Put your Notion project deadlines in Apple Calendar
A project tracker in Notion keeps its milestones where only Notion shows them. Calnio copies each dated page into an iCloud calendar as an event, so a deadline sits beside your meetings on every Apple device. Setup is four steps, and the first 7 days are free with no card.
2 min read
Shape the tracker
Use a database with a Name and a Date column. Add Status, Owner or anything else you track, but know that Calnio copies the title and the date and nothing more. Put the project in the title, like "Launch: final copy", if you want to see it in the calendar.
The date can be a single day, a day and a time, or a range. A single day becomes an all-day event. A time becomes an event at that time, an hour long unless the date has an end. A range becomes an event across the whole range, which suits a phase that runs for two weeks.
Name the date column so it is found
If the database has one date column, Calnio uses it. With several, it picks the one called Due date, Due, Deadline, Date, When or Start date. If none of those names match, the sync waits until you choose a column on its card, and no events appear before then.
Connect it
- Sign in to Calnio with Google.
- Connect Notion and tick the tracker.
- Connect iCloud with an app-specific password. [How to create one](/blog/create-icloud-app-specific-password) has the screens.
- Tick the database. Calnio makes an iCloud calendar named after it and runs the first sync.
Then open Calendar on your iPhone, tap Calendars and tick the new calendar under iCloud.
One calendar for each database
Each database gets its own calendar, so a Milestones database and a Tasks database show in two colours. Several databases work on the paid plan and in the trial.
Move a deadline from your phone
With two-way sync on, dragging a milestone to another day in Apple Calendar moves the date in Notion, and renaming it renames the page. Switch Two-way sync on from the sync's card. It is a setting of each sync, and it needs the paid plan or the trial.
Ticking a milestone done in Notion changes nothing in the calendar, so the event stays. An event leaves the calendar when its page goes to the Notion trash or its date is cleared.
Price and timing
Calnio is $3.99 a month for every database, and the first 7 days are free with no card. It checks every 5 minutes by default, and slower if you choose, so a deadline you add now can take a few minutes to reach your phone.