Whether you’re in school, pursuing an online course, starting a new job, or working at home, tracking your time and planning your days accordingly will help you succeed. To avoid missing out on anything, some people write their to-dos and upcoming tasks in a notebook. Today, some have taken the digital route and rely on apps for calendar scheduling.
Keeping an online calendar helps you to stay organized. It allows you to schedule reminders on28 your phone to ensure that you do not miss important appointments and meetings. Paper calendars cannot compete with this great feature. Moreover, online calendars are a way to increase your productivity. You can schedule the time to work on projects that are a priority or have strict deadlines. As a result, with an online calendar, you can complete what is needed and stay on task.
Apps for calendar scheduling are much better than traditional paper planners. Firstly, they keep your schedule neat even if you make several changes. Secondly, if you are planning schedules for yourself and your team or your family, a flexible calendar app helps you take control of everything.
If your digital calendar is integrated with your organizational tools, it becomes easier for you to organize a last-minute call, move a deadline, or plan the upcoming week. However, with the many options available on app stores, it can be overwhelming to choose the best app for calendar scheduling.
In this article, we are going to share the criteria for choosing the best calendar app and a list of the best calendar apps to help you stay organized.
How to Choose the Best Calendar App?
As you know, many kinds of calendar apps are available. You can download a basic app with minimal functions, a calendar app with built-in productivity tools, or an app designed specifically for professionals.
Every calendar app is different, but if it doesn’t have some must-have features, it is of no benefit to you. For starters, you should be able to use the app to schedule events and send reminders before the event. Here’s a checklist of what your calendar app should have:
1. Easy-to-use
An app for calendar scheduling shouldn’t have an extensive navigation menu. Preparing your to-do list or scheduling events should be easy to do in just a few clicks. Find an app with an intuitive user interface to make your workflow faster instead of slower. A free trial is an added advantage as it gives you a glimpse into what you will get and what you can manage with the app.
2. Customizable
There is no fixed design for a calendar app. Instead, an app is most useful if it allows users to make the tool work for their specific needs. The user should have the option to customize the look and feel of the app and define the available hours for scheduling meetings.
3. Compatible
A calendar app is right for you if it works with your favourite devices. You can make the most of an online tool only if you can access it from anywhere and at any time. Look for apps that are compatible with your phone, laptop, and desktop to stay connected 24/7.
4. Collaborative
A calendar app helps you schedule your day. However, you are not working in a vacuum. You need to share your schedule with other users to plan meetings and organize appointments at convenient times. Thus, the app should allow collaboration with your team and family members. Moreover, you should be able to integrate the app with other organizational and productivity tools to make operations across tools a breeze.
15 Best Apps for Calendar Scheduling and Reminders
1. ClickUp
ClickUp makes task management easy and engaging with intuitive calendar features designed for teams of all sizes to manage projects, stay on pace, and work in collaboration. It has 15+ customizable ways to display your work. Moreover, the intuitive drag-and-drop interface and the evolving list of dynamic features take scheduling to a whole new level. The flexible calendar allows you to plan timelines, organize projects, and keep everyone informed. It also updates automatically as your projects progress. You can view the calendar by day, week, or month depending on your requirement. You can also use filters to customize and organize the calendar to your convenience.
Website: https://clickup.com/
2. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is one of the most popularly used apps for calendar scheduling, especially for Gmail users. The app is free on Android and iOS and has a desktop version as well. It offers multiple viewing options for your day, week, and month prioritization, web access, guest invites, and more. Moreover, you can safely back up data to avoid losing your schedule in case you lose your device.
Google Calendar lets you set colour codes for events from different areas of your life. For instance, you can choose the colour blue to mark meetings and the colour yellow for personal events. This colour-coding feature lets you quickly know what kind of events are lined up for the day by glancing at the colours.
Website: https://www.google.com/calendar/about/
3. Microsoft Outlook Calendar
Another popularly used calendar app is the Microsoft Outlook Calendar. It is the default on Microsoft devices. It is also used by universities and companies.
Microsoft Outlook is part of the Microsoft Office suite and provides an online calendar, contact manager, task manager, journal logger, note-taking platform, and web browser. The calendar lets you collaborate with coworkers by sending a shared calendar where everyone can manage deadlines and events together.
Website: https://outlook.live.com/calendar/0/view/month
4. Todoist
Todoist is your to-do list and task manager. It helps you add your tasks, organize your life, and achieve more every day. The app automatically filters your tasks into Today, Upcoming, and custom Filter views to let your focus on the more important things. Moreover, you can delegate tasks to share the workload, personalize your task views, and set priority levels, favourites, and reminders. The Quick Add feature lets you capture and organize tasks in seconds.
Website: https://todoist.com/home
5. Any.do
Any.do allows users to easily organize tasks, lists, and reminders. The app syncs seamlessly across all devices. It enables teams to plan their day in seconds and focus on meaningful action items for delivering goals. Add smart reminders to avoid missing out on anything. Moreover, the beautiful themes and interactive features ensure that you save time and achieve great things. You can simply drag and drop tasks into your schedule to prepare an efficient daily plan.
Website: https://www.any.do/
6. Calendly
Calendly is an automated calendar that reduces the work of connecting with others, letting you achieve more. Using the powerful app for calendar scheduling, teams can streamline meetings without back-and-forth emails.
Calendly provides a seamless user experience by integrating with Google, Office 365, Outlook calendars and apps like Stripe, Salesforce, GoToMeeting, Google Analytics, PayPal, and Zapier.
Website: https://calendly.com/
7. SavvyCal
SavvyCal provides a beautiful, interactive interface that lets the scheduler overlay their calendar. As a result, one does not need to toggle between the list of time slots and the calendar. It prefills the recipient information, saving time for the scheduler. Moreover, it lets you delegate account access so that your assistant can manage your account for you.
Website: https://savvycal.com/
8. Cal.com
Cal.com is a customizable scheduling tool to help make your daily life easier. The software gives you control via an open scheduling infrastructure. It reads your availability from all the existing calendars, eliminating the chances of getting double booked. You can share a cal.com personal link and make it easy for people to schedule a meeting at a time that is convenient for both of you.
Website: https://cal.com/
9. Fantastical
With Fantastical, you can schedule reminders and events at your desk or on the go. It is a multilingual app that remains synced across all Apple devices. It has an attractive and easy-to-use interface in dark and light modes. The app for calendar scheduling is big on privacy, and it collects as little personal information as needed from you. It integrates with other calendars like Outlook, Apple Calendar, and Google Calendar.
Website: https://flexibits.com/fantastical
10. Morgen
With Morgen, you can consolidate events from different calendars and tools. You can also use the app to toggle and filter between calendars so that you can concentrate on jobs and chores by project or aspect of your life. Depending on your requirement, you can use the day view, weekly view, or month view.
Morgen comes with task management features. It allows you to import tasks from apps using Zapier. Morgen doesn’t have a mobile app yet, but you can use the desktop calendar app on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.
Website: https://morgen.so/
11. DigiCal
The DigiCal app lets you synchronize all your calendar apps. You can use it to view the various activities you have to perform in a day, and it can assist in organizing and planning your schedule. You can select a calendar format from seven fresh and clean material design customizable calendars in light and dark themes, as per your choice. DigiCal syncs with all Android-based calendars, so you can add your preferred calendar and sync all your events to DigiCal.
Website: https://digibites.nl/digical
12. Zoho Calendar
Zoho Calendar is an online business calendar suited to keep teams organized. It makes scheduling easy to help you stay on top of your schedule and also share calendars with your team to keep everyone on the same page. Zoho Calendar allows you to create events, manage group calendars, invite users, and organize team events.
Website: https://www.zoho.com/calendar/
13. Timepage
Timepage is an innovative product from the makers of the Moleskine notebook. It is available on iOS, with an aesthetically appealing interface. You can drag and drop events to reschedule them and respond to event invites directly. The mobile app and desktop app for calendar scheduling sync with your system calendars to let you see everything in one place. Moreover, it integrates with Apple Maps, providing information about your travel times and event locations.
Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timepage/id989178902
14. Apple Calendar
If you are an Apple device user, you already have the Apple Calendar. It is a standard app on iOS and Mac devices. Thus, it works on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. You can create Apple Calendar events using Siri on your iPhone, making it easier for you to plan and organize your events.
All Apple devices, from iMac and iPhone to Apple Watch, can be synced together by storing your information in iCloud. As a result, the Apple Calendar is accessible via the web at iCloud.com if there’s no other way for you to get to it.
Website: https://www.icloud.com/calendar
15. Lightning Calendar by Thunderbird
This app by Thunderbird lets users choose between a day, week, multi-week, or monthly calendar view. The built-in search function lets users search for categories like “meeting” or “birthday”.
Lightning Calendar is very utilitarian and provides options for customization using built-in themes.
Website: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/calendar/
Summing up
There are many apps for calendar scheduling. You must spend time doing a little homework and find one which will suit your needs the best. It is not a good idea to pick the first one you see. Try out the features of different apps to determine which one feels right. You can continue using your device or email client’s default calendar or select an app with additional productivity features.
