Did you make a New Year’s resolution to do a better job of sticking to your schedule in 2018? These eight calendar apps for your smartphone are the perfect way to keep track of all the places you have to be, the people you have to meet, and the things you have to do in both your professional and your personal life. Read on to find the one that’s the best fit for you.
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Accompany
This free app for iOS is the mobile chief of staff you need for your busy work life. Ideal if you’re always meeting new contacts or if you have a large number of existing clients to keep tabs on, Accompany combines calendar and contact management features so that you can show up to any meeting feeling confident and well-prepared. The app checks out your upcoming events and meetings and assembles detailed profiles of the people and companies you’ll be interacting with. Then, the day before the event, the app e-mails you all the information in an executive briefing. You can also read up on relevant social media posts, news stories, and recent communications.
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Fantastical 2
One of the cleanest-looking calendar apps available, Fantastical 2 delivers daily, weekly, and monthly calendar views of your events, which you can create either through the menu-based interface or via an audio note. Special features include the Day Ticker, which allows for easy viewing and management of events on a daily basis, and Apple Watch integration, which sends push notification reminders of upcoming events directly to your wrist. The app also comes in an iPad version, which takes advantage of the extra screen space to present a more comprehensive dashboard.
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Calendars 5
This neat iOS app displays absolutely everything you need to know about your schedule using a clear and intuitive interface. High-quality natural language support makes it simple and convenient to use voice dictation to enter new events, and easy syncing with other apps, including Google Calendar, Reminders, and the built-in iOS calendar app, means that you’ll never miss an appointment because of an importing error. The timeline view, which categorizes events using easy-to-recognize icons, is an especially useful feature.
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Timepage
If you love using those stylish little Moleskine notebooks to stay organized, be sure to check out the company’s Timepage calendar app for iOS, which is just as chic and feature-packed as its analog counterparts. A combination smart calendar and day planner, Timepage collaborates with existing calendar providers like Google and iCloud while bringing its own unique calendar views and event-creation features to the mix. It’s easy to see when you’re busy with the app’s monthly “heatmap” view, which quickly shows which days are free and which aren’t, and you can also use filters to view specific types of events in more detail. Bonus additions include natural language support, maps, and weather information.
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SaiSuke 2
If you want to be able to customize your calendar as much as possible, the Japanese calendar app SaiSuke 2 offers you 11 different view modes to choose from, each available in landscape and portrait layouts for optimal viewing on your iPhone or your iPad. Inputting new events is easy with its stock of event templates, and you can further personalize your scheduling experience with the app’s configurable interface and variety of color themes.
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Informant 5
A very useful multipurpose app, Informant 5 combines calendar, tasks, and notes management in a single, powerful package. See as much or as little information on-screen as you want thanks to multiple configurable view modes, and blast through your to-do list quickly with easy-to-create checklists and filters. If your job involves a lot of travel, you’ll also appreciate the app’s Travel Assistant feature, which provides international time-zone management, estimates your arrival time at your destination based on location-aware technology, and suggests location options when you create new events
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My Study Life
Are you a student? My Study Life (free for iOS) is the calendar app for you. Designed especially for students, this cross-platform digital planner has all the basic features you expect from a good calendar app, plus a host of academic-oriented extras, including a homework tracker for upcoming and overdue assignments, a class schedule manager, and color-coding options for work and exams in different subjects.
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Peek Calendar
Users who tend toward the minimal will appreciate Peek Calendar, a smartly designed app that displays essential information without a lot of additional clutter. An accordion-style folding timeline displays your upcoming events, and you can quickly create new events and tasks or set or change times using fast gesture controls. The app supports easy syncing with Google Calendar, iCloud, and Exchange, and in-app purchases will give you access to a number of additional interface configuration options. This is a great app for users who don’t like feeling visually overwhelmed by their schedules.