From my Gmail account, forwarding on emails containing dates and appointments is easy, and once I was in the habit, I did it almost subconsciously. I used to do a similar thing with important dates, but by forwarding to my wife who would then action it like a proper grown-up. At least by using the Skylight Calendar Max it appears like I’m taking some responsibility.
Aside from the calendar there’s a good range of other time and task management widgets. You can set up, assign, and manage the household chores for instance, and even award stars for completion. I’ve yet to come home to witness my daughter vacuuming or cleaning her guinea pig’s cage—both chores listed—and yet they’re always marked as complete. Maybe she’s gamed the system, or maybe my AI secretary does it for her.
If you love tick lists, however, you’re well served with the Skylight UI. Groceries, packing lists, general to-dos are easy to create and interact with, and mirror instantly with the app, making supermarket trips easier. Add in the color coding for people and tasks and it’s easy to follow what’s going on and who should be doing it. There’s a lot of scope here, and it’s organized well.
The Skylight Calendar Max also has a meal planning section—though again, to get the best of this you need the subscription—that can suggest meals, generate recipes based on preferences, and add ingredients to grocery lists. It’s comprehensive, and if you can’t bear the idea of thinking about what to cook everyday it could be for you. For our family this was a step too far, and the AI-generated recipes were not really in line with what we eat, but some users will love it.
Date Night?
Over the past couple of months the Skylight Calendar has fallen in and out of favor in my household. The ability to upload and sync photos is a nice touch, and having a scrolling mix of my favorite pictures is a treat when I enter the kitchen. Oddly the AI assistant also pulls images from emails, so as well as cute memories from past birthday parties, I have a mix of product images from launch invites and the Swiss Air logo on rotation.
The date syncing isn’t always seamless, and you should expect to spend a bit of time working through the various menus. Naturally, the better order your existing diary is in, the better the Max will work. It’s also not quite clever enough to spot if multiple people add the same event to the calendar—school stuff emailed to both of us being the prime example—so there’s still a fair amount of editing required. One thing we all appreciate however is the big alert box that pops up reminding us of the day’s impending responsibilities. It’s such a simple cue, but it gets thing done.
The Skylight Calendar Max has certainly made my Sunday diary planning easier. It’s great for scrolling through and more interactive than a smartphone screen. Has it replaced the red ink on the paper planner? Absolutely not … yet.
