Skylight Smart Calendar Max Review: Family Planning
From my Gmail account, forwarding emails containing dates and appointments is easy, and once I got into the habit of it, I did it almost unconsciously. I used to do the same thing with important dates, but pass them on to my wife who would then do it like a real adult. At least by using Skylight Calendar Max it seems like I’m taking some responsibility.
Besides the calendar, there is a wide range of other time and task management widgets. For example, you can configure, assign and manage household chores, and even award stars for their completion. I have yet to come home to see my daughter vacuuming or cleaning her guinea pig’s cage (both tasks are listed) and yet they are still marked as completed. Maybe she’s been gaming the system, or maybe my AI secretary is doing it for her.
If you like to-do lists, however, you’re well served with the Skylight UI. Groceries, packing lists and general tasks are easy to create and interact with, and are instantly reflected with the app, making trips to the supermarket easier. Add color-coding people and tasks and it’s easy to keep track of what’s happening and who should be doing it. There are a lot of possibilities here and it is well organized.
The Skylight Calendar Max also has a meal planning section (although, again, to get the most out of it, you need a subscription) that can suggest meals, generate recipes based on preferences, and add ingredients to grocery lists. It’s comprehensive, and if you can’t stand the thought of thinking about what to cook every day, this might be for you. For our family, it was a step too far, and the AI-generated recipes didn’t really match what we eat, but some users will love it.
A romantic date?
Over the past couple of months, the Skylight Calendar has fallen in popularity in my home. The ability to upload and sync photos is a nice touch, and having a scrolling mix of my favorite photos is a treat when I walk into the kitchen. Oddly, the AI assistant also extracts images from emails. So, in addition to lovely memories of birthday parties past, I have a mix of product images from launch invitations and the Swiss Air logo on rotation.
Date syncing isn’t always seamless and you should expect to spend some time navigating through the different menus. Naturally, the tidier your existing planner is, the better the Max will work. It’s also not smart enough to detect if multiple people add the same event to the calendar (school information emailed to both of us is the best example), so there’s still quite a bit of editing to be done. One thing we all appreciate though is the large alert box that pops up to remind us of the day’s impending responsibilities. It’s such a simple signal, but it moves things forward.
The Skylight Calendar Max has certainly made planning my Sunday calendar easier. It’s great for scrolling and more interactive than a smartphone screen. Did it replace the red ink on the paper diary? Absolutely not…yet.
