I would be lost without my calendar(s). Here’s how I use Claude Code and one other tool to optimize the flow.
Connecting Calendar with Daily Notes / To-Dos
Today’s Claude Code skill is very straightforward: Based on my calendar events, tasks will be automatically created in the daily to-do notes – every morning, or when called manually.
I’m journaling and using daily to-dos regularly, with a lot of other Claude-based features set up. You can read more in the Episode 02.
Via Claude Code, I set up a script to go through my calendar every morning, and add events to the to-do section of the appropriate daily entry. It ignores certain events (e.g. dog walking or talking meds, which I have as reminders), and for others simply takes the time and title and creates to-do(s).
A QUICK (SIDE)note on execution window(s) AND SOME tech insights
If my MacBook is powered off, sleeping, or offline, the ‘daily calendar’ and similar scripts that are set up are not being executed. Basically, I would have a challenge if my daily note needs to be populated at 10AM, but I’m asleep (with my MacBook sleeping as well).
I learned to solve this in different ways. If you use a Cron job (a time-based task scheduler for LINUX and macOS), in case your computer is offline or not on, it’s pretty much gone and forgotten (until the next day/time). Instead, I started using LaunchAgents that will try at a certain time, but will queue for once the computer is online and on. Basically, the task is not gone and forgotten.
I can also call skills that will run scripts for daily calendar events or daily journal entries at any time manually.
Additionally, I made sure there’s a verification/double-check for the daily file or notes (so if something already exists, it will not get overwritten)
For now, this setup works very well and is straightforward for my needs. I learned some interesting concepts along the way. In the future, there might be some side-quests improvements:
- Making the whole setup more event-driven (e.g. if an event is added to my calendar, trigger the creation of a note in the daily to-do)
- Getting a Mac mini (or similar) that will make my system online 24/7
- Sync changes across devices using git
- …
These seem fun, but are an overkill and off-topic for now.
Smarter Scheduling…
I’m a big fan of smart event links and scheduling. Way back, I used to use Calendly (which, as far as I know, started the whole scheduling trend), and now I use Reclaim.ai. Google started offering similar features to paid plans, and there’s also an open-source solution recommended by my friend.
Basically, these tools let you easily schedule meetings by letting attendees pick some of your available time slots.
…and more
Many of these tools offer a plethora of additional features.
I am notoriously under-utilizing Reclaim.ai, which can improve your flows by automatically adding buffers, focus times, scheduling for habits, etc. It also gives you a nice analytics dashboard to explore how you used your time and more.
If these features seem interesting to you, I suggest trying out some of the tools, or even better, building/setting up your own solutions with Claude Code, OpenClaw or similar.
How do you manage your calendar(s)? Any tips, questions or a-ha moments?
* Featured image created using GenAI