Calendar Events in Lists
2Do can show your Apple Calendar events right above Today, or keep them visible as you move between built-in Focus Lists and regular task lists. A single glance covers both your appointments and your tasks for the day. The events are shown for context and are never task rows. 2Do doesn't change them, but it can add a task to your calendar as a new event when you want to set time aside for it.
What the Day Bar Is
The day bar is a slim strip pinned to the top of the task list that draws your Apple Calendar (EventKit) events for that day. It sits above your tasks without mixing into them, so your task list and selection stay task-only. Dragging a task onto the bar adds it to your calendar. The events come straight from macOS Calendar, styled to match 2Do's light or dark theme.
The strip has two parts that behave in their own way:
- All-day events appear in their own row above the bar, as compact chips, so they never crowd the day's timeline.
- The bar keeps what's next in view. An event about to start is labeled upcoming with its start time, and an event in progress is labeled ongoing with the time it ends. This line stays visible even when the bar is collapsed.
The day bar does not appear while you are viewing a project or checklist, using a Smart List, or searching. It stays with the main list view rather than filtered or focused task views.
Turning It On
Open 2Do > Settings > Calendar. Choose where the day bar appears, grant Calendar access, and then choose which calendars to include.
Choose Where It Appears
The Display section gives you two choices:
- Show Calendar Events in Lists shows the day bar above built-in Focus Lists, including Today, and above your regular task lists. This setting is off by default.
- Show Calendar Events in Today shows the day bar only above Today. This setting is on by default.
The two settings are mutually exclusive. Turning on Show Calendar Events in Lists turns off and disables the Today-only setting. To return to showing events only in Today, turn off the Lists setting and then turn on Show Calendar Events in Today. You can also leave both settings off to hide the day bar completely.
Whichever option you choose, the day bar is hidden in project and checklist views, Smart Lists, and search results.
Choose Show Calendar Events in Lists if you want your schedule to stay visible as you move around 2Do. Choose the Today-only setting for a quieter workspace, with appointments and tasks together only when you plan your day.
Grant Calendar Access
The first time you use the feature, 2Do needs permission to read your calendars:
- Click Allow Calendar Access and approve the macOS prompt.
- If access was previously denied, the pane shows Open System Settings instead. Use it to grant access under macOS privacy settings.
2Do requires full Calendar access to read event details. Write-only access is not enough; if only write access is granted, 2Do reports Full Calendar Access Required and the day bar stays empty.
This feature needs Full Calendar Access, not just "add events" (write-only) permission. If the day bar is blank after you granted access, re-check the permission in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Calendars and make sure 2Do has full access.
Choosing Which Calendars Appear
The Calendars section lists every calendar 2Do can see, each with its color dot, title, and source. Uncheck any calendar you want to keep out of the day bar.
2Do stores only the calendars you exclude. Calendars that are not listed as disabled are included automatically, so a calendar you add later in macOS shows up in 2Do on its own. You only ever need to revisit this list to hide something.
The checklist is available whenever either display setting is on. If you turn both settings off, the checklist is disabled until you choose a day bar placement again.
Switching the View
The day bar carries its own schedule-style toggle for how the day is drawn: a list-timeline view versus a day view. This control lives inside the bar itself, not in Settings, and 2Do remembers your choice between sessions. The list-timeline style is the default. The bar can also be expanded or collapsed independently of the style you pick. 2Do remembers this too, and both choices sync over iCloud to your other Macs.
Expanded as a list, the day's events read top to bottom with their times:
Or switch to the day view for a calendar-style timeline of your schedule:
Click an event to open it in Apple Calendar, where you can edit it. Invitations you have declined render struck-through, the same way Apple Calendar draws them.
Browsing Other Days
When the day bar is expanded, a chevron control reveals a scrolling row of dates from today through the next 30 days. Click a date and the bar shows that day's schedule instead. Only the day bar changes while you browse; the task list stays on the list it was already showing, including Today.
2Do remembers whether you left the date row open. Each date can carry a busy marking of its own: set the style under 2Do > Settings > Appearance > Busy Days > Calendar Day Bar, choosing None, Dots, or Heat Map.
While you are viewing another day, the bar shows only that day's schedule, and its all-day events follow along on the all-day row. Hiding the date row or collapsing the bar brings it back to today: the collapsed strip is always about today, so the next time you expand it, you start from today again.
Adding a Task to Your Calendar
To set time aside for a task, add it to your calendar as an event. The event sits next to your appointments in the day bar and in every calendar app that shows that calendar. You can drag the task onto the day bar or use a menu command.
Drag It onto the Day Bar
Start dragging a task. A soft highlight appears behind the day bar to show that it accepts the task. Move the pointer over the bar, where a moving dashed outline appears, and release. The Add to Calendar dialog opens below the bar.
The bar takes one task at a time, because each event describes a single task. It accepts a task only while it shows your events, so it needs Calendar access first.
Use the Menu
Select a task, then choose Task > Add to Calendar... in the menu bar, or right-click the task and choose Add to Calendar.... The dialog opens below the task.
The command works whether or not the day bar is showing, so you can use it with the day bar turned off. If 2Do doesn't have Calendar access yet, macOS asks for it first. If access was turned off, 2Do offers to open System Settings so you can turn it back on.
Fill In the Event
2Do fills in the dialog from the task, and you can change any of it before you add the event:
- Title: the task's title.
- All-day: on for tasks that have dates but no times. Switching it keeps the day you picked.
- Starts and Ends: the event's time, or its first and last day when All-day is on.
- Calendar: every calendar that accepts new events, grouped by account. It starts on the default calendar for new events you chose in Apple Calendar's settings.
- Include Notes: copies the task's notes into the event. It appears only when the task has notes, and it starts off.
Click Add to save the event, or Cancel to close the dialog. Clicking anywhere outside the dialog also closes it without adding anything. The task itself doesn't change.
How the Time Is Chosen
The dialog starts from the task's dates:
| The task has | The event |
|---|---|
| A start time and a later due time on the same day | Runs from the start time to the due time. |
| A start time | Starts then and lasts the task's duration. |
| A due time only | Ends at the due time and starts the task's duration earlier. Without a duration, it starts at the due time. |
| Dates without times | Is an all-day event from the start date through the due date. |
| No dates | Goes on the day the day bar shows, or today when the bar is hidden. |
Where the task has no duration, the event lasts 15 minutes. An event for a task without dates starts at the next quarter hour when it goes on today. On any other day it starts at the time chosen under Default Due Time, which is 9:00 AM unless you changed it.
Read-Only by Design
Inside 2Do, the calendar events are for viewing only. 2Do has no editor for them and never changes or removes an existing event. The only thing it writes to your calendars is a new event you add with Add to Calendar. To change an event, click it to open it in Apple's Calendar app and edit it there.
And if you want more from your calendars than Apple's app offers, BusyCal is our own full calendar app for the Mac. It pairs naturally with 2Do, coming from the same family.
If you dismiss the day bar's in-context access prompt, 2Do turns the feature off. You can turn it back on any time from 2Do > Settings > Calendar.
Related Pages
- Mini Calendar is the month view in the Lists Panel for filtering and deferring tasks by date.
- The 2Do Window explains where task lists and the day bar sit in the main window.