What is Calendar Sync?

Calendar sync, or calendar synchronization, is a way of sharing information across two online calendars together. By integrating schedules across multiple calendars or devices, you can ensure updates or changes made to one calendar are automatically and accurately reflected in all connected calendars.

Many people use different calendars to organize their work, personal, and family schedules, but unless these calendars can see one another's events, it often leads to double bookings.

Challenges with standard Calendar Sync

While both Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar offer Calendar Sync sharing capabilities, these come with some major challenges that most people don’t learn about until it’s too late. The major issue with the standard Calendar Sync is even though you can see the synced events from another calendar in your schedule, your coworkers cannot. This means your availability is not actually protected, and there’s nothing to prevent a team member from scheduling over a doctor's appointment you thought you had protected on the calendar.

If you need to make sure that your synced calendar events are displayed as busy time to incoming schedulers and your team, you can use the Reclaim Calendar Sync feature to auto-sync events and merge your availability across calendars. It also allows you to customize how these events display to people, as “Busy” or “Personal commitment” blocks, or even full event details if preferred.

How does Calendar Sync work?

Calendar Sync functions by:

1. Connecting to your primary Google Calendar: Currently, Calendar Sync is only supported for Google Calendar. (Outlook coming soon!)
2. Identifying source calendars: These are the calendars containing events you want to sync. They can be personal, work, or side hustle calendars.
3. Creating synced copies: Reclaim creates mirrored copies of source events in your primary calendar, keeping them updated with changes in real time.
4. Maintaining privacy: You have control over the visibility of synced copies, allowing you to manage what information others see.

What are the benefits of using smart Calendar Sync?

1. Accurate availability

Calendar Sync creates synced copies of events from your source calendars to your primary calendar, ensuring that your availability is always accurate and up-to-date. This prevents double-booking and ensures you never miss an important meeting or appointment. 

2. Improved scheduling

When others try to schedule time with you, they can see your true availability from all of your calendars. This makes it easier to find a time that works for everyone and eliminates the need for back-and-forth emailing or calling. 

3. Centralized view

Calendar Sync gives you a single, centralized view of all of your commitments. This makes it easy to see what you have coming up and to stay on top of your schedule. 

4. Reduced manual effort

With Calendar Sync, you no longer have to manually update events across multiple calendars. Reclaim.ai automatically creates and updates synced copies for you, saving you time and effort. 

Who needs Calendar Sync?

Calendar Sync is ideal for:

1. Professionals with multiple visible calendars:

• Workplace environments: If your work calendar is visible to colleagues and they book meetings directly, Calendar Sync ensures your true availability is reflected across all your calendars (personal, side projects, etc.), preventing double-booking and scheduling conflicts.
• Freelancers or consultants: Managing multiple client calendars can be complex. Calendar Sync provides a unified view, helping you avoid overcommitting and ensuring clear availability communication with clients.
• Executives or managers: With busy schedules across personal and professional spheres, Calendar Sync simplifies juggling meetings and commitments, offering a consolidated view for informed decision-making.

2. Individuals seeking streamlined scheduling:

• Anyone juggling personal and professional calendars: Balancing family events, social commitments, and work deadlines can be challenging. Calendar Sync eliminates the need to check multiple calendars, offering a clear picture of your overall schedule for efficient planning and booking.
• People prone to double-booking: If you struggle to keep track of commitments across various calendars, Calendar Sync automatically synchronizes events, preventing double-booking and ensuring you're never late or miss important events.
• Those seeking improved time management: By unifying your calendars, Calendar Sync empowers you to see your time commitments holistically, facilitating effective time management and informed decision-making about scheduling new activities.