Google Calendar integration for meeting time management
Your team’s time is tracked in Google Calendar—meetings, focus blocks, out-of-office events. But that calendar data doesn’t automatically translate into coordination context. Managers don’t know why someone couldn’t complete their tasks yesterday. Teams schedule over people’s OOO time because they don’t check multiple calendars. Meeting overload creeps up slowly because no one’s actually measuring it.
Steady bridges that gap. Connect Google Calendar and your meeting time automatically flows into check-ins, planned absences sync across the team, and you get clear visibility into your team’s meeting budget over time.
How the Google Calendar integration works
Connect Google Calendar to Steady in 30 seconds. The integration works at two levels: account-wide and personal.
Account-Level Integration: Admins connect a holiday calendar (like “US Holidays”) and Steady automatically skips check-in reminders on company holidays. No need to manually configure each holiday or have team members ignore reminders on days they’re not working.
Personal-Level Integration: Each team member connects their own Google Calendar. Here’s what syncs:
Smart Check-ins: Meetings from your calendar appear in your daily check-ins automatically. If Greg had 4 hours of meetings yesterday, that context shows up in his check-in. Teammates understand why he couldn’t complete everything he planned—real bandwidth visibility, not just task lists. Private events are excluded to maintain privacy.
Planned Absences: Out-of-office events from your calendar automatically sync to Steady. Your team sees when you’re unavailable without you manually updating systems. Check-in reminders pause during your OOO time. Private events are excluded.
Insights Meeting Time Report: Calendar meetings flow into the Meeting Time report, showing total meeting hours by team, person, or date range. Track patterns over time: Are you cutting meetings like you intended to? Is meeting load creeping back up? The data tells the story.
Key benefits
Understand real bandwidth, not just task lists When someone says “didn’t finish the feature” in their check-in, context matters. If they had 6 hours of meetings, that’s why. Meeting time appears automatically in check-ins, giving managers real bandwidth visibility at the person/day level. Plan capacity based on actual available time, not assumed 8-hour days.
Manage your meeting budget with data You decided to cut meeting time by 20%. Are you actually succeeding? The Meeting Time report shows total meeting hours over time by team or person. See trends, compare periods, and hold teams accountable to meeting reduction goals. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Stop scheduling over people’s OOO time Out-of-office events sync automatically from Google Calendar to Steady. When planning sprints or assigning work, you see who’s actually available. No more discovering mid-sprint that someone’s on vacation because they forgot to update the project management tool.
Skip manual holiday configuration Connect a holiday calendar at the account level and Steady automatically skips check-in reminders on holidays. Team members don’t ignore reminders on days off. Participation metrics stay accurate because the system knows which days count.
Privacy-respecting integration Private calendar events are completely excluded—they don’t appear in check-ins, reports, or anywhere else in Steady. Out-of-office events sync as absences without revealing why someone’s unavailable. Meeting time is tracked without exposing what meetings were about.
Use cases
Reducing meeting overload - Your team committed to cutting meeting time by 25%. Set up an Echo that delivers monthly: “Show total meeting time from Google Calendar for the Engineering team, compared to last month.” Track whether you’re actually improving or if meetings are creeping back. Make adjustments before meeting creep becomes meeting overload again.
Understanding why work slipped - Sprint retrospective: several stories carried over to next sprint. Review check-ins from the last two weeks—turns out the team had 30% more meetings than usual due to incident response and planning sessions. The Meeting Time report shows the spike clearly. Now you know it was bandwidth, not estimation problems.
Onboarding with context - When Jenny joins the team, she reviews recent check-ins to understand team dynamics. She sees that Wednesdays are heavy meeting days (standup, planning, reviews) while Tuesdays and Thursdays are focus time. She learns the team’s rhythm from actual calendar data, not tribal knowledge someone has to explain.
Manager 1:1 prep - Before your 1:1 with Sarah, review her recent check-ins. You see she’s had 5+ hours of meetings every day this week—way above normal. You open the conversation about meeting load and whether she needs help declining requests. The data surfaced the problem before she had to bring it up.
Installation
To set up the Google Calendar integration, go to Account Settings -> Integrations and connect to Google Calendar. Read the documentation for more information.
About Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a time management and scheduling service that allows users to create events, set reminders, and share calendars with others across web and mobile platforms. It integrates seamlessly with other Google Workspace apps and supports features like automatic event creation from Gmail, time zone management, and smart scheduling suggestions.
Frequently asked questions
How does the Google Calendar integration work with check-ins?
When you connect Google Calendar to Steady, your meetings automatically appear in your daily check-ins. If you had 4 hours of meetings yesterday, that context appears with your check-in so teammates understand your actual bandwidth. Private calendar events are excluded to maintain privacy.
Does Google Calendar track meeting time in Insights?
Yes. Meeting time from Google Calendar flows into Insights’ Meeting Time report, showing total meeting hours by team, person, or date range. Track whether you’re actually reducing meeting load or if it’s creeping back up over time.
Can I sync out-of-office events from Google Calendar?
Yes. Out-of-office events from your Google Calendar automatically sync to Steady as planned absences. Your team sees when you’re unavailable without you manually updating multiple systems. Private events are excluded to maintain privacy.
How do holiday calendars work with Steady?
At the account level, admins can connect a holiday calendar (like US Holidays). Steady uses this to automatically skip check-in reminders on company holidays—no need to manually configure each holiday or have people ignore reminders on days off.
