Set your agenda for the days ahead

Smartphones are slimmer and smarter calendar managers and event planners than the options of yore. But not all calendar apps are created equal.

Sunrise is my favourite. It adds features that prove how a powerful net-connected calendar can do so much more to keep you organised.

The app presents a lot of calendar information at a glance. You can see your calendar entries in two ways: a summary weekly view, which lists coming events in a long, scrolling list; and a detailed agenda view, which shows several days in column format, with hours displayed vertically down the page. This means that with just one tap you can get a quick update about what is on the week’s schedule and see what is going on in a few hours or tomorrow afternoon.

Entering a new event into Sunrise is simple and straightforward. The app has a feature that lets you tag a calendar entry with an icon matching the event - options include “Coffee” dates and a serious “Meeting.”

The app automatically syncs with many other calendar programs, including those from Google, Apple and Microsoft, and apps like the one for the online ticketing service Eventbrite. It can pull data like friends’ birthdays from Facebook, and if you connect it to your LinkedIn account, it can even show the faces of other attendees at meetings.

Sunrise has a long list of built-in events that you can add to your calendar - from national holidays to more tailored events like Formula One races.

Tempo Smart Calendar, a free iOS app, is another excellent example of how clever a calendar app can be.Tempo starts off as a full-featured time planner, but it goes much further. Like Sunrise, Tempo has clear visuals that make the jobs of reading what is on the agenda and entering new events simple - and almost pleasant. It also integrates with a wide range of existing calendar services and apps.

Tempo has a host of extra features. You can sign up for a free conference phone call via a partnership with Speek, a conference-calling startup, for up to five attendees; post birthday greetings to friends’ Facebook pages from inside the app; check for up-to-date information about flights you have planned and entered into the app; and view maps and directions.

Best of all, the app can add events to your calendar in natural language - simply type something like “Coffee meeting with Kenton tomorrow at 11,” and the app automatically works out what you mean and adds an event. You can use Apple’s voice entry system to make this process even more natural.
The app has a few other nice touches, too, like the ability to add photos as backgrounds, and its gesture-based controls feel very intuitive.

Fantastical 2 is another iPhone app that offers bells and whistles similar to Tempo’s. For example, Fantastical 2 has an easy-to-read interface and features like natural-language event entry, but it is more of a straightforward agenda-planning app with an emphasis on its excellent built-in reminders system. This may be to your taste, and this might make the $5 (Rs 313)  price tag worth it.

On Android, Google’s Calendar app comes with Google’s signature look and feel. It’s a highly functional calendar that fully integrates with Google’s other services, as you might expect. But if you are not a fan of Google’s sometimes strange design, Cal is a great free alternative.
Cal has a beautiful look that incorporates minimalist menus and photo backdrops that make dealing with your calendar feel somehow more personal.

Sometimes the app reacts a little slowly and feels as if you need a lot of taps to create a new event. But it’s free, so it is definitely worth checking out.

One final mention goes to Calendars 5 by Readdle. It’s the most expensive app I’ll mention, at $7 (Rs 438)  for iOS devices, but it has lots of nice features.

Enjoy filling your schedule with these apps, but remember that a wise man once said, “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want” - and that’s something you can’t plan for.