Are you ready to organize your 2025 plans with a personal touch? Google Sheets is a fantastic, free tool that lets you create a customized calendar specific to your needs.
It’s simple to set up—just start with a blank spreadsheet, enter the month and year, merge cells for the header, and fill in the days of the week. You can even add events directly into the cells, making it perfect for keeping track of work commitments, family gatherings, or anything else important to you.
Why Should You Have a Customizable Monthly Calendar?
A customizable monthly calendar is a must-have for anyone wanting to stay organized and boost productivity. It lets you personalize your schedule to fit your personal and work needs, making it easier to manage tasks, appointments, and deadlines all in one place.
With the ability to prioritize and track your progress, it keeps you focused on what matters while reducing the stress of a hectic life. It’s a simple but powerful way to manage your time and hit your goals.
Step 1: Open Google Sheets
First, go to Google Sheets. Once there, click on the “+ Blank” option to start a new spreadsheet. Then, click “Untitled Spreadsheet” to rename your spreadsheet. In this case, I’ll use the “2025 Monthly Calendar”
Step 2: Set Up Your Task Structure
One reason why many people would like to have a customizable calendar is that they can add a To-Do or task list to have a solid system for their monthly calendar.
To create this, think of the details you may want to include. Some of the most commonly used headers are:
- Month
- Progress Summary
- Calendar Set Up
- To-Do List
Step 3: Use a Dropdown Menu
Before plotting the days and dates on your calendar, let’s eliminate the trouble of repetitively entering some information with the help of dropdown menus.
For example, under the Calendar Set Up header, you can see “Year” and “Week Start.” In this example, I’d like to have a dropdown list of years and days of the week.
To do that, select the cells where you want to put the list, then click Insert > Dropdown and start entering the options you want to use.
Step 4: Add Checkboxes
To make your tracker visually intuitive, use the checkboxes. Under the To-Do List header, just beside the Due category, you can add a column and resize it to make it smaller than the others. Then, select the range where you want to add the checkboxes. After that, click Insert and choose Checkboxes.
Step 5: Add the Calendar
Add an automated calendar to complete your template. To do this, click on empty cells and click Merge.
The first step in starting the calendar is to enter the days of the week. Click on the merged cell and use the formula =DATEVALUE(1&C9&C10). Assuming that C9 is the cell for the month dropdown and C10 is for the year dropdown.
You will get numbers instead of the month and year. To change it, click Format > Numbers > Custom Date and Time then choose your preferred format.
After that, create the automated dates. You can do this by using the =SEQUENCE function.
Use =SEQUENCE(1,1,F2-WEEKDAY(F2,1)+1)
Then, drag and copy the formula to the rest of the date fields.
The next step to fully automate the calendar is by using the ARRAY function. Click on the first day of the month and input the formula:
“=ARRAY_CONSTRAIN(IFERROR(FILTER($A$17:$A$57,$B$17:$B$57=H8),),4,1)”
Assuming that the A9:A28 is your date and B9:B28 is your description, then click F4 on your keyboard to lock the range.
If you’re using the template as an Excel file, then the ARRAY_CONSTRAIN formula will not work. That is because, unlike Google Sheets, Excel doesn’t have that function.
But to still get a result similar to how it works for Google Sheets, you can use the formula:
=IFERROR(INDEX($A$17:$A$34, SMALL(IF($B$17:$B$34=H8, ROW($A$17:$A$34)-MIN(ROW($A$17:$A$34))+1), ROW(1:1))), “”)
Then, don’t forget to do the Ctrl+Shift+Enter (CSE) since this will work as the “array” function. You must press the CSE keys after typing the Excel formula provided above.
Now, start entering your tasks and their due dates to see the result. The result should show:
Step 6: Count the Number of Tasks
Now, let’s automate the task summary field. Under To Do category, enter the formula:
=COUNTA(A17:A57)
Assuming that A17:A57 is the range where your tasks are
Under Done category, enter the formula:
=COUNTIF(C17:C57,TRUE)
Assuming that C17:C57 is the range where the checkboxes are. This will automatically count the number of done items in your list,
Step 7: Duplicate the Sheet to Create Other Months
Now that your template for the first month is done, you can add more months to your spreadsheet. To do that, hover over the spreadsheet name at the bottom part, right-click, and then select Duplicate.
This will allow you to duplicate all the formulas and features you added to your first month. Now, to complete your calendar, rename the new sheets, such as February, March, etc..
Get the Free 2025 Monthly Calendar
Get a copy of the free 2025 Monthly Calendar. I’ve already populated some cells as examples, but you can customize them as needed.
Final Thoughts
It is to turn a simple Google Sheet into something so practical, like a 2025 calendar, with extra tools like task tracking. It gives you the power to create something that perfectly fits your needs, whether you’re super detailed or just want something clean and simple.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make the days of the week adjust automatically based on the month?
You can use the TEXT function in combination with DATE. For example, to display the weekday of a date in a specific cell, you can use: =TEXT(DATE(2025,1,1),”dddd”). This will return “Wednesday” for that date. To do this for a full calendar, drag the formula across the row to auto-populate the corresponding weekdays.
How do I ensure the correct number of days for each month?
You can use a combination of the SEQUENCE and EOMONTH functions to generate the correct number of days for any month. For example: =SEQUENCE(1, EOMONTH(DATE(2025,1,1), 0)-DATE(2025,1,1)+1, DATE(2025,1,1)). This will automatically generate the correct number of days for January, and you can adjust the date inside DATE for different months.
How can I format dates and days of the week in a specific way?
To customize how your dates and weekdays look, use Format > Number > Custom Date and Time. This lets you change the format to display dates, months, or even full-day names (like “Monday” instead of “Mon”).
