In today’s fast-paced world, productivity is the new currency. The more time you have, the more money you can make. This blog post is for those who want to know how to use Google Workspace for business. From Docs to Gmeet, I’m going to talk about such Google Workspace hacks that can help you increase your productivity by 2X. So what are you waiting for? Let’s jump right into it!

Google Docs

1. Quick Documentation by Voice Typing: You might not know that you can dictate your document instead of typing it. Simply go to ‘Tools’ and then ‘Voice typing’. Other than this, you can press ctrl + shift + S. 

2. Collaboration and Real-Time Edits in Google Docs: Share your documents with your colleagues, edit them together, no matter how far you are from each other. Just click on ‘share’ and put the email addresses of all the people you want to share your doc with.

3. Search Resources Directly via Search Pane: Don’t memorize or open a bunch of tabs, simply choose the ‘Explore’ function to load Google Search right from your Docs. All you have to do is click on the Explore which is inside tools. Here’s a shortcut as well: ctrl + alt + shift + I.

 

Google Sheets

4. Data Validation for Input Control: Restrict or reduce the type of data or the values users can input into cells. This works perfectly when you want your freelancers or employees to change only a few rows or columns. Although this has a learning curve to it, you’ll thank yourself once you learn it. 

5. Pivot Tables for Data Analysis: Run pivot tables on massive amounts of data and extract meaningful insights. Remember, learning this will also require some effort. But, it’s worth it in the end. 

6. Importing Data from Other Google Services: Insert Google Forms in your Sheets for better analysis. Just go to Forms and press ‘view in Sheets.’ Once you do that, you’ll get all responses in your spreadsheet.

7. Google Add-Ons for Better Productivity: Increase your productivity with power add-ons provided by Google Marketplace. On the top bottom, you’ll see Extensions > Add-ons > Get Add add-ons.

This is what you can get in the Add-ons marketplace:

Google Slides

8. Q&A Feature for Interactive Presentations: Start a Q&A session with your audience by including a question and answer slide directly into your presentation. To make this work, either press the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + F5 or simply press that button you’re seeing in this picture:

Inside the presentation mode, click those three dots at the bottom and find Q&A inside ‘More.’

After clicking on that ‘Q&A,’ copy this link and send it to those users who might want to ask questions from you. In this way, you can organize everything seamlessly. Believe it or not, this is one of the best Google Workspace hacks that can save you a lot of time.

9. Add Video/Audio to Your Slide Deck Directly: Give your presentation more life and engagement by adding video or audio content. As you can see here, inside the ‘Insert,’ there are different things that you can add:

10. Import Slides from Other Presentations: Bring in the slides from other people who are presenting. This saves a lot of time. After all, not all the slides need to be added manually. In order to do this, select ‘File’ and then click on ‘Import Slides.’

Now you’ll see Google Drive. From there, you can select the file your colleague shared with you. Make sure you have proper permission before adding a file. Otherwise, it won’t show up.

Gmail

11. Filter and Labels: How about we automatically organize incoming emails based on specific criteria like keywords, subjects, sender, etc. Exciting, right? Here’s how you can do it:

Click that ‘setting’ icon:

Something like this pop-up where you can customize the filter based on your interest. Make sure you click on ‘create filter’ after filling it.

After that, choose what you kind of action do you want for your incoming emails:

12. Navigate faster with keyboard shortcuts: Here are a few shortcuts you want to note:

• Press ‘C’ to create a new email
• Press ‘/’ to move your cursor to the search box
• If you’re reading an email and want to reply to it quickly, just press ‘R’.
• If you want to reply to everyone in the email thread, press ‘A’.
• To forward an email, press ‘F’.
• Press ‘G’ followed by ‘i’ to quickly go back to your inbox
• Press ‘G’ followed by ‘T’ to access your sent mail
• To delete a conversation, press ‘#’ while viewing it
• Press ‘e’ to archive a conversation
• Use ‘J’ to go to the next email and ‘k’ to go to the previous email

Before you use these shortcuts, go to ‘see all settings’ and find these settings. Make sure you turn it on.

13. Max 10 GB of attachment files via Google Drive: Avoid jumping through the 25 MB Gmail limit by sending large files using Google Drive. Just upload whatever you want to send to your drive and paste the link in your mail.

14. Sending Emails protected via Confidential Mode in Gmail: Sending sensitive information securely by turning on the Confidential Mode in Gmail. Just click on the ‘lock’ icon and select your preferred settings.

15. Checking Your Calendar: Checking your schedule right from the Gmail dashboard is easy but powerful. Just look at the top right, there you’ll have your calendar.

Google Drive

16. Quickly Find Files: Use the advanced search feature in Google Drive to find your files faster than ever.

17. Enable Offline Mode for Remote Accessibility: Enable offline mode in Google Drive to access your files independently, when not connected to the internet.

18. Color-Coding and Star Organize Files: Color code files so that you can easily recognize them in Google drive. This is especially for those who star mark everything. Just right click on the folder and change your color.

Google Calendar

19. Appointment Slots for Scheduling: Use the appointment slots feature to let others know when you’re available for meetings. Click on any ‘empty’ block in your entire day’s timeline, add ‘guests,’ and click on ‘save.’

20. Setting up Automatic Reminders: Never miss an important event by setting up automatic reminders. Just select ‘more options’ on the same block and select your preferred reminder settings.

Google Meet

21. Record Meetings for Future Reference: Start a meeting recording in Google Meet to see important discussions so that you can refer back to it later. To turn on recording, click on three dots and press ‘record meeting.’ 

22. Use Captions for Better Understanding During Meetings: Make certain your meetings are turned on with captions. They make things clearer during the conversation. To turn on captions, click on three dots and press ‘turn on captions.’ 

Google Chrome

23. Recover After Closing the Browser Accidently: You must have faced those moments when you accidentally close everything. In such cases, open your browser again and press ctrl + shift + T. This will bring back what you lost instantly. I don’t know how many times Google Workspace hacks like these saved my life. 

24. Bypass Technique: Whenever you want to start a new slide, sheet, or doc, simply put these in your address search bar:

• Doc.new
• Slides.new
• Sheets.new

The Final Advice

Now that you know how to use Google Workspace for business, let me clear one thing. It might be difficult to implement these Google Workspace hacks right away, so be patient until you develop a habit.