Managing your daily activities can be a daunting task, especially if you have tons of things to do. Fortunately, technology has made it simpler to keep track of your tasks and events. One such technological tool is Google Sheets. You can use it to create a versatile, customizable calendar which you can access from anywhere. Wondering how to get started? Here’s a simple guide on how to build a calendar in Google Sheets.
Step 1: Open Google Sheets
The first step is to open Google Sheets. Navigate to Google Drive and click on the “+New” button to create a new Google Sheets document.
Step 2: Set Up Your Calendar
We’ll start by labeling the days of the week. In cells B1 to H1, input the days of the week, starting from Sunday to Saturday.
You can achieve this by typing:
=ARRAYFORMULA({“Sun”,”Mon”,”Tue”,”Wed”,”Thu”,”Fri”,”Sat”})
in cell B1.
Step 3: Generate Dates for the Month
Next, we need to generate the dates for the month. Here’s how to create dates for the first week of January 2023.
First, you need to type =DATE(2023,1,1) into cell B2. This will give you the date for the first day of January 2023.
Then in cell C2, you can use a formula that provides the subsequent date from cell B2. The formula is =B2+1. You can drag this formula across the week to Saturday.
Step 4: Carry Over the Dates to the Rest of the Month
For the subsequent weeks, use the formula =B2+7 in cell B3. Drag this formula across the week and then drag the entire week down to cover the entire month.
Step 5: Make the Calendar Dynamic
To make the calendar dynamic, we need to replace the hardcoded year and month with a year and month that we input. Create two new cells (for example, J1 and J2) where you’ll input the year and month, respectively.
In cell B2 where we previously had =DATE(2023,1,1), replace it with =DATE($J$1,$J$2,1). This will make the calendar change according to what you input in cells J1 and J2.
Step 6: Clean Up Non-Dates
You might notice that some cells have dates from other months. To clean this up, we can use a conditional statement to check if the dates belong to the month we’re interested in. Replace the =DATE($J$1,$J$2,1) formula with:
=IF(MONTH(DATE($J$1,$J$2,1))=MONTH(B2+1),B2+1,"")
This formula checks if the month of the cell one row above is the same as the month we’ve input. If it’s the same, it shows the date; if it’s not, it shows nothing.
Conclusion
Building a calendar in Google Sheets isn’t as complex as it may seem. With this guide, you have a simple, customizable, and dynamic calendar that you can access from anywhere at any time. Happy organizing!
