Calendars for Timeboxing

Choose which calendar your working sessions go on, what others see, and which events should or shouldn't block your tasks.

When you timebox a task, Sunsama creates a working session on one of your calendars. This page explains how to choose that calendar, what other people see, and how to control which events your tasks schedule around.

Calendar settings are in Settings > Integrations > Calendar. Click a calendar to open its settings. Timeboxing settings are in Settings > Account > Timeboxing.

Where working sessions go

Sunsama picks the calendar in this order:

  1. The calendar linked to the task’s channel, if you’ve set one.
  2. Your default calendar for tasks.
  3. Your Sunsama calendar.

Every account has a Sunsama calendar. It’s visible only to you, in Sunsama, and it can’t be turned off. Until you choose a default, working sessions go there and stay off your Google, Outlook, Apple (iCloud) or CalDAV calendars.

Choose a default calendar

  1. Open Settings > Integrations > Calendar and click the calendar you want.
  2. Turn on Default calendar when scheduling tasks. The calendar now shows a Default for tasks label.

You can only pick a calendar you have permission to write to. To keep working sessions off your external calendars, make the Sunsama calendar the default again.

Setting Sunsama calendar as default

Send a channel’s tasks to a different calendar

Open a calendar’s settings and set Timeboxing channel to a channel. Tasks in that channel are timeboxed to that calendar, which overrides your default. We recommend linking your #personal context to a personal calendar, so personal tasks stay off your work calendar.

What others see

These settings are in Settings > Account > Timeboxing and apply when a working session is created.

  • Calendar availability for timeboxed tasks: Show as busy (the default) or Show as available. Others see you as busy, or free, during your working sessions.
  • Calendar privacy of timeboxed tasks: Calendar default, Private or Public. Tasks in private channels and personal contexts are always private.
  • Calendar reminders for timeboxed tasks: Calendar default, or None to skip reminders on new working sessions. This applies to Google and Outlook calendars.

To change how working sessions are colored, go to Settings > Display and set Calendar event color to Color by channel (the default) or Color by calendar.

Events that shouldn’t block your tasks

Sunsama schedules tasks around events that block time. For events that shouldn’t, like birthdays, out of office notes or reminders:

  • A whole calendar: open the calendar’s settings and turn on Non-blocking for tasks. Its events stay visible, and tasks can be scheduled over them. This only changes how Sunsama schedules; it doesn’t change anything in Google or Outlook.
  • One event: hover the event and click the calendar icon, Toggle to allow tasks during this event. Use it again to block tasks during that event.
  • Free time in Google or Outlook: an event marked free or available doesn’t block your tasks either.

Your choice for an event wins over the calendar setting, and the calendar setting wins over the event’s own free or busy status. Declined events, all-day events and Google Focus time events never block tasks. Your own working sessions always do.

On an event you can edit, the Blocking or Non-blocking setting on its page also changes whether you show as busy to others.

Show or hide calendars

  • Click Calendars above the calendar to choose which ones you see. Click a calendar to toggle it, or hold Shift and click to show only that one. Manage calendars opens your calendar settings.
  • The Sunsama calendar group also lets you show or hide Task projections, Task actual times, Planned vs. actual, and Task completions.
  • To hide a calendar completely, turn off Enabled in its settings. You can’t disable your Sunsama calendar, your primary calendar, or your default calendars.

Calendar visibility settings

Zoom the calendar

Click + or - at the top left of the calendar to switch between three zoom levels, 1x to 3x. Zooming in gives you more control when you drop tasks onto a crowded calendar. Each browser or device remembers its own zoom level.