Smartphones have allowed many workers to transition themselves into on-the-go productivity machines. And while the iPhone’s built-in Calendar and Reminders apps work wonders, they’ve left plenty of room for improvement for third-party developers such as Plan2Go and their Day-Timer scheduling productivity app. With the ability to get an overall view of your entire schedule (tasks and events) and seamlessly syncing between multiple calendars such as iCal and Outlook, this mobile productivity and planning solution is quite useful.
One of the first features I look for in this sort of app is the ability to sync between my various calendars. I use Google calendar to sync photo shoots with my photography partner and iCal for my everyday tasks and client events. Luckily, Day-Timer can be setup to sync these as well as Facebook, Outlook and Yahoo at no additional or recurring charge.
The syncing rate is amazingly fast, but make sure to turn your calendar syncing on in your phone’s settings under the mail, contacts, calendars tab and then select your account and toggle on calendars. Every calendar event I added to Google calendars appeared almost instantaneously within Day-Timer. One note is that if you don’t have Microsoft Exchange you must use the Sync to Outlook feature of iTunes, which requires you to plug your phone into your computer.
A neat secondary benefit of connecting to Facebook is that the app allows you to add your friend’s birthdays. I don’t think I’ll ever miss a birthday again.
The app features two-way event and task syncing, which means it’s not just a reader of other calendars. It can also be used to create calendars and sync back to the other solutions you use on a daily basis. Each event and task can be setup with a customizable alert from the three available alarm sounds as well as one pop-up as well as color code them. This makes it extremely easy to organize visually when scanning through to see what the day holds.
For those who want to learn a little more about organization, the app features tips and tricks for staying on top of your tasks and becoming more productive. For instance, one tip I thought was poignant was “Remember that the smallest action can set a project in motion and that may be all that you need.”
With its easy to setup calendar and task syncing with various calendars such as iCal, Outlook and Google, Day-Timer has a lot of potential for being anyone’s go-to planning and organization app. The Facebook calendar syncing feature is definitely a nice touch as well.
