How to see your next meeting in the Mac menu bar
A glanceable countdown so you always know what's coming up.
You're deep in work, and a meeting starts in 3 minutes. You didn't check your calendar. You're late. Sound familiar?
The simplest fix is putting your next meeting right in the menu bar — always visible, no clicking required. Here's how.
What macOS gives you by default
Apple Calendar can send notifications before events, but they're easy to miss — especially in Do Not Disturb or Focus mode. There's no built-in way to show your next meeting title or a countdown in the menu bar.
That means you need a third-party app. The good news: this is a solved problem.
What a good next-event display looks like
Title + countdown
Something like “Standup · 15m” in the menu bar. You see the event name and how long until it starts, at a glance. No clicking.
One-click join
When the event has a Zoom, Meet, or Teams link, you should be able to click the menu bar item and join immediately. No digging through calendar details.
Configurable lead time
You might only want to see the next event when it's within 15 minutes, not hours away. A good app lets you set this threshold.
Calendar filtering
If you have personal and work calendars, you probably only want work events showing in the menu bar during the day.
How Dot shows your next meeting
Dot puts your next event front and center in the Mac menu bar. Here's what it looks like:
What your menu bar looks like with Dot
- •Shows event title + countdown (“Design Review · 12m”)
- •Configurable lead time — show always, or only within 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 2h
- •Choose which calendars appear in the next-event display
- •Multiple countdown formats: “2h 30m”, “2:30”, or full precision
- •Shows “now” badge when you're in an active meeting
- •Global shortcut to join the current meeting instantly
Meeting reminders that you can't miss
Beyond the menu bar countdown, Dot can show floating or fullscreen meeting reminders. These are alerts that appear on top of everything — even when you're in a fullscreen app. You can snooze for 1, 5, or 10 minutes, or join the meeting directly from the reminder.
It's especially useful if you get absorbed in work and need something more assertive than a notification banner.
Try it free
Dot has a 14-day free trial with all features. One-time purchase after that — no subscription.
