Use The Calendar App Like Richard Branson

7.5 Calendar App Tips and Tricks

Photo: CNN

There's one thing Jeff Weiner (executive chairman and former CEO of LinkedIn), Richard Branson (you probably know who he is), and I have in common: we schedule time to do absolutely nothing.

This time has the greatest ROI of any moment in my day: it gives me a second to take a step back and think.

When studying for my AP Economics test, this gave me time to identify my weaknesses. When wondering about the future of this blog, this gave me time to cement this newsletter as a core part of who I am.

Here are 7 more tips for using the Calendar App on your iPad.

Remember Birthdays 🎂

The Calendar app is a great tool if you want to be that one friend who remembers everyone's birthday.

First, go to the Contacts app and find your best friend's contact.

Click "Edit" and scroll until you see "add birthday." Tap the + button and enter their birthday.

From now on, their birthday will appear every year in your calendar, and they'll always be appreciative of you for remembering their special day.

Pomodoro-ify Your Schedule ⏰

Whenever you're scheduling work, USE THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE.

While working in short bursts throughout the day is easy, true work usually needs extended focus. The Pomodoro technique is a great way to keep your energy levels high while working on a long project.

The classic Pomodoro technique has 30-minute blocks. You work for 25 minutes and take a quick 5-minute break (could be a quick walk down the hallway, bathroom break, water break, etc.)

You can also customize timing to suit your needs.

Whenever I'm working on math while using the Pomodoro technique, I often work for more than 25 minutes at a time (maybe 40-45 minutes instead). I have no idea why—that's just what works for me.

Use Siri 🎙️

Photo by Nicolas Lafargue

Siri can be pretty stupid. But when it comes to the Calendar app, Apple isn't messing around.

Just ask Siri to add an event to your calendar, and it'll listen. You can specify the name of the event, the location, the date and time, and anyone involved (Siri can send invites to your contacts).

If you need to reschedule or cancel an event, just tell Siri and it'll make the necessary changes to your calendar.

If you're interested in your daily schedule, just ask Siri ("Hey Siri, what's my schedule for today?") and it'll give you a summary of what your day looks like.

Customize Events 🎨

On top of name, location, time, and people involved, there's a lot more you can customize for each event in your calendar.

For instance, you can choose whether or not events repeat and how often you want them to repeat.

Additionally, you can add any relevant attachments, URLs, and notes to your event.

If your event is taking place digitally, you can add a "Video Call" location to your Calendar in place of a physical location.

Set alerts🚨

Alerts in the Calendar app are pretty freaking cool.

If you specify a location, one pretty cool thing you can do is set up an alert to tell you the travel time based on traffic and other conditions. If you don't specify a location, you can add your own travel time based on what you expect.

You can also set up two alerts for an event if you're the type of person to forget things (I'm like this too).

Shortcuts 🗺️

There's A TON you can do with Shortcuts.

If you have no idea what Shortcuts are, you're really missing out. Shortcuts are a powerful tool that automates tasks on your iPad.

For instance, I sometimes use a Shortcut that repeatedly sends a specified message to a specific contact. Obviously, it's titled "Annoy People."

Here are some of the tasks you can do with the Calendar app:

One idea that just popped into my head as I'm writing this is creating a Shortcut that announces your daily events for you at a specified time in the morning.

Explore the Shortcuts app. It's unbelievably powerful.

Read Getting Things Done 📚

This tip is a little different.

David Allen's Getting Things Done is probably one of the most influential productivity books of all time.

His GTD productivity system helps you organize your tasks and plan projects. Personally, it's taken a lot of stress out of my life.

To implement a GTD-style system, the Calendar app alone won't be enough. But if you partner Calendar with a to-do list app like Todoist, you could build a powerful, stress-free productivity system.

Final Thoughts

"Either you run the day or the day runs you"—Jim Rohn

Thanks for reading!

Adi