If you're a student, Google Calendar is probably already part of your life. Class schedules, assignment deadlines, club meetings, study groups—it's all in there. But here's the problem: Google Calendar is a storage tool, not a thinking tool. It holds your events but doesn't help you optimize them.
That's where Centauri comes in. By connecting Google Calendar to Centauri, you get an AI layer that analyzes your schedule, suggests optimal time blocks, protects your focus time, and adjusts automatically when things change.
This guide covers everything: initial setup, sync configuration, best practices, and advanced strategies for building the perfect student calendar system.
Why Connect Google Calendar to Centauri?
🔄 Two-Way Sync
Events flow both directions. Add a deadline in Centauri, see it in Google Calendar. Schedule a meeting in Google, it appears in Centauri.
🧠 AI Analysis
Centauri reads your calendar to understand your commitments, then suggests when to schedule study sessions, breaks, and tasks.
⏰ Smart Scheduling
Instead of manually finding free time, tell Centauri what you need to do and it finds the optimal slot based on your patterns.
🛡️ Focus Protection
Mark certain blocks as deep work time. Centauri won't suggest tasks or meetings during these protected windows.
| Feature | Google Calendar Alone | With Centauri |
|---|---|---|
| Store events | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set reminders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Find optimal study times | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto-schedule tasks | ✗ | ✓ |
| Adapt to changes | ✗ | ✓ |
| Understand your patterns | ✗ | ✓ |
| Suggest schedule improvements | ✗ | ✓ |
Setting Up the Integration
Connecting Google Calendar to Centauri takes about 2 minutes. Here's the step-by-step process:
1 Access Integrations
In Centauri, navigate to Settings → Integrations → Google Calendar. You'll see a "Connect Google Account" button.
2 Authorize Access
Click the button and sign in with your Google account. You'll see a permissions screen asking Centauri to view and edit your calendar. This is required for two-way sync—Centauri needs edit access to add scheduled study blocks and tasks.
3 Select Calendars
After authorization, you'll see a list of your Google calendars. Select which ones Centauri should read. Typically you want:
- Primary calendar: Your main personal calendar
- Class schedule: If your university syncs courses to Google Calendar
- Shared calendars: Study groups, club schedules, etc.
You can also choose one calendar where Centauri will write events (usually your primary calendar).
4 Initial Sync
Centauri will pull your upcoming events and begin analyzing your schedule. This usually takes 30-60 seconds. Once complete, you'll see your Google Calendar events reflected in Centauri's calendar view.
Understanding How Sync Works
What Gets Synced
- Events: All events from selected calendars appear in Centauri
- Time: Start/end times, all-day events, recurring events
- Location: If specified in Google Calendar
- Description: Event notes and descriptions
- Free/Busy: Centauri respects your availability for scheduling
What Centauri Creates
When Centauri schedules something for you, it creates a Google Calendar event with:
- Clear title (e.g., "📚 Study: Chemistry Chapter 5")
- Appropriate duration based on task estimate
- Description with task details and context
- Color coding matching the task category (if enabled)
Sync Frequency
Changes sync in near real-time:
- Events added in Google Calendar appear in Centauri within 1-2 minutes
- Tasks scheduled in Centauri appear in Google Calendar immediately
- Deletions and edits sync within a few minutes
Best Practices for Student Calendars
1. Use Separate Calendars for Different Life Areas
In Google Calendar, create separate calendars for:
- Classes: Your course schedule
- Assignments: Due dates and deadlines
- Personal: Non-academic commitments
- Work: Job or internship hours
- Centauri Tasks: Where AI-scheduled blocks go
Color-code each calendar differently. This makes it easy to see at a glance what type of commitment fills each slot.
2. Block Your Class Schedule First
Before the semester starts, add all your classes as recurring events. Include:
- Class name and room number
- Professor name in description
- Travel/buffer time before and after
Centauri uses these fixed blocks to schedule around, so accuracy here prevents conflicts.
3. Mark Your Non-Negotiables
Block time for things that shouldn't be scheduled over:
- Sleep (yes, block 11 PM - 7 AM or your sleep window)
- Meals (even 30-minute blocks help)
- Exercise or gym time
- Weekly commitments (religious services, family calls, etc.)
In Centauri, you can mark these as "protected" so AI scheduling won't suggest tasks during these times.
4. Add Deadlines Immediately
When a professor announces a deadline, add it to your calendar immediately—before you leave the classroom if possible. Include:
- Assignment name
- Due date AND time (many Canvas deadlines are 11:59 PM)
- Point value (helps with prioritization)
- Any dependencies (e.g., "Needs data from lab partner")
Centauri can read these deadlines and automatically suggest when to start working on each assignment.
Advanced Strategies
Time Blocking with AI Assistance
Traditional time blocking requires you to decide when to do each task. With Centauri, you can:
- Add your tasks with time estimates
- Set their deadlines
- Let Centauri suggest optimal blocks
- Approve, adjust, or regenerate the schedule
The AI considers your energy patterns (if you tell it you're a morning person), class schedule, existing commitments, and task dependencies.
Example: Essay Planning
You have an essay due Friday at 5 PM. You tell Centauri:
- Task: "Write History Essay"
- Estimated time: 6 hours
- Deadline: Friday 5 PM
- Preference: "No writing after 8 PM"
Centauri looks at your week, sees you have gaps Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon, and suggests two 3-hour blocks. It creates Google Calendar events for both, and you get reminders before each.
Buffer Time Automation
Centauri can automatically add buffer time around events. Enable this in settings to:
- Add 15 minutes before classes for travel
- Add 10 minutes after meetings for notes and follow-up
- Prevent back-to-back scheduling that leaves no breathing room
Weekly Review Integration
Each Sunday, Centauri can generate a weekly planning summary showing:
- All deadlines for the upcoming week
- Suggested task blocks to meet those deadlines
- Busy vs. free time analysis
- Potential scheduling conflicts
This integrates with your Google Calendar view for a complete picture of the week ahead.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Events Not Syncing
- Check that the calendar is selected in Centauri's integration settings
- Verify you granted both read and write permissions
- Try disconnecting and reconnecting the integration
- Wait 5 minutes—sync isn't instant
Duplicate Events
If you see duplicates, it's usually because:
- You created the event in both Google Calendar and Centauri manually
- The event exists on multiple calendars that are both synced
Solution: Delete the duplicate in one location. The sync will remove it from the other.
Wrong Calendar Selected
If Centauri is writing events to the wrong calendar, go to Settings → Integrations → Google Calendar and change the "Write events to" calendar selection.
Timezone Issues
If events appear at wrong times:
- Verify your timezone in Google Calendar settings
- Verify your timezone in Centauri profile settings
- They should match
Privacy and Data
Connecting your calendar means sharing data. Here's what to know:
- What Centauri sees: Event titles, times, locations, and descriptions from selected calendars
- What Centauri doesn't see: Calendars you haven't selected, attendee email addresses, your Google contacts
- Data storage: Calendar data is processed to generate suggestions but not stored permanently on Centauri servers
- Revocation: You can disconnect the integration anytime in Settings, which removes Centauri's access immediately
For complete details, see our data handling documentation.
Getting the Most from the Integration
The Google Calendar + Centauri combination works best when you:
- Keep Google Calendar as your source of truth for fixed events (classes, meetings, appointments)
- Let Centauri handle flexible scheduling (study sessions, tasks, assignments)
- Review AI suggestions before accepting—you know your energy and preferences better than any algorithm
- Maintain your calendar—delete cancelled events, update changed times, keep it current
- Trust the protected time—if you block personal time, actually take it
"The calendar isn't just for storing events. It's for designing your days intentionally. Let AI help with the logistics so you can focus on living."
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