When you set up a new email account that it supports contacts and calendars, you might accept its default plan to activate these functions. Unless you intend to use them separately, such as to segregate different domains of your life/work, this can lead to overcomplexity in how you store and manage people and events.

Calendar Accounts & Categories

In the screenshot above, you can see the list of calendars I have among three accounts. Each account is an identity, including one with iCloud and two with Google. (Google hosts Wilderness Torah.) Birthdays is a system-wide calendar connected to Contacts.

Within each account, it’s possible to have any number of calendars used to categorize the events I track. I use iCloud primarily, and since I use multiple categories, my full calendar view is quite colorful.

Some calendars are superfluous, though, like the Eventbrite calendar that keeps getting recreated (against my wishes) when I download events from Eventbrite registrations. Spring cleaning, anyone? Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac offers additional insight on maintaining balance with a multicolor calendar workflow.

Default Calendar

Since most of the events I schedule are associated with work, I prefer for my Work calendar to be the default for new events. You can either have new events be associated with a specific calendar—which you can change during or after event creation—or they can be assigned to the currently selected calendar (on the sidebar).

So, your workflow will either be to create an event and select which calendar it should be on, or select a calendar and then create an event on it. Either way, if you use an iPhone or iPad, I recommend going to Settings > Calendar and making the same choice.

Syncing Event History

Have you had trouble finding older events on your iPhone or iPad that you’re certain were on your calendar. They’re not lost, but the iOS default for some calendar accounts is to only sync the last three months of events with the device.

Don’t worry; your event archive is safe on your account server. To change how much you get to see—or sync everything—visit Settings > Calendar > Sync Events.

If you’re still confused about the number of calendars in your arsenal, why you might use more than one, or whether there’s value in sharing calendars with others, let’s discuss your specific situation.

It may be helpful to delete some calendars, merging their content into others, or to disable one or more accounts you don’t use for calendaring.

If you’re looking for a different experience with your scheduling processes, we can also explore alternative calendar apps like BusyCal and Fantastical.