1/10/20
9:00 am

Which App To Use: Calendar vs. Reminders

You can schedule notifications of important items at specific times using eithe the Calendar app or the Reminders app on your Mac, iPhone and iPad. So why are there two apps that seem to do the same thing? These apps do overlap somewhat, but they also have their own unique functionality. When you need to schedule something, however, it can be hard to decide which app to use. But there are good reasons to choose one over the other in most situations.

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Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's answer the question of whether you should be using the Calendar app or the Reminders app to add something to your schedule.
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So this is a question I get asked pretty often. What's the point of having a Calendar app and a Reminders app. For some people they seem to do the same thing. You want to remind yourself of an upcoming event or a thing you have to do. Which one do you put it in? Both will allow you to set a time for the item and give you a reminder. However each one works in a fundamentally different way. There definitely is some overlap. There are certain things you can do with Calendar and certain things you can do with Reminders and there are certain things that you can do with either one. It's up to you.
Easily the biggest difference for the Reminders app is that you can have reminder's items that don't have a time set for them. So, for instance, you can have a To Do list like this. So you can have do to items and they don't have any deadline, no time. They're just items in a list. You can have a general to do list. You can have a Today list. You can set it up anyway you want. These items wouldn't work in the Calendar because there's no place to put them on the Calendar. They're just things that you need to do. You also can have lists for other things like a shopping list. These wouldn't have times or dates attached with them either. I also like to have Idea lists. So I come up with new ideas for episodes or games or projects. I'll put them in a list in Reminders. They don't have a time associated with them either. 
Now another difference is you can have Reminder's items that instead of having a time attached to them they have a location. So, for instance, here I have an item that is set for when I get in my car. Another one for when I arrive at a restaurant. So these are things I can schedule now and they'll actually give me notifications when I'm at that location not at a specific time. The Calendar can't do that. 
You also can easily see things that have a time but that time has passed. For instance if I forgot to do something yesterday and I look at Today on the Calendar I'm not going to see it there. But in Reminders I'll see an item that's already passed. As a matter of fact it will even put the time in red. 
Now in the Calendar everything has to have a time. As a matter of fact it has to have a start and stop time. So if I look at an event here it goes from one time to another. I can also set a time for a specific date or range of dates. But they all have to fit somewhere on the Calendar. So the big advantage to the Calendar is I can at a glance see what I have scheduled during that day. So for instance I know not to scheduled something in morning on January 15th because I can see I have a meeting here. If I put that as a reminder I would have to carefully look for all of the reminders to make sure I don't have something scheduled for that day at that time.
Now both Reminders and the Calendar will give notifications if there is a time set for it. But in the Calendar you can also set custom notifications. So this notification here has a email alert. I like to do that for extremely important things that I absolutely cannot forget. I have it send me an email so it's there in my inbox as well as on my calendar. 
One way to look at it is is the item a task or an event. A task is something you can put off until later. Going to the bank is something if you didn't do it at that specific time you could do it later. You could do it a half hour later, the next day, or the next week. You may want to do it at that specific time but you can put it off. So a task is something you could do earlier as well. For instance going to the bank if you have the opportunity to do it earlier you could do it earlier and then check it off the list. 
On the other hand if it's an event is something that you can't do later or earlier. For instance meeting somebody for lunch isn't something that you could do two hours later if you don't get around to it or show up an hour earlier. You're going to want to meet at that specific time. You could look at it this way. You could look at it this way. Will a thing happen whether or not you remember to do it. For instance if you decide to not go to the bank or you forget to go to the bank that thing just doesn't happen. But if you forget about a meeting, the meeting is going to take place with or without you.
The most important reason to use the Calendar for an event is when you want to make sure you don't schedule one event over another. Because you can look at your calendar and look at a specific date and see that you've got something scheduled for that time. Whereas Reminders you can't really do that. So if you need to block out some time because you're at a meeting or on vacation or doing something else then you need to put that in your Calendar.
But I also think it's important to realize that it's okay, sometimes, to see an overlap and not be sure which place to put an item. It's just personal preference or whatever is easier in the moment. Sometimes you may want to have parts of an event in the Calendar and other parts in Reminders. For instance you may want to schedule a vacation in the Calendar to make sure you don't schedule any other appointments or other things over those days. But then you may want to set a reminder with your flight information and that it's time to leave to go to the airport in the Reminders app because that's a specific task that's  just for you.
There are other reasons why you may want to choose one over the other. I'm interested in hearing how you use Calendar versus Reminders in the comments below.

Comments: 17 Responses to “Which App To Use: Calendar vs. Reminders”

Claude

5 years ago

Hi Gary: How can I send myself can e-mail as alert as you did in the video?

Claude

Marc

5 years ago

Hi Gary : I only use Calendar. If i dont't have a specific time on a subject, in calendar i mark it for all day long, with no time specified. And i can add as many of things to do with no time specified as i want !

Gary Rosenzweig

5 years ago

Claude: In the Calendar app on Mac, choose the time for the event, then set the Alert to "Custom" and choose "Email."

5 years ago

I use Calendar all the time to schedule events that include a time. I like the location feature, and the 30 minutes or 1 hour reminder feature of calendar. I use Reminders only when I need to create a list. I like the check box feature and theft that one can enlarge the fonts.

Will

5 years ago

I use calendar when I have something to share with family members. And as you demonstrated on your video, I specially like the way reminders can be set to come up at particular but uncertain times e.g. when I get home.

Karl

5 years ago

I use calendar for yearly or monthly things, such as birthdays, meetings, appointments, paying bills.

I use reminders for tasks (like you stated in the video) for things such as reminding me to take or do something on a daily basis or one time event.

Reminders will pop on your lock screen and will remain there until you mark it complete or you clear it, so if you ignore it or forget about it, it will be there the next time you look at your lock screen.

jpf55

5 years ago

Unfortunately and since iOS 13, I can only use reminders on the iPhone, they no longer sync with my older mac(pre-Catalina). I could use iCloud but certain functionalities, like setting a time, do not exist in iCloud. Not cool at all on Apple's part.

Karen Brown

5 years ago

Reminders is one of my favorite apps and I use it extensively to remind myself of deadlines, payments due, billings to be sent, even that I promised to make my friend Doris lemon bars for her birthday! For example, I pay a yearly subscription to the Washington Post, to Microsoft, etc. I set a reminder about 2 weeks before the subscriptions are due, not only to remind myself that the bill will come through, but also in case I might want to cancel. I also use Calendars—and Notes for lists.

Bruce Anschutz

5 years ago

Why is it that reminders on iOS for the phone will not work in the repeated mode? I have reminder set for every night that NEVER notifies me. The notifications are set right. If I delete and re-enter the reminder, it will work for one time only ... why?

Gary Rosenzweig

5 years ago

Bruce: Not sure why it isn't working for you, sorry. Check all the settings for that reminder, etc.

Bill

5 years ago

Gary, I use Calendar the most. I created a shared calendar that both my wife and I use as our default calendar. My wife does not like to learn and use a lot of different apps so I only use Notes and Reminders for myself. We are retired and the shared calendar helps up stay in sync.

ROBERT LEAVITT SR

5 years ago

gary I use reminders and use info button to set time and day and repeat if necessary

Tom

5 years ago

I use Reminders for the following situation:
I get an Invoice the 1st Monday of every 2nd month. I set up a Reminder for the *next* Invoice date (choose Remind me --> On a Day), I choose Every Day for Repeat, and Never for End. This way, I'm reminded daily (via e.g. a Notification) after I receive the Invoice that my Invoice is due for payment. When I finally pay the Invoice, instead of marking the Reminder as Done, I simply change its On a Day field to the next Invoice date.

George Hammond

5 years ago

I use reminders for daily tasks. Things that I need to remember such as to take my vitamins after I eat. I use the calendar for longer term scheduling.
I also use my reminders and my calendar to remind me of really important items such as giving my dog his heart worm medicine once a month and his flea and tick medicine every 6 months.

George Gauthier

5 years ago

I use reminders for a whole set of shopping lists: Safeway, Harris Teeter, Drug Store, Target, Hardware store, etc.
I have a checklist of tasks I must do before leaving on a trip: e.g. hold mail, charge devices, laundry, plus a separate packing list including not only all manner of garments but also medications, CPAP machine, chargers, extra glasses, kits for recording blood pressure and blood sugar.

Gene

5 years ago

I use Reminders more than Calendar. In Reminders I create a shopping list with the "circle" (done) button and collaborate it with my wife. If she thinks of something when I am enroute or at the market she can update the list in near real-time. I use the Calendar App for things that actually have a time period associated with them like an investment webinar (I am retired) or doctor's appointment. I like Calendar's ability to put an alert out a week before, a day before, and hour before.......

Tim Woolmer

5 years ago

I use calendar for things that I need my phone for.
I have a vintage iMac and can only run on High Sierra. The reminders app doesn't sync with my iPhone XS

Comments Closed.

Which App To Use: Calendar vs. Reminders

Comments: 17 Responses to “Which App To Use: Calendar vs. Reminders”

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