The One Calendar Feature You Desperately Need

If you're the sort of person who constantly finds themselves full of ideas for new habits, hobbies, or self-improvements to embark upon, but you never can seem to find the time ― or maybe you're just a little bit prone to procrastination ― it's possible that something new from Google could be right up your alley. Google Calendar launched Goals on Wednesday, a new app feature that might help you get things organized. You know, getting your day-to-day life on the rails.

Everybody has different needs as far as scheduling, organization, and structure go. Some people might thrive in a more chaotic, spontaneous, and less planned sort of life, while others will find comfort and success in that structure. One of the clever things about how Goals works is how it kind of ties these different lifestyles together.

Here's the basic idea: There's something you want or need to do, but you haven't quite figured out when you have the time. By entering what you want to do into your Goals, and how many times per week, Google Calendar will automatically find openings in your schedule and slot the activity in. Then you'll be given an alert to remind you when the time comes, effectively delegating your schedule-making process to your smartphone.

According to Google product manager Jyoti Ramnath, who explained how Goals works for the official Gmail blog on Wednesday, you won't have to worry about late-scheduled commitments bumping your goals off, only to be forgotten. If you have to schedule, say, a short-notice trip to the DMV, a last-minute dental appointment, or an urgent meeting with your boss, you don't even need to remember that you were supposed to be practicing piano that day. Goals will automatically find a new slot at a later time.

Not bad, huh? Of course, there are some crucial caveats here — the first and biggest one being that it only really works if you're organized and busy enough to have been keeping a thorough schedule to being with, which is most definitely not assured.

And even more specifically, you have to be using Google Calendar to fill out that schedule. But if you've been on the fence about keeping up with a detailed day-to-day plan — whether it's about your career, your leisure time, your physical fitness, or what have you — maybe Goals will help nudge you toward taking the plunge. Goals is now live on the iOS and Android Google Calendar apps, so if you think it could help you out, give it a look!

Image: Google/YouTube