The fastest ways to create calendar events on Mac
Stop clicking through date pickers. Just type what you mean.
Creating a calendar event shouldn't take 30 seconds of clicking dropdowns. You know when the meeting is. You know what it's called. You just need somewhere to type it.
Method 1: Apple Calendar's quick event
Apple Calendar has basic natural language support. Open Calendar.app, press ⌘N, and type something like “Lunch tomorrow at noon.” It'll parse the date and time.
This works for simple events, but it struggles with:
- •Recurring events (“every Monday”, “bi-weekly”)
- •Durations (“for 30 minutes”, “1 hour”)
- •Complex inputs (“Team sync every Monday 10am for 1 hour”)
And you have to open Calendar.app first — which means switching away from whatever you're doing.
Method 2: Siri
“Hey Siri, schedule a meeting tomorrow at 2pm.” It works, but it's slow, sometimes misunderstands you, and isn't great if you're in an open office. Also, try saying “create a bi-weekly event” to Siri.
Method 3: Natural language from the menu bar
The fastest approach: a menu bar app with a text field that parses natural language. No app switching, no date pickers, no Siri. Press a shortcut, type, hit Enter.
One sentence. The parser extracts the title, figures out the recurrence pattern, sets the time, and calculates the duration. The event is created in your calendar.
What Dot's parser understands
Dot parses natural language into calendar events. Here's what it handles:
“tomorrow”, “next Friday”, “Jan 15”, “Monday”
“2pm”, “14:00”, “noon”, “morning”
“daily”, “every Monday”, “weekly”, “bi-weekly”, “monthly”
“for 30 minutes”, “for 1 hour”, “1h”, “90m”
Type “/Work” or “/Personal” to pick which calendar
You can combine all of these in one sentence. The parser figures it out.
The workflow
- 1.Press ⌘N (or click the menu bar icon)
- 2.Type “Coffee with Alex Friday 3pm for 45 minutes /Personal”
- 3.Press Enter. Done. The event is in your Personal calendar.
No date picker. No time dropdown. No switching to Calendar.app. Takes about 3 seconds.
Try it free
Dot includes natural language event creation, event editing, full search, and more — all from the menu bar. 14-day free trial, then a one-time purchase.
