The modern calendar app: it’s the pinnacle of efficiency and simplicity.
Designed to allow teams to track, schedule, and manage their professional and personal lives, calendar apps are a smooth, simple, streamlined way to make sure everything’s running according to plan.
After all, the last thing you want to do is forget that client meeting or anniversary dinner.
Still, choosing the right app can be challenging. There are many options out there, and it can be intimidating to face them all down and find which is best for you.
Don’t worry — you’re not alone.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the ins and outs of calendar apps, how and when to use them, and how to identify the right one for you and your team.
Buckle up, friend. We’re about to do a deep dive into the wonderful world of calendar apps.
What is a calendar app?
Calendar apps are pretty straightforward — they’re apps that function as digital calendars.
Depending on which you choose to use, your calendar app opens up a lot of opportunities for organization.
Common functions include:
- Scheduling appointments, events, and tasks
- Setting reminders for any of the above
- Automatically rejecting appointments during expected “out of office” times
- Sharing a family calendar
- Using a multiple calendar view with coworkers or other teams
- Plugging in virtual meeting information.
Most calendar apps also offer push notifications to remind you of important to-dos to keep you on track. Calendar apps sometimes function as standalone tools, but are often rolled into larger workplace functionality apps.
If you’re still using a desk planner to track your days, we’ve got news for you: adding a calendar app to the mix can help you get serious about organizing your days (and saving trees).How?
Great question — let’s get into it.
5 perks of calendar apps
You’ve already got apps out the wazoo. Why add yet another one?
The answer is simple: adding this one app likely allows you to get rid of a few other apps you’ve been using — more on this in a minute.
First, let’s check out a few other benefits of adding a good calendar app to your stack.
1. Time saving
We’ve all heard the saying “time is money.” It’s true, though, when you think about it.
The one thing you can’t get back every day is time.
So, if you’re spending time fighting with apps that aren’t intuitive or trying to find information that should be easily accessible, you’re not making the most of your workday.
2. Streamlined functionality
There’s no other way to say it: calendar apps just make life easy.
Got a Zoom meeting to log into? Pull up the link and login info with a single tap of your iPhone.
Wondering whether your team member is free next Tuesday for a quick lunch? Check their calendar on your Android phone.
Need a reminder for your haircut next week? Set a couple of them, just in case.
Calendar apps are meant to be easy to use and make your daily life easy to navigate.
3. Intelligent design
Most adults rely on a digital calendar to help organize their day, and for a good reason. They’re so stinking easy to use.
There’s something satisfying about a beautiful, simple app.
Calendar apps make it easy to view your day, week, or month at a glance, schedule tasks, and display task-style lists that are easy to interact with on a small screen.
In fact, everything about calendar apps is meant to be used on a small screen, so they provide a pretty unbeatable mobile experience.
With monday.com’s smart calendar app, for example, you can access a simple, color-coded calendar view that displays the items on a given board, according to their date. View items, edit them, and stay on track right from this simple dashboard:
4. Integrations
Some, not all, calendar apps offer integrations that can help you get more done from a single dashboard.
Meeting with a new client? View their LinkedIn profile right from the app.
Traveling for a meeting? Check the weather in the new city before you go.
These integrations allow you to organize everything easily and stay on top of your business processes without any additional effort.
5. Reminders
We can’t stress it enough: set reminders.
They keep you from forgetting… everything. They make sure you’re where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. They save you from workplace embarrassment and stressed out days.
They are magical, and calendar apps have them.
When should you use calendar apps?
Now that we’ve discussed why calendar apps are so useful, let’s talk about when to consider using them. Here are a few times when a good calendar app is a shoo-in.
Organizing a big project
You’re using monday.com, and you’ve put together a beautiful board that includes every single detail of that new campaign you’re working on.
It’s organized, color-coded, and totally detailed, but it still feels a little…overwhelming. It’s a lot of information, and you want to interact with it differently.
Insert the power of the calendar app.
monday.com’s calendar view functionality allows you to display items by date, figure out what’s coming down the pipe, and get a full feel of your priorities.
- Organize projects by month, day, or week: view what items you have to complete in a given day, week, or month with simple view adjustments.
- Split views: stop wasting time navigating back and forth between 2 different views. Just use the handy split view tab to create a shared screen with both main and calendar views.
- Dark mode: long days got your eyes feeling achy? Switch to dark mode, which changes your calendar’s contrast. That will make it easier to read.
You’ll never have to wade through a confusing calendar again.
Managing daily tasks
Imagine this: you sit down at your desk early one morning at the start of what you know will be a long, busy day. You’ve got 7 priority tasks staring you in the face, but where do you begin?
A calendar app can help with that!
For instance, monday.com’s calendar view allows you to add times to your calendar’s various tasks.
Just click the cell of the task you want, and set a time to complete or begin working on your items.
While this is a simple function, it’s an excellent way to manage your time, facilitate time-blocking, and stay on track, even on the busiest days.
- Add additional data: fully flesh out your tasks by adding compatible data, like dates and deadlines, a visual timeline breakdown to cover the workload, and target completion weeks for each project you’re working on.
- Change views: if you’d ever like to pop out of the calendar view, you can adjust your board to display a table, timeline, Gantt chart, Kanban board, form, or workload view.
- Easy to find place markers: when you open the calendar view, today’s date will be highlighted in blue. This makes it super easy to see where you are right now and navigate where you need to be.
Managing your team
If you run a team, you know exactly how tough it can be to keep all those moving parts organized. That’s especially true if you’re managing a dispersed team working across a few different time zones on various projects and priorities.
Don’t fear, though, monday.com is here to help.
For this problem, we offer you our weekly shift schedule template.
A simple, streamlined, and convenient way to track your team’s various shifts and help everyone understand who is coming and who is going. This template saves you the time of setting a schedule from scratch and allows you to add, adjust, or remove time periods as needed.
It’s fully customizable and searchable, so you’ll never have to waste time agonizing over a hard-to-read schedule again.
- Exportable: export the template into Excel with a single click, or import your Excel spreadsheet into the template. No sweat required.
- Adjustable permissions: give everyone a little added visibility by inviting staff to view the board as “Read-only.” This keeps everyone on the same page while also allowing you to avoid unwanted changes.
- Searchable: search the schedule by employee name, date, or duty. No more combing through endless sheets to find what you’re looking for.
The right calendar app for you
Now that you know why calendar apps are so helpful and when you might want to use them, let’s talk about the best calendar app providers out there.
monday.com
Our Work OS offers the most robust calendar functions in the industry.
We’ve already discussed a few of monday.com’s features, but there are dozens of reasons to choose this digital workspace for your calendar needs.
The first colossal perk is the absolute usability and functionality of monday.com’s interface.
Want to wake up on a Monday morning and see your week at a glance? monday.com’s got you.
The dashboard offers a streamlined weekly overview that lays out weekly assignments, due dates, and descriptions.
Another thing you’ll love about the monday.com calendar app is how stinking easy it is to plug into all the other tools you use.
By now, you might know a thing or two about monday.com’s massive integration library — it plugs in with basically anything — but this feature shines in the calendar app sphere.
If you want to bring in external calendar apps, it’s easy to sync them with monday.com. Manage your week however you choose with the tools you like to use.
Last but certainly not least, monday.com’s calendar view also offers a time-tracking option.
Whether you’re trying to keep a client project on-budget or just looking for ways to “trim the fat,” cut out time-wasters, and be more efficient, monday.com’s time tracking option allows you to figure out where all that time goes.
Designed to be convenient and easy to use, this time tracker allows you to start and stop the timer as you wish. When you’ve tracked all your time, view it as a log for a simple project overview.
Need to export your time to Excel to create an expense sheet or facilitate another part of the project?
No problem.
monday.com makes it easy. Just hover over the menu button and click “Export to Excel.”
Final thoughts
There you have it — a good calendar application may change your life, or at least help you enjoy a less chaotic workday.
Regardless of whether you’re running a team, managing a big client project, or just trying not to forget where you agreed to meet that Special Someone for dinner, a calendar app can help you keep it all in-line and on the level.
If you’ve been doing your shared calendar app research, you know that you have a whole bunch of options out there.
While it can be tough to choose between them, we’ve made it simple: monday.com’s calendar app is the right answer. Don’t take our word for it, though — try it out and see for yourself!
Offering smart, simple integrations, streamlined and flexible views, fully customizable templates, and a mobile-friendly user experience, monday.com’s calendar app hits way above its pay grade, and it’s here to save your workday.
So, what are you waiting for? Get a leg-up on your next project with one of monday.com’s customizable templates.
Get started