Calendar

If you've created your own calendars on your iPhone or iPad, there's probably one that you create more events on than the others. Your Calendar app will default to the generic calendar but if it's not the one you want, you can easily change it to default to the one you use most. This makes creating events much quicker since you don't have to toggle calendars when you create each individual event or appointment.

Not sure how? Follow along.

The built-in iOS Calendars app can keep track of all your events and appointments, all in one place. But it doesn't have to keep them all in the same actual calendar. If you prefer to keep your work life and personal life separate, or to have a specific calendar for kids activities, or a special vacation, or for anything else, it's easy to setup. Since each calendar gets its own color, and you have the ability to hide or show individual calendars, it's a great way to stay organized and stay sane at the same time.

Additional calendars are easy to setup, and if you ever stop needing them, they're easy to delete as well.

• How to create calendars on your iPhone and iPad
• How to delete calendars on your iPhone and iPad

iOS allows you to set not only your default calendar, but the default alert time and sync period as well. Having good defaults can make it much faster to add new events and appointments, especially if you often add events to the same calendar, and with the same alert requirements. You can also set how far back your iPhone and iPad will sync those appointments and events, so you can keep handy just your most recent entries, or entries going back for months. You can toggle automatic time zone shifting, and even turn off invitation alerts if you need a little less notification in your life.

• How to disable new invitation alerts on your iPhone and iPad
• How to change the time zone for calendar alerts on your iPhone and iPad
• How to change event sync period for calendar entries on iPhone or iPad
• How to change default alert times for calendar events on iPhone or iPad
• How to set the default calendar on your iPhone or iPad

I have a love/hate relationship with Flexibits' Fantastical. There is absolutely no faster, easier, more human way to enter appointments into your calendar. And because of that, my calendar -- previously a wasteland -- is now bristling with appointments. My only saving grace was that Fantastical was bound to my Mac, and I couldn't use it when I was out and about, with only an iPhone in my pocket. But with Fantastical's terrible awesomeness coming to the iPhone, I can now fill up my calendar faster, easier, and more humanly than ever before on the go, and no matter where I am. I'm organized now. I have no excuse left not to be. Dagnabit.

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If you don't like the default Calendar app that comes with your iPhone, the App Store is filled with alternatives. Whether you want something more simple and elegant, more powerful and robust, or just something that works more the way you work, you have options to consider. Agenda, CalenGoo, and Calendars by Readdle all give you even more control over your calendars, events, and notifications than the default Calendar app does, and all organize things in a different way. But which one is best, and more importantly, which one is best for you?

Calendars by Readdle is an alternative to the built-in Calendar apps on the iPhone and iPad provided by Apple. It features a gorgeous interface, intuitive controls, seamless syncing with Google and iOS calendars, and more. If you find yourself commonly frustrated with Apple's Calendar apps, you'll definitely want to consider Calendars by Readdle as a replacement.

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On this Day... - The stylish Event Calendar is an iPhone app by Sophiestication Software, the makers of the award winning Wikipedia reading app, Articles, that shares past events, births and deaths that have happened on any given day. You can browse through hundreds of daily entries and read related Wikipedia articles that are formatted nicely for On this Day.

Since Siri is meant to be your personal assistant, it only makes sense to have her schedule and manage your meetings and events. Asking Siri to create an event only takes a few seconds and is much faster than hand entering them. Whether you need her to schedule a meeting, tell you what's on the agenda for today, or move an existing meeting to another time or date, she'll help keep you on task.

Agenda is a beautiful alternative to the iPhone and iPad's built-in Calendar app by the great folks at App Savvy. In addition to performing the normal tasks you'd expect any good calendar app to do, Agenda also lets you confirm appointments via text message or email from directly within the app. Similarly, you can inform necessary parties if you're going to be late.