Here are a few tips to speed it up:

  1. Use keyboard shortcuts.

Instead of clicking through menus, use keyboard shortcuts to save time. Some helpful ones:

  • Ctrl + C to copy, Ctrl + V to paste
  • Ctrl + B to bold
  • Ctrl + Z to undo
  • Alt + E + S + V to paste only values (gets rid of formulas)

For Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl.

Google Sheets has dozens of built-in keyboard shortcuts to help you work faster. Check out the full list in their support documentation.

  1. Take advantage of autofill.

We used autofill above to automatically populate the date numbers across each week. You can also use it to apply formatting and formulas down a column by double-clicking the small blue fill handle square.

  1. Use the fill handle to drag formulas.

If you have a formula that needs to be applied across multiple cells, type it once and then drag the fill handle across or down to copy it to the adjacent cells with one click. This is much faster than typing out the same formula over and over.

  1. Create a custom number format.

If you want to display the full day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) in your calendar without using a formula, create a custom number format. Select the cells, go to Format > Number > More formats > More date and time formats. Type "dddd" and click Apply to display the full day name based on the date.

Importing an Existing Calendar with an Add-On

Already have your 2024 events planned out in Google Calendar? You can import them into a Google Sheets calendar with the help of a free add-on.

Step 1: Install the add-on.

In your Google Sheets spreadsheet, go to Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons. Search for "Calendar" and find the Google Calendar add-on by ablebits.com. Click Install, then Continue, then Allow to grant permission.

Step 2: Import your calendar.

Once installed, go to Add-ons > Google Calendar > Import Google Calendar. Follow the prompts to select the calendars you want to import and the date range. You can import your main calendar and/or any other calendars you have set up (holidays, birthdays, etc.)

Customize the other settings to your liking, such as what event information to include. Then click Import to pull your calendar events into the spreadsheet.

Step 3: Move events to the appropriate date cells.

The add-on will import your events into a new sheet within the same spreadsheet. You can then use formulas to automatically transfer the events into the corresponding date cells in your main calendar sheet.

For example, if your events sheet has columns for Subject, Start Date, Start Time, and End Time, you can use a formula like this in your calendar sheet:

=IFERROR(QUERY(A2:D100,"select A where date ‘"&TEXT(C2,"yyyy-MM-dd")&"‘ >= B and date ‘"&TEXT(C2,"yyyy-MM-dd")&"‘ <= D"),"")

This will pull any events for the date in cell C2 from the events sheet columns A-D into the calendar cell. See the add-on‘s support page for more details on setting this up.

Once your formulas are in place, any new events added to your Google Calendar will automatically sync to your Google Sheets calendar when you refresh the data (Add-ons > Google Calendar > Refresh).

Using a Google Sheets Calendar Template

The quickest and easiest way to start a calendar in Google Sheets is to use a pre-made template. There are tons of great free options available that give you a professionally designed calendar with minimal effort.

We‘ve rounded up our favorite Google Sheets calendar templates for 2024:

  1. 2024 Monthly Calendar Template by Vertex42
  2. 2024 Calendar with Holidays by Calendar Labs
  3. 2024 Project Timeline Calendar by TeamGantt
  4. 2024 Social Media Content Calendar by HubSpot
  5. 2024 Quarterly Marketing Calendar by Smartsheet
  6. 2024 Blogging & Editorial Calendar by Elegant Themes

To use one of these templates:

  1. Open the link to the template and click the Use Template button.
  2. Create a copy of the template to start customizing it as your own.
  3. Rename the file and start adding your own content and events.
  4. Customize the fonts, colors, and other design elements if desired.
  5. Share with your team members or sync with your other calendar apps.

Using a template can be a great starting point if you don‘t have time to create a calendar from scratch or want a more polished, professional design. Of course, you can still customize the template to fit your needs.

Creative Ways to Use Your Google Sheets Calendar

A calendar built in Google Sheets is endlessly flexible and customizable. You‘re not limited to just inputting simple event titles.

Here are a few creative ideas to make the most of your calendar:

  • Use a notes column or cell comments to include additional details about events
  • Add checkboxes to mark tasks complete
  • Insert links to relevant resources, documents, or websites
  • Color-code your events by category or priority level
  • Include images or graphics for a visual content calendar
  • Add data validation to create dropdown category or status menus
  • Use sparkline charts to track progress toward goals
  • Highlight upcoming deadlines in red or important client meetings in bold
  • Incorporate your company‘s hex codes and brand fonts
  • Pull in data automatically with IMPORTRANGE from other sheets
  • Set up recurring events with an ArrayFormula for regular meetings

Basically, if it can be done in a spreadsheet, you can include it in your calendar!

Do you have a favorite tip or hack for building out an awesome calendar in Google Sheets? Share it with us on Twitter @HubSpotBlog.

Conclusion

Google Sheets is a powerful tool for staying organized and on track with all your events and plans. And with the tips and resources in this post, you can easily create your own customized 2024 calendar in Google Sheets — either by building it manually from scratch or starting from a pre-made template.

For more great Google Sheets tips and downloadable templates, check out:

  • X Best Google Sheets Templates for Business
  • Advanced Google Sheets Tips & Formulas
  • How to Automate Your Work with Google Sheets & Zapier

Start mapping out your 2024 plans and goals today with your own custom Google Sheets calendar!

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