sunrise calendarSomeone I follow on Twitter routinely shares roundup posts of productivity apps and after I’d seen Sunrise Calendar on so many posts, I decided it was time to try it out. I’m glad I did because it has become my new go-to calendar app.

It’s available on Android, iOS, and there’s a browser-based version for a computer. To borrow a phrase, it’s everywhere you’d want it to be. I love the interface on my Android phone, with a scrolling display of upcoming events and quick weather forecast items right there on the calendar. The display on the iPhone may be similar, but on the iPad, the default display is a more traditional month-at-a-glance view.

There are widgets for both iOS and Android, and both sets of widgets have a + sign to quickly add an event from the widget. That’s handy. The Android widget gives more upcoming events than does the iOS version, but I use and like both versions.

It’s easy to add events, and Sunrise syncs with Google Calendar, which is convenient. However, none of those features are why I like it so much. See the yellow and green events in the iPad view? Those are Google Tasks and Evernote reminders, respectively. Ever since I started using Evernote as my task management system, I’ve been using Evernote reminders more, and it’s convenient to have everything in one place. Tasks and Evernote reminders show up in all views, including widgets. I use the Getting Things Done approach to time management, and one of the principles of GTD is having all your events and reminders in one place. Until Sunrise, I had to switch between my calendar and my task management system. It’s not a huge obstacle, but I prefer having everything in one place.

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Microsoft recently acquired Sunrise, which was a small concern. However, Microsoft has been making an effort to be cross-platform, so I’m not too concerned that they will mess up a great app. Hopefully some deeper pockets will allow the developers to make it even better, although honestly, I’m not sure what they could improve. It’s a great app already.

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