Open the template link and click Make a copy. Google creates the worksheet in your Drive and opens it. The first tab lists the same steps as below.
Your copy is renamed to just Clarity Board as it opens. Everything you add stays in it, and only you can see it. The panel has an Open your worksheet ↗ link at the top whenever you want it.
In your copy, click Extensions → Apps Script. A new tab opens on a page full of code. You don't need to read or change any of it.
Click Deploy at the top right, then Test deployments. In the window that opens, click Install, then Done. You can close the script's tab now.
Go to calendar.google.com, or reload it if it's already open. In the strip of icons on the right edge, click the Clarity Board icon (a small calendar). If the strip is hidden, click the small arrow at the bottom right to show it.
In the panel, click Grant permission and choose your account.
You will see "Google hasn't verified this app". That's expected during the beta: Google's review of Clarity Board isn't finished yet.
Click Advanced, then Go to Clarity Board (unsafe), then Allow. What each permission is for is listed below.
The panel says Welcome to Clarity Board. Click Set up this worksheet and wait a few seconds. Your copy gets its tabs (Projects, Tasks, Task Archive and the rest) and your calendar's time zone. Click Go to Clarity Board and you're in.
Click the plus sign beside PROJECTS. Give it a short name (22 characters at most), keep the status Doing, and rate how urgent and how important it is. Projects are grouped by those two ratings: Do Today, Do Soon, Schedule and the three Delegate groups.
Click the plus sign beside the project. A due date is optional. To rename a task or change its date later, tap the pencil beside its project.
Tick its box. It moves to the Task Archive tab of your worksheet, with the date and time you finished it.
Under HOURS THIS WEEK, click Work days & hours. Tick your work days, set when your day starts and ends, and click Save. Hours This Week then shows the work time you have left as Unscheduled.
Under TRACKING, press ▶ Start now and pick a task. When you're done, press Stop, Stop + Break or Stop + Work Block. The time appears on your calendar and in your hours.
Click the event in your calendar to open it. There's no need to press Edit. The panel lets you count it toward a project or task, or a category such as Call or Commute. Click Assign, and the event takes that color.
Use the pencil beside DEADLINES. Anything overdue, due today or due tomorrow shows at the top of the panel.
You can add tasks on the Tasks tab or edit projects on the Projects tab. Then click Clarity Board → Sync with Google Calendar in the worksheet's menu, and reopen the panel. Please don't rename the tabs or the column headings.
Google words these broadly. This is what Clarity Board actually does with each one. The exact wording on your screen may differ slightly.
| Google asks to | Clarity Board uses it to |
|---|---|
| See, edit, create and delete your Google Sheets spreadsheets | Create your Clarity Board worksheet and keep it up to date. It opens no other spreadsheet. |
| View and edit events on all your calendars | Read your events to count your hours, add the time you track to your calendar, and recolor an event you assign to a project. |
| See and download any calendar you can access | Read your calendar's time zone. Clarity Board only reads it. |
| Connect to an external service | Send several requests to Google Calendar at once, which is faster. It connects to nothing outside Google. |
| Allow this application to run when you are not present | Notice when you tick a task done directly in a worksheet you connected from elsewhere, and archive it; and write your weekly review on schedule, if you turn that on. |
| See, edit, create and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app | Make Google Docs for your project notes and weekly reviews, in folders of their own. It can't see the rest of your Drive. |
| Run as a Calendar add-on, and see the event you have open | Show the panel, and offer to assign the event you clicked. |
| Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars | Show the panel itself. |
Reload Calendar. If it's still missing, repeat step 3 and check that the install finished.
Open your copy in Google Sheets once (so it can introduce itself to the panel), then reload Calendar.
You opened an event before setting up your worksheet. Click the Clarity Board icon on its own, without an event open, and follow step 6.
Reload Calendar and open the panel again. If it asks for permission, follow step 5 again.
In your copy, click Extensions → Apps Script, then Deploy → Test deployments → Uninstall. Your worksheet stays in your Drive. You can also remove the access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Anything confusing, slow or broken is useful to hear about. Say what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead. A screenshot of the panel helps a lot: hello@theclarityboard.com.
clarity board