If I already block time in Google Calendar, do I need today?

If your current blocking practice is producing the focus and execution quality you want, you may not need today immediately. Today adds value primarily through the session tracking, energy data, and reflection layer — the feedback loop that improves your planning over time.

Does today replace Google Calendar?

No. Today syncs from Google Calendar but doesn't replace it. Meeting scheduling, external event coordination, shared calendars — all of these stay in Google Calendar. Today is your personal execution layer on top of your calendar infrastructure.

Can I block time in Google Calendar and have it show in today?

Yes. Any event in your connected Google Calendar (including self-created blocks) appears in today's timeline. You can then log focus sessions within those blocks and track their execution quality in today.

What if I use Google Workspace for work?

Today connects to your Google Calendar via OAuth, including Google Workspace accounts. You can select which specific calendars to sync — useful for separating work, personal, and shared team calendars.

today vs Google Calendar: why a dedicated daily planner does what a calendar cannot

today

Calm daily planner

Time blocks, focus, commitments, reflection

Google Calendar

Google's calendar application for scheduling events, meetings, and reminders across devices

What Google Calendar was designed for

Google Calendar is an event scheduling and coordination tool: it records when things happen, syncs them across devices and with other people's calendars, and sends reminders. It's excellent at its job — meeting scheduling, event coordination, reminder management, and calendar sharing. It was not designed as a daily planner: it has no focus session tracking, no daily outcome setting, no reflection prompts, no energy or friction logging, and no concept of deep work blocks versus shallow work blocks. Using Google Calendar as a daily planner is like using Excel as a word processor — it technically works but requires workarounds for everything the tool wasn't built for.

Time blocking in Google Calendar vs. today

Many knowledge workers time block directly in Google Calendar: create events for 'Deep work,' 'Email,' and 'Project X' throughout the day. This works for the calendar-protection function — other people see the blocks and route meetings around them. What it doesn't provide: session logging (did you actually use the deep work block for deep work?), outcome tracking (did the day's most important work happen?), or any retrospective data about execution quality. Today adds these layers: it syncs your Google Calendar events and lets you log sessions within your planned blocks, creating an execution record that a plain calendar never provides.

The reflection and learning layer Google Calendar lacks

Google Calendar has no end-of-day review, no reflection prompt, no friction log, no energy check-in, and no weekly retrospective on execution quality. It records what you scheduled; it doesn't help you learn from how your days actually go. Today's data accumulation — sessions, energy, friction, reflection — is the layer that produces improvement over weeks. A calendar that records the same unsuccessful meeting pattern for months without reflection is a symptom of the problem today is designed to address.

Using today alongside Google Calendar

Today and Google Calendar are complementary, not competitive. Today syncs your Google Calendar events into the daily view, so they're visible alongside your self-created blocks. Meeting requests and calendar changes made in Google Calendar appear in today automatically. Your today time blocks live only in today — they're not written back to Google Calendar. This division works well: Google Calendar is your coordination layer (shared with colleagues, meeting requests, external events); today is your personal planning and execution layer (private, intention-setting, session-level).

Frequently asked questions