It’s Monday morning which means it’s time for your weekly planning meeting with your team. You’ve prepared everything - the weekly schedule, client briefs for upcoming projects, and feedback.
However, there is one tiny problem… The weekly schedule is in your Google Calendar, while literally EVERYTHING else is in Notion. So, you end up switching between Google Calendar and Notion throughout the meeting. It is frustrating, to say the least.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could have everything in one place? No doubt about it! And one solution is to embed Google Calendar directly in Notion!
In this article, we will show you the 2 ways to embed Google Calendar in Notion.
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How to embed Google Calendar in Notion
Before diving into the exact how-to, we need to address an important question.
Why embed Google Calendar in the first place? Why not use the Notion calendar itself?
Sure, Notion is an amazing app. But its calendar feature is severely lacking, to put it mildly. If someone were to do a calendar Olympics, Google would win, hands down.
Technically, the Notion calendar is just a database with a calendar view. Google Calendar has several important features that Notion does not.
- Email integration. Google lets you add events to your calendar right from your email inbox. If you schedule events from Gmail, this feature is essential.
- Cross-calendar integration and collaboration. Google Calendar integrates with external calendars and lets you collaborate with others and even share calendars.
- Recurring events. Google Calendar lets you create recurring events with just a few clicks. For example, think about your weekly team meetings. You just need to set up a reminder ONE time and make it repeat every week. 15 seconds and it’s done. On Notion, however, you would have to do this manually every time unless you set up a recurring meeting automation with external tools.
So, embedding Google Calendar in Notion would let you enjoy the best of both worlds!
Now, let’s look at the 2 different ways to do this.
Method 1: Embedding Google Calendar directly (2 min)
This is the most common method for embedding Google calendar in Notion (and anywhere else, for that matter).
1. Open Google Calendar on your desktop.
Yes, it has to be your desktop. Doing this on mobile won’t work.
2. Open calendar settings.
On the left side, you will see a list of calendars. Click on the calendar you want to embed and click on the kebab icon 🍡 beside it.
3. Make the Calendar public.
Under “access permissions for events,” you’ll see an option called “make available to public.” Click on that box.
You’ll get a warning message saying that your calendar will now be accessible to the public. That even includes Google Search!
Without making the calendar public, you won’t be able to embed it! So if this s a deal-breaker for you, then move on to Method 2 or explore the native Notion calendar with the 2-way sync automation.
Click on “OK.” Now, your Google Calendar is ready to be added to Notion!
4. Grab the embed code.
Once you’ve made your calendar public, scroll down even further to the section called “integrate calendar.” Here, you’ll find a section called “public URL to this calendar” along with a code snippet. Copy this code to your clipboard.
5. Create an embed block in Notion.
Open Notion and go to the page where you want your Google Calendar to be embedded.
Use the slash command “/embed” and select “Embed” from the list of options.
6. Paste the embed code.
After you’ve created the embed block, a box will pop up with a field for you to paste your Google Calendar link. Paste the link you’ve just copied in step 4 and click on “embed link.”
Voila! Your Google Calendar has now successfully been embedded in Notion!
You can resize it and use it as needed. No more switching between apps during your Monday meetings anymore.
Okay, great! But now, you may think - I have very sensitive information in my Google Calendar, and I do not want to make it public. Can I still embed Google Calendar in Notion?
Yes, you can! This brings us to the second method.
Method 2: Embed Google Calendar to Notion using Indify (5 min)
And the best part, of course, is that Google Calendar doesn’t have to be public to be embed in Notion!
The free version of Indify allows you to embed only one calendar in Notion. If you want to add multiple calendars, you will need to upgrade to the pro version ($4 per month).
1. Create an account.
2. Pick the “Google Calendar” widget from the list.
Once you’ve signed in successfully, you should be able to view several widgets including the Google Calendar widget.
Choose the “Google Calendar” widget and give it a name.
3. Sign in to your Google account.
You will arrive at the configuration page. Sign in to your Google account so that you can select the calendar you want to embed.
4. Select the calendar from your Google account.
Once you’ve logged in, you can select specific calendars in your Google account. Events from all of the selected calendars will show up in your embed block. You will be able to see the preview on the right side.
5. Customize the calendar appearance.
Indify allows you to change the way your calendar looks. You can switch to the dark mode, set a custom background color, change text color, and so on.
6. Copy the embed code.
Once you’re done customizing the apperance, copy the link in the bottom left corner of the page.
7. Embed the calendar to Notion.
Like how we did in method 1, go to a Notion page, add the /embed block, and paste the embed link. And you’re all done!
Here is the final product:
💡️Pro Tip: Place the embed block into a sync block and use it across your Notion workspace. You can also add this sync block to a Notion database template.
Limitations of Embedding Google Calendar in Notion
Much like everything else in life, embedding Google Calendar in Notion doesn’t come without limitations. Depending on your goals, using the embed method can be good OR bad (explore all 4 ways here).
You cannot edit the calendar from Notion.
You can only view the calendar. If you need to add new events, you’ll have to go back to the Google Calendar app or website and add new events from there.
It may be a little frustrating to switch tabs because this is what you wanted to eliminate in the first place. But it can be a great option if you run a public calendar for a business like a yoga studio and want to share the event schedule inside your Notion one-page website.
Your Google Calendar must be public (when using the direct embed method).
This can pose a security threat to you or your company. Anybody will be able to do a Google search and find your public calendar. Yes, even your competitors and ex-girlfriend.
The best workaround I have found is to embed with Indify.
Changes won’t update instantly.
If you choose to embed your calendar, changes made in Google Calendar will only reflect in Notion when a user reloads the page. So if you make a change after your teammate is already on the page, it won’t automatically show up in the calendar.
Unfortunately, even if you use a 2-way sync automation between Google Calendar and Notion, the changes will take up to 5 min to be reflected.
If auto-updates is something that you simply cannot compromise on, then the only option is the native Notion calendar.
1990s design.
The embedded Google Calendar calendar block looks terrible. And there is no designer who can convince me otherwise. Crazy to think that this would be the case for a trillion-dollar company.
Of course, this may be a non-issue to many people out there. But hey! Some people like having pretty calendars to look at, okay?
Again, the solution to this is creating a widget using Indify because the website lets you customize your calendar! It’s slightly better but still feels a bit out-of-place compared to the Notion UI.
Instead of embedding your entire Google Calendar, you can just copy events from Google Calendar to Notion within a specific time frame instead.
And you don’t need to do this manually either. This automation will do the trick with just a few clicks.
And you can automate a whole lot more than that. Notion does not have in-built automations, but you create your own with Bardeen.
For example, you can send meeting reminders/invitations, when there is a new page added to your Notion calendar database.
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Endnotes
There are two ways to embed Google Calendar to Notion. Try them! Despite some limitations, you will have all your data in one place, speeding up your workflow.
