Get up to speed after time off

What you'll learn

How to use Google Workspace features to quickly get productive when you return to work.

What you'll need

10 minutes

 Google Workspace account—Don't have one? Start your 14-day trial today.

In this tutorial

Reset notifications & vacation responder See what you missed Start work

1  Reset notifications & vacation responder

Expand all  |  Collapse all

Turn Google Workspace notifications back on

If you turned off notifications for your Google Workspace services when you were out of the office, turn them back on.

Turn on Google Calendar event notifications:

1. In Calendar, click Settings Settings.
2. On the left under General, click Notification settings.
3. Click Notifications and select an option:
   • Off
   • Desktop notifications
   • Alerts
4. (Optional) To set up a sound for your incoming notifications, check the Play notification sounds box.
5. (Optional) To manage your notifications, on the left, click your calendarOther notifications.
6. Next to each option, click the Down arrow and select None or Email.

Turn Google Chat notifications on or off:

For messages in Chat:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.

3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings

4. Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

For Chat messages in Gmail:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.

3. At the top, click the Chat and Meet tab.

Go to Gmail settings

4. Next to "Chat settings," click Manage chat settings.
5. To turn on notifications for Google Chat messages, under "Desktop notifications," check the box next to "Allow chat notifications."

Turn off your vacation responder

Note: To use Vacation responder, your account must be at least 24 hours old.

1. Open Gmail .
2. At the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. Scroll down to Vacation responder and select Vacation responder on or Vacation responder off.
4. If you turned on the vacation responder, enter the dates you're away and add a message. Then, select who should get a response.
5. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

2  See what you missed

Reply to new meeting invitations

When you get an invitation to an event, it appears on your calendar. You also get invitations by email if you subscribe to email notifications. If you're using Gmail, you can respond to the invitation in the email invite.

Reply to an invitation:

1. In the calendar grid, click the event.
2. At the bottom next to Going?, click Yes, No, or Maybe.

Tip: To respond to the event from Gmail, open the email and next to Going?, click Yes, No, or Maybe. 

All guests can propose a new time, except for events with more than 200 guests or all-day events.

Create a checklist of post-vacation tasks

Create a task from an email:

1. Go to Gmail.
2. On the right, click Tasks .
3. Find the email you want to save as a task.
4. Drag and drop the email to the side panel.
5. To add a date and time, click Date/time​.

Check for important to-do items

Make sure you haven’t missed any important changes to Google Drive files or to-do items in other Google Workspace services, such as Tasks in Calendar or Gmail.

You can keep track of changes to items created in or uploaded to Drive. You can also see specific information about your files and folders. To view the activity for a specific file or folder, select the file or folder and click Information .

See Drive activity on the Activity tab:

Access changes made to your files in Drive and keep track of who made those changes. You might notice changes when someone:

• Edits or comments in a file
• Renames a file or folder
• Moves or removes a file or folder
• Uploads a new file to a folder
• Shares or unshares an item

Important: Version history for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is different than history for .pdf files, images, and other files stored in Drive. Learn how to access the history of changes for Google files. 

See Drive activity on the Details tab:

1. In Drive at the top of the Activity pane, click Details to see information and changes, such as:

   • File type and owner.
   • Folder size and number of items.
   • Person who last modified, created, or opened the item.

2. Click Edit to add a description of the item.

View Tasks on a web browser:

You can add tasks to the side panel in some Google Workspace apps.

1. Go to Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, or a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.
   • Important: If you can't see Tasks app, click the arrow in the bottom right of the screen to expand the panel.
2. On the right, click Tasks .

Tip: In Gmail spaces, you can create, assign, edit, complete, and delete group tasks.

Review changes to your files

See changes at a glance:

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. On the left click My Drive.
3. In the upper right, click Info .
4. Select an option. To access:
   • Recent changes, select an option:
     1. Click Activity.
     2. Scroll down the right side.
   • The activity of a specific file or folder, click the file or folder.

See or revert to an earlier version:

1. In Drive, open your file.
2. Click FileVersion historySee version history.
3. Click a timestamp to see a previous version of the file. Below the timestamp, you’ll see:
   • Names of people who edited the document.
   • A color next to each person’s name. The edits they made appear in that color.
4. (Optional) To revert to this version, click Restore this version.

Use Gemini in Drive to summarize one or multiple files for you.

You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

Gemini for Google Workspace is available when your Google account language is set to an English dialect. Additionally, some features are available in Spanish and Portuguese. Learn more about language availability.

​Summarize the selected file with “@” & ask Gemini questions:

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. At the top right, click Ask Gemini .
3. In the side panel, create your own prompt, by selecting the title of the document “@title of the document” in your prompt.
   • Example: "Summarize the key points in '@Sales Team Meeting Notes.'"
4. Press Enter.
5. Gemini will display the summary of your file/document.

After receiving a response:

• Show the whole summary of the suggested content: Click View more .
• View which files and documents were used to generate the response: Click Sources.
• Generate new text: Click Retry .

Summarize information across several files with Gemini:

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. At the top right, click Ask Gemini .
3. In the side panel, select a prompt or create your own.
   • Examples:
     • "Help me understand our team's 2024 strategy."
     • "Summarize project X."
4. Press Enter.
5. Gemini will get the information elaborating on a topic based on your Google Drive files.
6. You can:
   • Send feedback about the suggested text: Click Good suggestion or Bad suggestion .
   • See a different version: Click Retry .
   • View which files and documents were used to generate the response: Click Sources.

 

3  Start work

Get up to date on important and upcoming work

To find out about current priorities or upcoming plans, send an email to your team or send a message to your co-workers in Chat.

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top left, click  Compose.
3. In the "To" field, add recipients. You can also add recipients:
   • In the "Cc" and "Bcc" fields.
   • When you compose a message, with a "+ sign" or "@mention" and the contact's name in the text field.
4. Add a subject.
5. Write your message.
6. At the bottom of the page, click Send.

Tip: To add individual recipients and groups of contacts you created with labels, click To:. 

Send a direct message to someone:

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. If the name isn’t already under "Chat," click Start a chat .
3. Enter a name or email address. Suggestions appear as you enter text.
   • To send a 1:1 message to someone outside of your organization, enter their email address.
4. Click the person you want to message.
5. Enter a message, then click Send .

Start a group conversation:

1. Go to Google Chat or your Gmail account.
2. Under "Chat," click on an existing group conversation, enter a message click Send .
3. If the group conversation isn’t under "Chat,” click Start a chat Start group conversation.
4. Enter a name or email address. Suggestions appear as you enter text.
5. Click Done .
6. Enter a message, then click Send .

Review your transition doc

If you created a transition doc for your co-workers while you were out of the office, check to see if there are any updates or changes to it.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. On the left click My Drive.
3. In the upper right, click Info .
4. Select an option. To access:
   • Recent changes, select an option:
     1. Click Activity.
     2. Scroll down the right side.
   • The activity of a specific file or folder, click the file or folder.

Check project plan for updates

Want to see tasks assigned to you or due on a specific day? Create a filter view in Sheets.

	At the top, click DataFilter viewsCreate new filter view.
	In the top left corner, click next to Name and enter a name for the filter view.
	Click the arrows in the column headers and select options to sort and filter the data.
	(Optional) To email a link to the filter view, copy the URL and paste it in an email.
	At the top right, click Close to close your filter view. Your filter view is automatically saved.

 

 

 

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