When we start to work and get involved in more things, it’s easy to miss appointments or forget things that we planned before. Sounds familiar?
That’s why you need a good Calendar. For iOS/Mac users, we have Apple Calendar and it’s free and available for iPhones and Macs. But what if there’s an app that’s even better than Apple Calendar?
Meet BusyCal — a great tool that can help you be more organized and get things done at the right time.
Contents
What Is BusyCal?
BusyCal is a powerful and smart calendar that has many features to help organize your daily routine. Besides scheduling appointments and meetings, it also allows you to build your own to-do list.
With info panel, travel time, menu bar, alarms, tag, and smart filters built into BusyCal, you will never miss anything.
How Does BusyCal Work?
Once you download the app, you will find the interface of BusyCal looks very similar to Apple Calendar. Same as other calendars, there are different views – Day, Week, Month, Year, and List. But BusyCal has many more useful features.
The left panel shows the list of calendars and a small month-view calendar. Here, you can choose which calendar you want to show or hide.
Also, you can click the small square bottom to fold this panel at the left top side. On the right side, it shows you the detailed information on your to-do list and info panel. The middle is the main part of the calendar.
In the following sections, I will show you some features I especially like in BusyCal.
1. Make Your Own To-do List
To Do is a great feature that allows you to put tasks. It has two types, one is “To Do”, and the other one is “Timed To Do”. The difference is if you set a due time for the task, then it belongs to “Timed To Do”.
You can set the priority, from High, Medium, or Low. Also the due date and due time. If it’s a repeating task, you can also set it up here. Alarm is a good feature too.
You can also use BusyCal’s smart filters to sort your list. It matches different demands and helps you to find out the task more efficiently.
All of your to-do lists can be seen in one panel. The overdue task will be kept in the panel until you have done it. In BusyCal, you can have both calendars and to-do lists.
2. Info Panel
The info panel is the feature that I love the most! It allows you to see all the details of the events in one place, plus you can edit directly there. If you need to change anything for an event, BusyCal makes it convenient.
Don’t forget to customize your info panel. You can decide which information you want to see and do a quick edit. I found this super useful and it saved me a lot of time when editing or checking information.
3. Add Travel Time
In my previous work, my boss told me to remember to add transportation time when I scheduled a meeting. So I always need to calculate the time and add it to the schedule.
In BusyCal, there’s a handy option – Travel time. It’s quite easy to calculate how long the travel time is, you can also set up traveling methods like driving, or walking. Check the event details you’ll understand how long is the travel time and how long the meeting time is.
The menu bar enables you to know your schedule in just one click, without opening the app. You can see all the events and also your to-do list. You can also choose the date and get to know what’s happening on that day. You can also scroll down to see more schedules in the future.
One more thing, don’t forget to tick a task when you finish it.
Price and Platform Compatibility
BusyCal is only available for Mac and iOS (NOT for Windows and the BusyMac team has no plan to launch a version for PC users). For the Mac, as of this writing, BusyCal supports macOS 10.11 El Capitan or later.
The cost of BusyCal is $49.99 (one-time cost). You can download it from the official website and try it out for 30 days free. You may also get BusyCal on Setapp which has a free 7-day trial and then $9.99 per month in a subscription.
Is BusyCal Worth it?
For a calendar app, $49.99 is not cheap. While you need to see how you’ll use it and how it can help you organize your work and life. The value of being organized is much more than 50 dollars.
If you are a super busy person dealing with a lot of meetings and tasks. I definitely recommend you take the free trial first before purchasing the full version.
Overall, I think BusyCal is worth it and I recommend the app.
