I've had a great overall experience with Mayday, although I do believe it could use a bit more polish here and there (dragging calendar events feels a bit clunky, notifications can't be assigned on a per-event basis, I couldn't find any Search feature, and the NLP feature is being reworked). I'd say there are four aspects of Mayday that made me decide to switch to it:
1. Smart Tags: The way that I time block is by creating different types of events, each with their own properties. I can technically implement this planning system using any calendar app, but Mayday pairs much better with this system because of this feature. One such time block type is the "Hours" type that I use to indicate the hours a store I need to run an errand at is open. Since this time block doesn't represent time I'm busy, I'd like my calendar app to consider this time as "Free." With Smart Tags, I can automatically allow any event with the "Hours" tag to be considered "Free."
2. FYI Events: Continuing my first example with the "Hours" event type, I don't really need to see an "Hours" event because these events are more so for my task manager in Airtable — which has a Google Calendar integration — then for my calendar. In situations like this one, I can mark such events as "FYI Events," so they don't clutter my calendar. Additionally, I have the option to have this property automatically assigned to events depending on their tag using the aforementioned Smart Tags feature.
3. Scheduling Links: I recently became a team lead for the first time, so I've found myself having to coordinate schedules with people more often as of late. Mayday's Scheduling Links have been a great way to streamline this process, so that finding a mutually available time to meet can be accomplished in one interaction instead of several.
4. Swift UI: I love it when developers are willing to put in the extra work required to develop an app natively instead of relying on development shortcuts, such as Electron. I find that such apps tend to feel more at home on their respective platforms, which leads to a nicer user experience. For instance, Mayday, despite being a fairly young app, has both a nice Menu Bar app and widgets.
If you're looking for a simple, yet elevated calendar experience and have the willingness to wait for some of the aforementioned quirks to be resolved, then I recommend giving Mayday a shot.
