A saviour for the busy family

Coordinating the calendars in a blended family of five with differing work schedules, events, appointments and life in general is an intricate choreography. The majority of us have our smart phones, and I run a self-hosted app that gives us a dashboard into our calendars and other key information. But it is a challenge when you want the kids off their screens especially when it comes to getting out of the door, but then asking them to check the same screen so they know what is going on.

Opportunity came knocking on my door with the Skylight Calendar, who am I to say no?

 

Serendipity

I was taking a break during my hectic schedule last week, when an ABC article on understanding decision fatigue and the impacts on relationships popped up on my feed. It was a term I have previously come across, but the article brought it back to the fore at a highly relevant time.

What is decision fatigue? It is a phrase popularised by John Tierney where it refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.

In the article, Lyn Craig, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Melbourne commented “Working out everybody’s schedules and emotional capacities requires a lot of emotional intelligence as well as constant thinking. There is a whole lot of emotional labour that goes into [constantly making decisions for yourself and others],” she says, adding the cognitive load is immense. One recommendation is that “people ‘streamline their choices’ by having a routine.”

 

First Impressions

I have previously reviewed the Skylight Frame, a no-frills photo frame that worked well.

My review unit is the Skylight Calendar 15, which is the one model available in Australia. In the US there seems to be a smaller 10″ version, with a giant 27″ Max version coming soon.

The Skylight Calendar at first glance is the same. The two shares the same design elements, mimicking a traditional frame. This review unit is all white, compared to the Skylight Frame which had a black border. With the device off, it is hard to tell the difference between the Frame and the Calendar.

Again Skylight has provided the option to display the unit either on a flat surface, or on a wall. Both the unit, and the stand are heavy pieces that feels it can handle anything life will throw at it. Whichever way you choose to go, there is a small amount of assembly required – up to four screws and bring your own Phillips head screwdriver.

 

Getting Started

Just like the Frame, the Calendar has stuck with a barrel port for power. Personally I am not a fan of this as it means I have to keep track of the power supply with the unit. I would have much preferred a USB-C powered port. As far as physical connections is concerned, this is it on the Calendar.

Again if you have ever set up a Frame before, the process is the same for Calendar. Upon powering up, you will need to connect to a wireless network. The screen is touch enabled so just go right ahead and key in your WiFi password.

You will then need to go through the Skylight app and add the device, which then will provide you with the activation code which is prompted on the Calendar. There is also a prompt for a Skylight email address where you can send information to. Noting that each device must have an unique skylight email address. The one I had previously use for the Frames review could not be reused here.

 

In Use

There are some basics to be configured to effectively use the Skylight Calendar, and they have to be done in different places.

On the Calendar itself, you need to set the local time zone. Whilst you are there, set the sleep time for the screen. The screen is permanently on unless you enable sleep mode which can be set in a single block of time. For me I also set the screen brightness manually instead of auto.

From the app side, it will automatically detect calendars that are available on your smart phone already and give you the options of which to sync to the Skylight Calendar. In my case I had to give access to Skylight to see my Google Calendars. I expect something similar in iOS.

Once that is done, the calendar entries will start to pop up on the Skylight Calendar over a short period of time. A key option is to decide if the Skylight is a display only unit, or to allow it permissions for a two-way sync so entries added or changed via the Skylight is sync back to your source.

If you have ever used Google Calendar on the desktop, the Skylight Calendar presentation is very similar. After all, there are only so many ways to present the information. There are a number of views to choose from – Schedule, Day, Week or Month. Where relevant you can set it to display from one to seven days on screen via the settings on the unit.

Whether you have allowed for the two-way sync or not, you can still add calendar events via the Skylight Calendar. However this is a pretty limited affair with only the options for a description, date, time period and that’s pretty much it. Once the entry has been created then you can go back in and add a reminder. There is no option to add in a location, or a notes field to add details.

However, if your synced entries has location details and notes, it will be displayed in the event details on the Skylight Calendar.

Personally I have disabled two way sync because the last thing I need is for the kid (or the cats) to inadvertently delete events off the calendar.

You can also use the standard finger gestures to zoom in and out to fit just the right amount of information on the screen.

 

Not a One Trick Pony

If displaying a calendar is the only feature of the Skylight Calendar, then we would be done and dusted with the review and I would be hard pressed to justify the outlay versus the return. However there is a few more tricks up it’s sleeve, frame, sleeve …

Chores. Everybody hates those but it makes the household run. Every parent I think can empathise about getting kids to contribute to chores and the various convenient excuses we hear all the time. The Skylight Calendar has a built in chores pane where you can hand out these dreaded assignments willy nilly.

The Chores panel requires you to select people to assign it to, by default taking the name and colour from your calendar sync. You can also create local groups for that. Once that is done, all you need to do is create new tasks and assign them to all and sundry.

Chores can be created similar to a calendar entry, date, time, who and if it is a repeating task. Once chores are created, they are then displayed under each name and can be checked off as you go. There is even a little celebratory party poppers if you have finished all your chores for the day.

When there are chores on the list, there is a little summary at the top of the calendar view to show a summary of each person and where they are tracking. Tapping on their name will bring up the chores screen so you can check off whatever has been completed already.

You can also create lists for whatever you like. Grocery shopping? Dream holiday things to do? Winning Powerball numbers? You can pop them onto the Skylight so everyone can partake in it.

 

But wait, there is more!

Locked behind the Skylight Plus subscription, you can turn on photos, meals and magic import.

The photos part needs little explaining. You can send photos to be displayed on a rotation basis just like the regular Skylight. If you want to dive more into it, have a read of my review of the Skylight Frame.

Sick of being asked for is for lunch or dinner? You could plan your meals for the week and have it shown on the Skylight under the Meal tab. Talk to the Skylight Calendar because I am not interested will be a new thing in this home, if I can get myself organised to know what I am cooking ahead of time.

The meal plan relies on “recipes” which isn’t quite what it sounds like. You have to add entries for each meal you intend to prepare, if it is not in the pre-curated “recipe box”. So say for example tonight we had some sushi for dinner, and as we do, we get some extra handrolls for the kids for lunch the next day.

Sushi isn’t in the list of default recipe box so I had to add it in. Then once it is added to the recipe, then I can choose it for the meal. The issue here is that the recipe boxes are segregated into breakfast, lunch and dinner. And with sincere apologies to Rudyard Kipling, Breakfast is Breakfast, Lunch is Lunch and Dinner is Dinner, and never the twain shall meet. Unless you create the recipe in multiple boxes.

The last paid feature is Magic Import. This is where the Skylight Calendar can convert emails, photos or PDFs into events so you never forget crucial dates. You would want two way sync turned on here so it can integrate back into your calendars.

I fired off a couple of things to Magic Import for fun. By and large I am pretty impressed with it. For example I forwarded a birthday party invitation to Magic Import, and it picked up all the details – the who, the when, the where, right down to the RSVP details and pop them all into the calendar entry.

 

App

The accompanying Skylight app gives you access to the primary functions of the Calendar (and the Frame).

There is access to the Calendar. Syncing from my Google account was quick too so you don’t necessarily need to add them in via the app.

Also you can manage the chores here, meals, lists. Configure your categories so they are user name friendly – something that can’t be done on the unit itself.

There are options to invite others to view and manage the Calendar.

The interface is easy to navigate without over cluttering with features and options.

Within the app is also a list of photos you have sent to the Skylight, so you can easily identify if there are any duplicates and remove them.

 

Gripes and Feature Requests

What would be a review from Kevin without some kind of complains? This one is going to get both barrels – some complaints and some feature requests.

It seems the weather feature is not available in Australia.

I really wish manufacturers to just standardise to USB-C power plugs, it is a no-brainer and in all honesty, makes all the USB plugs a two port whilst you are there so we don’t constantly need single power bricks for every device.

The second main gripe I have is that there is no security for the Skylight Calendar. You can turn the device off, or you can put it into sleep mode which is all fine. But for a Calendar that is to be used for a household, and therefore placed in a prominent location in the house, I would want something simple like a PIN code lock with a blurred screen. Why? I don’t care for my guests to see my calendars, chores, grocery list etc. Yes I can turn it off, and they can turn it on and bam it’s all there for everyone to see.

I also found that I can’t rename my chores category via the Skylight hardware itself, but something I can do via app. Not big deal but since I am in Rome …

Speaking of which, the Skylight app allows me to view the calendar, lists and chores via app. Bearing in mind that entries can be created on the Skylight without needing to sync back to your own such as in my case, the Google calendar. I could much prefer if the app would provide widget support so I can see the Skylight managed information.

A dark mode would not go astray either.

I would love to see some Home Assistant integration. The sleep schedule on the Skylight Frame is limited to a single block, or manual. If I had some sort of API hook I could tell it to turn the screen off if there is no one at home, and turn it back on when someone is back within the vicinity.

The moonshot request would be a basic web browser. Why? If I need to quickly look up something for the grocery list, or a location for an event, I don’t need to pull out my phone. Also I could point it to the Home Assistant landing page and have at browser session where I can control my home automations from the one screen.

Last one (I promise). The Magic Import works pretty well in general. However I have noticed that if I forward a party invite that is an image, the Skylight will pop it into the photo album and that is not helpful. But forwarding emails or PDF files, including a PDF version of the party invite will land it correctly into the calendar. Unfortunately with a Preppie child, I get a lot of party invites electronically … and as photos.

 

Other Thoughts

Just a note on the email to Skylight option. It is not an open slather for everyone to get stuff into your photo album or calendar. If it is coming from an email address not recognised by Skylight (i.e. not the one used to register the Skylight), you will get an email notification asking you if you will accept that address as authorised.

There is a lot to be said about sending photos to the Skylight when I am at an event, knowing that it will be playing on the album well before I get home.

 

Conclusions

Circling back to my musings on decision fatigue, the Skylight Calendar is immensely helpful to get this blended family on the same page. It both centralises the information but also give everyone an ability to provide input and take some controls back for themselves.

I don’t need to sell to parents just how handy it is (if everyone uses their calendar) to have a single pane view of where the household is at. Not unlike a team calendar view where I know where all the resources are allocated for the week.

With the added value of creating and assigning chores, showing meals planning to avoid hearing the same question over and over again is a tick for mental health.

The display is clean and easy to navigate, even my six year old princess can get around to tick things off. In fact it has really helped getting the kids on board to get to their chores and build their habits, it is a very visible way of seeing progress. My daughter in particular loves to go and tick the boxes off after which job is done, and hangs out for the confetti animation when she does the last chore.

After shifting it a few times, the Skylight Calendar has found it’s home next to the couch where it is readily viewable and accessible by everyone.

The Skylight Calendar has a RRP of AUD $499 and is available from Skylight or Amazon with a 120 days free return. The Plus subscription is $49 per year.

DRN would like to thank Skylight for providing the review unit. Also Skylight, umm, my daughter liked seeing the green tick on chores before the latest update. I promised I will mention it.

 

Specifications

Dimensions: 40.13 x 25.15 x 3.56 cm
Weight: 3.72 kg