Making the Most of Digital Calendars
Digital calendars can help make it easier to organize your time, be more productive, and help you remember important dates and activities. You can manage schedules, appointments, reminders, and more with a digital calendar.
Calendars are included with popular email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and iCloud. In addition to your email account, these services also include a calendar.
These digital calendars offer a range of features designed to make life easier, and they all share the advantage of being cloud-based. In this article, I'll explain the standard features of these calendar services and discuss how they can be accessed through various devices like your smartphone or computer. First, let's look at how they work in the cloud.
Cloud-Based Functionality
One of the most significant benefits of using these calendar services is their cloud-based nature. Instead of just keeping calendar information on your smartphone or computer, they store your calendar data in their respective clouds.
Storing calendar data in the cloud allows for seamless synchronization across multiple devices. When you add an event on your desktop, the data is updated on your smartphone. It works the other way, too; add an event on your smartphone, and the calendar on your computer is updated. If you use a tablet or visit the website, your calendar is also up-to-date. This ensures you have consistent and up-to-date information at your fingertips, no matter where or what device you use.
You can access your calendar on almost any smartphone, tablet, or computer. So, if you use a Google calendar, you can get updates on your iPhone, or if you use Microsoft's Outlook, you can connect it to your Google or other calendars.
Calendars are considered such an essential productivity resource that Apple, Google, and Microsoft all make it possible to connect your device and apps to virtually any calendar you use.
Let's look at some standard features that all digital calendars have.
Common Features Across Services
While each calendar service has its unique offerings, there are several features that they all have in common.
Event Creation
Blocking off time during a day is called an event in most calendars. An event has a starting time, an ending time, and a name. Creating an event is straightforward. Select a date and time, name the event, and you can add various details such as location and notes.
Blocking off time on a calendar is what helps you avoid scheduling two things at the same time.
Adding Locations to an Event
Adding a location is convenient since it lets you get map information in the calendar.
You know how convenient they can be if you've used a map on your smartphone. Calendars allow you to enter a location for an event when you create it. By entering the place when you create an event, you can start directions from the calendar app.
And there are some more benefits to adding locations. If you're using the calendar on your smartphone, it knows your current location, and you can set up a notification to let you know when it's time to leave. Your smartphone can use its GPS location and internet connection to pull traffic and travel time from the map's cloud data and notify you when it's time to leave. So you'll arrive on time for your appointment.
Notifications and Alerts
Being reminded of an upcoming event is a valuable tool. It's easy to forget about something you might have set up a week ago, and a notification is a way your calendar is helping you to pay attention. Notifications and alerts are messages that can pop up on your desktop, smartphone, or tablet or even show up as an email or text message.
The notification is triggered and sent based on the amount of time before the start of the event. Most calendars have a “default” or built-in setting that sends a notification an hour before the start of an event, but this can be changed when you create or edit the event. And it's possible to make more than one notification.
Digital calendars offer notifications to help you stay on top of your schedule, so you are reminded of an upcoming event so you won't forget.
Recurring Events
The recurring events feature allows you to set the frequency for repeating events, and the calendar will automatically make the new events for you. This is useful for any event that occurs weekly, monthly, or annually. You have a lot of ways to customize recurring events, so you can pick a date of the month or a day of the week for scheduling. There are other options for scheduling to handle almost any type of regular repeating event. Using recurring events saves you the need to enter each event individually.
Search Functionality
A built-in search feature helps you locate specific events quickly, saving you the trouble of manually scrolling through your calendar. It's handy for searching past events, like when you last had your car in for service, or when you went to a doctor's appointment.
Sharing
Sharing calendars or individual events is another common feature. You can set permissions to allow others you invite to view or edit the shared items, facilitating collaboration. Families and clubs can set up a calendar of events, share it with invited people, and then connect to the shared calendar. Then, any family or club event automatically appears in each member's calendar.
Accessibility Across Platforms
These calendar services offer multiple ways to access your calendar data, so you can use an iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Mac, or Windows device. They also all have a way for you to get to your calendar on the web, so if you can log into your account, you can use it. Let's look at how you can use these digital calendars.
Calendar Website
Each service provides a web-based platform you can access through any internet browser. Log in to the website of your service (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo!, etc.) to view and manage your calendar. Your email account isn't just for email with these services; your account also includes a calendar and other services, but we're just looking at the calendar for this article.
Desktop and Mobile Applications
Desktop and Mobile calendar applications are available. To use a calendar app on your device, you'll need to connect the app to your calendar account. Adding your account is usually done in the “services” or “accounts” tool of the app.
For example, suppose you use an iPhone and want to use Apple's Calendar app with your Google Calendar service. In that case, you open the app and then use the add calendar button. Then, you log into your Google account. This connects the app and your Google calendar in the cloud. Apple, Microsoft, Google, and other websites have support that can help you attach a calendar.
Offline Access
A calendar app will let you see your calendar when you're not connected to the internet since calendar data is kept on your device and synced with the calendar in the cloud.
Suppose you're offline without an internet connection and add or change something. In that case, the data will sync once you reconnect to the internet.
Apple, Android, Mac, and Windows devices have built-in calendar apps. Google provides mobile apps for Android and Apple devices but doesn't have its own app for a computer, preferring you use a web browser to use your Google Calendar.
Integration for Multiple Calendars
Apps give you the ability to integrate multiple calendars when using an app. For example, the Windows calendar app (Outlook) lets you connect to your Google Calendar account and any other calendar service you use. Apple's calendar app does the same. Not to be left out, you can also connect other calendars to your Google calendar.
They allow you to use their calendar and still see all your events from other calendars. Some people have multiple calendars and want to keep them separate, and a typical example is a work and personal calendar. But you may only need one calendar, making things organized easier.
This is particularly useful if you have separate calendars for work, personal activities, and other specific needs. You can view all your calendars and events in a single app, regardless of what service you use.
Calendar Events are Files
The information in a calendar event, like the date, day, time, and event name, are all contained in a computer file. Most calendars use a few common types of files, so almost any device or calendar can add and share event information between different calendars. This makes it easier for calendar apps and services to work together so you can choose your preferred digital calendar.
You probably don't think about a calendar event as a file since it's usually inside your calendar app. But you might have seen these files when using an online service like Zoom and being offered the opportunity to add an event to your calendar. To add the event, you're asked which kind of device you use or which calendar type. A calendar event file downloads, and opening it adds the event to your calendar.
Wrap-up
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and iCloud Calendar each offer robust features designed to help you manage your time effectively. Their cloud-based nature ensures seamless synchronization across devices, and the ability to integrate multiple calendars makes them incredibly versatile. Whether you prefer to access your calendar via a web interface, a desktop application, or a mobile app, these services have covered you.
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