Google Calendar from the keyboard: C creates an event, T jumps to today

You probably open Google Calendar ten times a day — and every time you reach for the mouse: click Create, click your way back to today, switch from month to week. Yet Calendar has a set of single-letter shortcuts just like Gmail: no modifiers, you simply press a letter and the thing happens. You'll learn them in an afternoon because they're logical — and from then on you'll drive Calendar faster than you can find the cursor.

How to do it

The most useful shortcuts (work on the web, outside of a text field):

1. C — creates a new event. The form opens right away, ready for you to type a title.
2. T — jumps to today. A lifesaver when you've paged your way into November and are looking for a way back.
3. D, W, M — switch the view to day, week, month. A shows the agenda — a clean list of upcoming events.
4. J and K — page to the next and previous day/week/month, depending on the active view.
5. / — jumps into search for events.
6. Close an open event with Esc — it takes you back to the calendar grid.
7. And the main tool: ? (Shift+slash) shows an overview of every shortcut right inside Calendar. If shortcuts aren't responding, check in Settings that keyboard shortcuts are turned on.

A typical scenario

You're on a call with a client and someone says "let's do a check-in in two weeks." Instead of reaching for the mouse: W for week view, J twice to jump two weeks ahead, C, type "check-in call," Enter. Five seconds later the meeting is booked, and you never dropped out of the conversation with the client. Checking your morning schedule is just as fast: T, D — and you're looking at your day.

What you get out of it

Calendar stops being an app you click your way through and becomes a tool that keeps pace with your thoughts. A few seconds per open doesn't sound like much, but at ten opens a day it adds up to minutes — and more importantly, the small friction that makes people put off booking a meeting "for later" (and then forget) disappears. Booked right away means booked, period.

Pro tip

The same logic applies in Gmail — the single-letter shortcuts E, R, and others work on the same principle there. Learn one and you already know half of the other. And don't try to learn everything at once: pick the two shortcuts that cover your most common actions (typically C and T) and use them for a week. Once they're automatic, add two more — within a month you'll be driving Calendar blind.