Google’s updated version of Calendar — which you can no longer opt out of — is lovely to look at and easier to work with than its previous version. However, the omission of one major feature from Calendar’s new “material design” version seems to be annoying a number of users (including yours truly): The ability to block off hours when you’re sleeping.

The New York Times just released a calendar even more useful than its astronomical event calendar. The NYT 2018 book events calendar, available for Google or Apple, includes highly anticipated book releases from authors like Zadie Smith and Dave Eggers, plus events, literary anniversaries, and releases of movies based on popular books like Ready Player One and Where'd You Go, Bernadette?.

I know a lot of people who only use an electronic diary begrudgingly. They prefer the feel of pen and paper but the need to share diaries in the office or at home (my partner and I keep shared calendars for our social event and all the kids' activities) has forced them to an electronic solution. Moleskine, famous for their very expensive notebooks, teamed up earlier this year with Livescribe to deliver their Smart Writing Set, that combined a Livescribe Pen with a Paper Tablet and app. Later this month, they'll be adding a Smart Planner to the range.

Do you always install your air conditioner on a sweltering summer day, or rush to do your taxes days before the deadline? For absolutely necessary tasks like these, a to-do list isn't always enough. You need to block out time on your calendar, and treat these tasks like actual appointments. We've listed all the best to-do items to turn into calendar items.

iOS: Calendar apps are usually pretty boring, sticking to the time honoured grid or list view to display data. That's probably the best for anyone with a lot to manage, but Vantage Calendar takes an altogether new approach that's worth a look if your schedule isn't always packed.

iOS/iPad: Fantastical, our favourite calendar app on iPhone, was updated today with new rich notifications and some iMessage stickers.

Android/iOS: Most calendar apps can manage your schedule just fine, but if you deal with multiple time zones, it's easy to get mixed up. Time Buddy helps you plot your day-to-day when you have to traverse the world.

Look up #bulletjournal on the social media platform of your choice, and you can feast your eyes on a sea of neatly inked notebook pages designed to track everything from daily to-do lists to inspirational quotes. Go ahead, roll your eyes. But bullet journals are an amazing productivity tool, if you can learn to adapt them to your life. No coloured pens required.

Android/iOS: Google's getting better at finding free time in your schedule. It only makes sense that it should be able to let you know when you're about to double book yourself. Now it can.

We all struggle with time management, and we all want to know the best ways to conquer our schedules. In this video, Dan Ariely, a behavioural economics professor at Duke University and friend of Lifehacker, says the calendar definitely isn't one of them.

Briefly: A small update to Google Calendar for Android today makes it easier to check if your accounts are properly synced. The update follows some new reminder features just a few days ago.

Android: For reasons unknown, Google removed the full Month view from Calendar on Android, opting instead for the condensed version seen above on the right. While Month view has always been clumsy, the new solution wasn't much better. Now the old one's back and Google has even improved it a bit.

iOS: Google released its Google Calendar app for iPhone today. Like the Android version, you have quick access to Gmail events, easy event creation, and multiple views to check out your schedule.

Editing individual events on Google Calendar isn't difficult at all, but changing all of the events? That's not easy without some sort of program, such as this bulk edit calendar script.

Android: If you thought you had to wait for Lollipop to roll out before you got your hands on Google's new material design releases, you thought wrong. While they might not be available in the Google Play Store just yet, you can download the Maps, Calendar, and Gmail 5.0 APKs now.

Android: Google Calendar is adding a stack of new features to its Android app, many of seem which seem inspired by the recent Inbox reimagining of Gmail.

So here's a handy Google feature I'd somehow failed to notice: if you're signed in to your Google account and you search for the phrase "calendar November", Google will show events that it knows about based on your email, calendar entries and behaviour.

As long as you're logged in to your Google account, creating new reminders or appointments on your calendar is as easy as visiting the Google homepage and typing into the search bar. You don't have to open reminders specifically, or go right to your calendar -- Google will handle the rest.

Google Now keeps getting smarter. As reported by Android Police, Google has started offering to add events to your Calender by way of Google Now based on your Gmail conversations.