How to Set Working Hours in Google Calendar

Invitations keep landing at seven in the morning or during the school run, and declining each one is wearing thin. Google Calendar has a working hours setting that is off until it is switched on, and it is not part of any individual event, so nothing about it can be set from the event editor. Once enabled, anyone in the same organization gets a warning while they are still choosing the time.

Open the working hours settings

Click the gear icon at the top right, then Settings. In the left column under General, click Working hours and location.

Enable working hours and set the times

Tick Enable working hours. A row appears for each day of the week, with the weekdays turned on by default. Click a day to switch it on or off, then set the start and end time on that day's row. Days do not have to match, so a shorter Friday is fine. A day can also hold more than one block, which covers a long midday break: use the plus icon at the end of that day's row and set the second range. Settings save on their own, with no Save button to look for.

Add a working location

Still under Working hours and location, tick Enable working location, then set a location for each day: Home, Office, or Other with a name typed in. Colleagues see this beside your name when they plan a meeting, which is what tells them whether a room is worth booking.

This needs a work or school account. Working hours and working location are Google Workspace features. A personal Gmail account does not show them in Settings, and the setting cannot be turned on for one. The warning also only reaches people inside the same organization, so an outside guest scheduling at midnight sees nothing.

Out of office, Focus time, and appointment schedules are separate. In the event editor, the tabs beside Event create an Out of office block, which can decline meetings in that range automatically with a message, and Focus time, which can do the same while keeping the time visible as work. Appointment schedule is the tab that lets other people book slots with you, and it replaced the old appointment slots feature.