To start, let's address the issue of work-life balance for those who work from home. It can be challenging to maintain boundaries and avoid working outside of designated hours. Therefore, setting healthy limits on work-related tasks is crucial for taking care of oneself and having personal time.
Studies suggest that investing an average of 10-12 minutes in daily planning can save up to 2 hours that would otherwise go to waste. Using a smart calendar app is an effective way to achieve this. By entering your schedule and organizing your tasks, you can avoid last-minute scrambling and stay on top of your responsibilities.
In this article, we will explore some outstanding calendar apps that can assist you in breaking the habit of overworking and improving your work-life balance.
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Selecting the optimal calendar app from the countless free options available can be a daunting task. To alleviate this burden, we have gathered a collection of our top picks, all of which have demonstrated the ability to enhance your efficiency. These apps possess crucial features, including user-friendliness, compatibility with other software, and affordability (some are even free!).
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| the best Calendar Applications |
These calendar apps are the cream of the crop for 2023
- Google Calendar is a highly recommended option due to its advanced online scheduling features, which are available completely free of charge.
- Microsoft Outlook calendar is a great option for companies that already use Microsoft Office tools, as it integrates rapidly with the Office 365 suite.
- Apple Calendar is a top choice for individuals who frequently use Apple devices and iCloud, as it provides Siri-compatible synchronization with the entire Apple ecosystem.
- Go is an excellent option for companies operating in B2C and seeking to interact more with their customers, as it offers customizable appointment booking pages.
- Fantastic is highly convenient for people looking for ease of access, thanks to its location-based reminders and natural language processing features.
- Time Page is an ideal choice for non-tech savvy individuals who prefer a minimalist user experience, as it boasts an aesthetic interface and signature Heat Maps.
- Team Up is an excellent option for large organizations looking to manage staff schedules and room reservations, as it provides team collaboration tools and a shareable group calendar.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a widely used calendar management tool that has proven useful for both personal and professional purposes. With its diverse range of features, users can create to-do lists, schedule tasks and receive automated reminders. The calendar can also be synced with Gmail, making it easier to manage event invitations and send email reminders.
In addition, the calendar allows users to add appointment slots, which lets employees and colleagues know when they are free to attend meetings. The Schedule view feature also allows users to view colleagues' calendars side by side and determine mutual availability for meetings and other tasks. The calendar also automatically syncs time slots across different time zones, which is especially helpful for people who travel frequently or work with teams in different parts of the world.
The "out of office" functionality serves as a practical resource that automatically restricts reservations and declines requests during a predetermined time frame, hindering coworkers from booking appointments that the user won't be able to attend. Furthermore, the schedule comprises protective measures and contingency strategies, heightening its security and ensuring that confidential calendars are accessed and shared with utmost safety.
Other notable features include the ability to search past events, view national and international holidays, add sports schedules, TV show release dates, and weather forecasts through third-party apps. The Google calendar app can also integrate with a range of other apps, including CRM, marketing, and productivity tools, allowing users to automate tasks and move data between platforms.
Overall, Google Calendar is a powerful and feature-rich calendar app that is available for free. Businesses can also opt for Google Apps for Business, which costs $5 per user per month.
Microsoft Outlook Calendar
Outlook offers a variety of productivity and communication tools, including its popular Calendar feature. Microsoft Outlook Calendar is an online scheduling and calendar management application designed to enhance productivity.
The Calendar tool is primarily available as a desktop application but is also available on Android and iOS. Its key features include creating appointments and events, organizing meetings, and managing group schedules.
Creating appointments and events with Outlook Calendar is easy; users can click on an available time slot and input event details, color code events, and set reminders. Group schedules and resource schedules, such as conference rooms, can also be created.
Users can share their calendars with others via email, controlling the amount of information that is shared. Administrative assistants can also manage schedules through the Delegate Access feature.
While the basic version of Outlook Calendar is free, users can purchase premium features and access other Microsoft tools through the full Office 365 suite for $69.99 per year.
Apple Calendar
Apple Calendar is a popular calendar app among iPhone users because of its seamless integration with Apple devices. The basic functionality is similar to other calendar apps, but Apple Calendar synchronizes events and appointments across multiple devices, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.
The app uses Apple's Siri for voice recognition and commands, allowing users to schedule appointments and move appointments using voice commands across all devices. The app also offers iCloud syncing, which makes it easy to synchronize with other Apple devices.
Users can also connect Apple Calendar to other calendars, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange, and share their calendars with others. A unique feature of Apple Calendar is that it automatically opens certain files just before an event, making it easy for users to access relevant files when they need them.
The app offers end-to-end encryption, ensuring that calendar and appointment data is secure. However, one drawback is that it doesn't offer the same API services as Google and Office 365, which limits its integration with third-party apps. Additionally, syncing iCal with Google or Office can result in delays.
Apple Calendar is a free app that comes pre-installed on Apple devices and offers an excellent user experience. Unfortunately, the app is not available for Android users.
Overall, Apple Calendar is a reliable and convenient option for Apple device users, and its advanced features make it a popular choice.
Appointment
If you need an easy-to-use appointment scheduling solution for your business, Appointlet is worth considering. It enables your clients to schedule appointments with you directly through your email calendar. With Appointlet, you can customize your booking page, set up available time slots, breaks between bookings, and approve or decline meeting requests.
When clients book appointments, their information is automatically collected and placed on your calendar for quick reference. You can choose to have appointments approved automatically or manually, and set up cancellation and rescheduling rules. Reminders and alerts are sent via email and can be personalized with custom notes and instructions.
Appointlet integrates with other calendar apps like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar, and can be connected to various other tools such as payment processing, marketing, and email automation platforms. You can create planning pages at an organizational or personal level and configure bulk availability where prospects choose a time and are automatically assigned to an available member.
Appointlet also offers dedicated team features and multi-user support, making it ideal for large organizations. While there is a free trial available for 15 days, the Basic version is free, and the Premium version costs $8 per month per user.
Overall, Appointlet is a great solution for businesses that want to make scheduling appointments easier for their clients and themselves.
Fantastic
If you have an Apple device and need a great app to manage your calendar, you should check out Fantastical by Flexibits. The app is not compatible with Android devices yet, but maybe that will change someday.
The app has a simple and colorful interface that makes it easy to explore its features. You can create and find calendars that automatically include things like holidays, sports, TV shows, reminders, and more. You can also use features like Multi-Language Support , Voice Commands, and Audio Notes to make your life easier.
Fantastical is famous for two features especially; location-based reminders and natural language processing. Location-based reminders let you set reminders that only trigger when you are at a certain place. Natural language input lets you enter commands in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.
You can see if your team members are free before scheduling events for them. You can also send invitations for events with multiple time and date options, and the ones your invitees agree to will be automatically saved.
Fantastical also lets you mix and match the 14 widgets it offers to create a custom home screen. You can quickly see your upcoming events, conference calls, to-do lists, weather forecasts and more. This saves you a lot of time because you can see everything you need at a glance.
Fantastical offers useful integrations that allow you to conveniently manage multiple online calendar services from a single platform. This includes popular services such as iCloud, Google Calendar, Exchange, Outlook 365, Todoist, and Yahoo. Additionally, Fantastical can be linked with communication applications like Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, among others.
Pricing:
- Free Trial - Full access to premium features for 14 days
- For individuals – $3.33/month billed annually | $4.99/month billed monthly
time page
Timepage is a web-based calendar and diary app created by Moleskine Studio. It is well-known for its attractive design, as well as its minimalist look, which makes it very easy to use.
The app is made specifically for iOS devices and is currently available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Besides its neat and elegant look, basic features include events and appointments, notifications and alerts, user timeline management, and integration with other platforms such as iCloud or your Google account.
The app offers a lot of customization options with different themes, gestures, fonts, and more. The timeline is the main place where you can see your full schedule for the upcoming days and weeks. You can go to the day view to see all planned events, to-do's, and weather information for a specific day.
The information you add to a planned event can also be fully personalized. You can even include the time, location, people invited, and any extra notes about the event in the app. Also, natural language processing makes it easier to enter this information and speeds up the process.
Timepage distinguishes itself with its Heat Map functionality, which highlights the busiest and least busy days of your calendar using color-coding. This feature allows for easy identification of your schedule's busier periods, enabling you to manage your workload more efficiently by allocating tasks to relatively free days.
Pricing:
- Free trial – 7 days
- Full version – $1.99/month or $11.99/year
- You can get an extra 40% discount if you buy the full Moleskine Studio subscription at $19.99/year.
Team up
Teamup is a leading calendar management tool that allows efficient online scheduling as well as features focused on team collaboration. Accessing Teamup is very easy; no user account required - all you need to do is open a web link and you're ready to go.
The main concept behind Teamup is to create a shared calendar that contains all upcoming events and appointments. The calendar administrator can make changes and grant access to other users in any combination of the nine permission levels. Events are neatly organized with color coding and can be searched and filtered in multiple ways.
Besides the shared calendar, you can create team and room schedules as well as room reservations. You can use these features to plan the use of resources such as physical meeting rooms. The yearly calendar view allows you to view all of these bookings on one page.
Teamup is widely used for staff planning. You can create a complete table of staff schedules with their name, role, date and time to ensure you use them effectively. This creates a visual picture of when someone is available or unavailable.
The Teamup calendar provides a comprehensive itinerary for events you create, allowing you to add detailed information such as the event name, time, location, attendees, general notes, and images. With just one click, you can choose to display or conceal this information. All changes made to the itinerary are instantly updated and available to everyone with access to the calendar, avoiding the need for email attachments or potential version conflicts.
The Teamup website also has some calendar templates already in place that you can play around with to figure out the functionality of the calendar.
Pricing:
- Free trial – 3 days
- Basic version – Free
- Plus – $8/month billed annually | $10/month billed monthly
- Premium – $20/month billed annually | $24/month billed monthly
- Enterprise – $80/month billed annually | $99/month billed monthly
Frequently asked Questions
One of the simplest ways to boost your productivity and manage your time better is to use an online calendar. These apps help you plan everything in a structured way, and you will definitely gain from using any of them.
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| FAQ |
1- What are the best calendar apps for iPhone?
Apple Calendar is the best choice for iPhone users as it has advanced online scheduling and task management features. The best thing is that it works with the Apple ecosystem and allows you to access your calendar from any iOS device. It also has the highest rating on the App Store.
2- What are the best Android calendar apps?
Google Calendar is the best option for Android users as it syncs with Gmail and GSuite and updates appointments automatically. The software is free of charge and also offers connections with other CRM, marketing, and productivity software.
3- Is there a better calendar than Google?
Apple, Google and Office 365 are the top calendars. But if you want something with more functionality, try looking for third-party apps that enhance your main calendar. Appointlet is a good addition to Google Calendar, as it handles appointment scheduling efficiently and automates most manual tasks. Like Google, the basic version of the app is free, while the pro version costs only $8 per month per user.
4- Which free calendar apps for iPhone are the best?
The best free calendar app for iPhone is Apple Calendar because it is made by Apple and has the highest rating on App Store. It has all the main features of an online calendar, plus iCloud connectivity and Siri-compatible commands.
5- Does Windows have a good calendar app?
Appointlet is a highly useful calendar application for Windows systems and desktop computers. With this app, appointments from emails, landing pages, and funnels are automatically booked and updated, simplifying your scheduling and calendar management. The app offers a free basic version as well as a 15-day free trial of all premium features, making it accessible for users to try out before committing to a purchase.