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Choosing other services that use Google Calendar. Recommending a few suggestions with their pricing and full information.

Quick reference

3rd Party Calendar Services

Using Google Calendar has many benefits. Although Google Calendar has a good range of iOS and Android apps, there is also the ability to download calendar apps that allows you to sign-in using Google Calendar. This opens up a whole world of design and functionality for you by using other apps to visualize your tasks. There is a host of other apps that work with Google Calendar and are perfectly well-worth exploring. 

Google Calendar

  • 3rd party ready - other apps can build their experienced and still use Google Calendar's organization
  • Views available: schedule, day, 3 day, week, month
  • Add tasks easily
  • Month overview on mobile
  • Subscribed calendars

Calendar 5

  • Works with Google calendar but also has intelligent input

Fantastical

  • Very similar again but different feel and design

Vantage

  • Unique design, timeline fading into the distance

When to use

  • If you want a different layout to your Google Calendar account
  • If you'd like to customize your calendar with more features 

Finding your calendar

  • Open the Google Play or App Store (iOS) 
  • Search "Google Calendar apps" 
  • Find one of the applications recommended that connects with Google Calendar, like Calendar 5
  • Follow the steps below:
  1. Set a budget for your download

Most of the applications will cost you a small download fee. So setting your budget will be important. Prices range from $1 to $49 for calendar applications on devices, although there are free options as well.

  1. Review features you need

The features or additional layers that the calendar brings to your experience will be the step forward you need with your calendar.

For example, if your new choice is well-priced and provides 3/4 of the features you need for work, then it might be ideal unless you desperately need that final feature for work purposes. 

  1. Pick your ideal layout

Layouts are an important part of your calendar experience. Try to pick a resource that has the calendar view that you desire to help your chances of success.

Whether it is week view or 2-week view, that ideal layout or view will help you boost your productivity and get things done on your day!

  1. Check Google Calendar integration

Once you’re happy, make sure the Google Calendar connection works. There’s nothing worse than getting a bad sync with an application, as it’ll cause stress and decreased productivity due to time wasted double checking.

Only a few applications struggle with this but it is becoming rare as Google Calendar progresses. Just make sure to set an event and view it on this new calendar app to check.  

Hints & tips

  • Check the security reputation of your chosen 3rd party app and the Google integration sign-in to make sure a 3rd Party Calendar is a legitimate integration with Google
  • Picking a great 3rd party Google Calendar app takes time 
  • Explore other people's recommendations on social media 
Login to download
  • 00:05 Hello everyone, welcome back to Essential Productivity.
  • 00:08 I'm your host, Francesco.
  • 00:10 And in this feature, we're going to be talking more about Google Calendar.
  • 00:14 From the introduction of Google Calendar you got a basic idea of
  • 00:17 the Google Calendar experience, which is fantastic.
  • 00:20 I use Google Calendar on a regular basis.
  • 00:23 And find it very beneficial for organizing my daily routine.
  • 00:27 In the top left-hand corner, you've got Google Calendar there.
  • 00:30 Now, Google Calendar is available on iOS and Android, also Web, too, and
  • 00:34 a few other experiences, which makes it a very easy application to get on with.
  • 00:39 However, Google has been pretty flexible with the way that they allow people to
  • 00:44 access their calendars.
  • 00:46 So for example other applications can build an experience maybe better than
  • 00:50 the Google application to basically use your calendar application and
  • 00:54 still weave in all of the good Google organization there.
  • 00:58 So let me explain a little bit more.
  • 01:00 This is a default Google application.
  • 01:02 It's very simple to use.
  • 01:04 I've got all of my activities here.
  • 01:06 As you can see, I can track by day, by three day, or even by week ahead,
  • 01:11 which is quite handy.
  • 01:13 I can actually go by schedule and
  • 01:14 actually see all of the meetings that I have coming up next, and in the past.
  • 01:19 And now if I go over here, I can click this button here and
  • 01:22 create an event down here.
  • 01:24 Notice you can see the experience is very simple and easy to use,
  • 01:27 you can just simply add a new date in and a new thing.
  • 01:30 And what will pop up is on your calendar everything will appear.
  • 01:35 You can click in and modify that if you like.
  • 01:37 The experience is very simple and basic.
  • 01:40 Up here you've got a nice calendar to be able to scroll through the dates and
  • 01:44 see stuff from the past and in the future.
  • 01:48 So it's actually a great way to organize yourself.
  • 01:50 And as you can see,
  • 01:51 here are all my calendars that I use to organize everything.
  • 01:54 Now if I go out of the Google Calendar app, there are three other calendars here.
  • 01:59 Now these are just examples of what calendar applications can look like.
  • 02:03 So if I click into Calendars 5, which is actually my default calendar application,
  • 02:07 the experience is very similar.
  • 02:09 Things will import, you can see everything at a glance.
  • 02:12 And it's a good way for you to keep productive in your day.
  • 02:16 The good thing with the calendar experience that Calendar 5 gives you is the ability
  • 02:20 to see stuff at a glance in different views.
  • 02:23 Now my favorite view is Day View, and the good thing is if I want to add anything,
  • 02:27 all I have to do is press down and drag onto the spot.
  • 02:31 Which is very beneficial.
  • 02:33 Now the nice thing as well is you can be very specific about it.
  • 02:36 So for example, if I want to plan.
  • 02:39 Plan my week ahead tomorrow at 10 AM.
  • 02:46 What it would do is it would detect that information and
  • 02:49 actually import that into the calendar suggestion.
  • 02:52 That's a very handy feature to have especially when I'm trying to be as
  • 02:55 productive as I can be.
  • 02:57 If I scroll across, you can see the days and
  • 02:59 the activities that I've gone on ahead of the week, which is very cool.
  • 03:03 And if I swipe across I can see that too, if I swipe here in the bottom,
  • 03:07 I can see all the activities too.
  • 03:09 You can still get all of the information there, and
  • 03:12 still see everything at a glance.
  • 03:14 Now I can get access to the notification center which will still give me all
  • 03:18 of the Google invites that I have.
  • 03:20 This experience is very similar on Fantastical.
  • 03:23 Very similar, it will give you a list of stuff to do,
  • 03:26 and it will import everything.
  • 03:28 However, in a sort of visual experience, a different visual.
  • 03:31 Your are starting to see what these applications they are the Google Calendar
  • 03:34 experience that you need.
  • 03:35 However, with a slightly different design, or suit on, if you can imagine it.
  • 03:40 It's very handy to have these things come in because all of the sort of productivity
  • 03:45 in your day can be based around these applications.
  • 03:48 But you can choose which one to use.
  • 03:50 There are very different applications.
  • 03:52 So for example, Vantage is one of those,
  • 03:54 is an application that uses its own style and techniques.
  • 03:57 So for example I can see my calendar, but in more of like a Star Wars movie view,
  • 04:01 and this way I can get a different idea on what my calendar and my day looks like.
  • 04:06 It's very cool, this experience.
  • 04:08 However, it really depends on what application you go with.
  • 04:12 There are plenty out there, so if you're looking for
  • 04:14 them, feel free to go to the exercise and
  • 04:16 check out all of the calendar applications that work with Google Calendar.
  • 04:19 But we recommend to use Google Calendar because it's such an efficient way of
  • 04:23 organizing yourself.
  • 04:24 Google Calendar is very easy to use and
  • 04:26 very easy to sign into other applications and use straight away.
  • 04:30 Thank you very much, looking forward to next feature and
  • 04:33 feel free to go to the exercise if you haven't checked anything out there.
  • 04:36 Thanks very much guys and I'll see you very soon, cheers.

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