Want to get organized, save time, and benefit the environment? Let’s take a look at some of the many ways in which G Suite can replace clunky “old-school” tools and processes with modern alternatives.
Gmail: More Than Just an Email App
This is not your father’s email client! Far more than just a way to send messages back and forth, Gmail is a powerful electronic communications tool with a wealth of helpful and time-saving features.
| Old-School Way | G Suite Way |
| Type out emails manually, one by one. Hope that you didn’t misspell anything, especially if you were frantically replying on a mobile device while standing in an airport check-in line. | Speed things up and minimize errors with Smart Compose and Smart Reply, which use advanced artificial intelligence to suggest and autofill words and phrases for you. Smart Compose makes intelligent suggestions as you type, while Smart Reply lets you reply to others’ messages by choosing from standard responses, such as “Thank you” or “Sounds good.” |
| Waste time looking for, downloading, configuring, and figuring out how to use a third-party app so that you can send a large email attachment. Cross your fingers that it works, and that the IT department doesn’t bust you for using a shadow app. | Just use a Google Drive link; it’s simple, it’s fast, it works, and it’s fully integrated with the rest of G Suite, so you’ll stay on the IT department’s good side. |
| Manually add email recipients to messages. | Gmail suggests recipients to add to your email based on previous messages you’ve sent. Simply click on a recipient to add them to the “To” field. |
| Oops! You put someone in the To field who should have been cc’ed or bcc’ed. You need to delete them from one field to put them in the other one. | Easily drag and drop contacts between fields. |
| Send an urgent email to a colleague, not knowing they are out of the office. | Before you even craft your email, Gmail displays a message letting you know they are out of the office. |
| Send an email just to ask someone a quick question, cluttering their inbox and yours. | Use Google Chat for a more casual conversation. |
Stay on Top of Things With Google Calendar
Google Calendar fully integrates with the rest of G Suite and makes sure you don’t miss important events.
| Old-School Way | G Suite Way |
| Use a third-party app to create a conference call, then manually copy the meeting information to an electronic calendar. | Add a Google Meet session to a Google Calendar event; a link and a dial-in number is automatically generated, and everything is sent to the participants all at once. |
| Coordinating a group call = struggling to find a time that works for everyone. | Create an event and add the participants. Then, select Suggested Times or Find a Time to see when all participants are available. Additionally, you can add a supervisor’s or colleague’s calendar to view their free/busy blocks. |
| Manually edit a calendar event that needs to be moved to a new day/time. | Drag and drop the calendar event to the new day or time, minimizing the opportunity for an error. |
| Being a remote worker or in a different time zone than everyone else means constantly having to manually decline and reschedule meetings because they are outside of your working hours. | Have Calendar generate a warning when your colleagues try to schedule a meeting outside of your working hours. |
| Manually decline meetings when you are out of the office. | Calendar automatically sends a message declining new and existing meetings when you’re out of the office. |
| Keep your personal and work calendars on separate platforms, then have to move back and forth to view and coordinate them. | Add your personal Google calendar to your My Calendars and easily see what each day looks like, from personal doctor appointments to client meetings. |
| Manually add directions to a calendar invite to make sure everyone knows how to get to an in-person event. | Because Calendar integrates with Google Maps, all you have to do is type a location in the Location bar of the calendar event, and the attendees can access a map and directions. |
| Print your schedule out. Waste paper and printer ink, and hope you remember everything you’re supposed to do today. | Use the Google Calendar mobile app. Get emails and push notifications to keep your day on track. |
